EU project SponGES
Published November 25, 2020 | Version v1
Journal article Open

A Blueprint for an Inclusive, Global Deep-Sea Ocean Decade Field Program

Creators

  • 1. School of Biological and Marine Sciences, Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom
  • 2. CESAM and Biology Department, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
  • 3. Ryan Institute and School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
  • 4. nstitute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 5. School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom
  • 6. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand
  • 7. Instituto do Mar, and Instituto de Investigação em Ciências do Mar – Okeanos, Universidade dos Açores, Horta, Portugal
  • 8. Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
  • 9. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona and Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy
  • 10. University of Gibraltar, Gibraltar, Gibraltar
  • 11. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City, Mexico
  • 12. Beneath the Waves, Herndon, VA, United States
  • 13. National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton, United Kingdom
  • 14. UMR 8187 Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG), Université de Lille, ULCO, CNRS, Lille, France; Sorbonne Université, UFR 927, Paris, France
  • 15. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
  • 16. Global Marine Program, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Cambridge, MA, United States
  • 17. Cape Eleuthera Institute, Eleuthera, Bahamas
  • 18. Oceanological Observatory Banyuls, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
  • 19. Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
  • 20. Institute of Marine Science, National Research Council (ISMAR-CNR), Venice, Italy
  • 21. Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin, LA, United States
  • 22. DEEP/LEP, Brest, Ifremer, Plouzane, France
  • 23. CIMA – Centro de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
  • 24. Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
  • 25. Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, FL, United States
  • 26. School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
  • 27. Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, United Kingdom
  • 28. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway; REV Ocean, Lysaker, Norway
  • 29. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, United Kingdom
  • 30. REV Ocean, Lysaker, Norway
  • 31. Departamento de Biologia Marina and Nucleo Milenio ESMOI, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile
  • 32. Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt, Germany
  • 33. Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, South Africa; Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
  • 34. Department of Ocean Sciences and Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada
  • 35. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Nekton Foundation, Oxford, United Kingdom
  • 36. nstituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
  • 37. School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom
  • 38. College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Department of Microbiology, College of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States
  • 39. Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory, Lowestoft, United Kingdom
  • 40. X-STAR, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan
  • 41. Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, Matosinhos, Portugal; Department of Biological Sciences, K.G. Jebsen Centre for Deep Sea Research, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Description

ABSTRACT

The ocean plays a crucial role in the functioning of the Earth System and in the provision of vital goods and services. The United Nations (UN) declared 2021–2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Roadmap for the Ocean Decade aims to achieve six critical societal outcomes (SOs) by 2030, through the pursuit of four objectives (Os). It specifically recognizes the scarcity of biological data for deep-sea biomes, and challenges the global scientific community to conduct research to advance understanding of deep-sea ecosystems to inform sustainable management. In this paper, we map four key scientific questions identified by the academic community to the Ocean Decade SOs: (i) What is the diversity of life in the deep ocean? (ii) How are populations and habitats connected? (iii) What is the role of living organisms in ecosystem function and service provision? and (iv) How do species, communities, and ecosystems respond to disturbance? We then consider the design of a global-scale program to address these questions by reviewing key drivers of ecological pattern and process. We recommend using the following criteria to stratify a global survey design: biogeographic region, depth, horizontal distance, substrate type, high and low climate hazard, fished/unfished, near/far from sources of pollution, licensed/protected from industry activities. We consider both spatial and temporal surveys, and emphasize new biological data collection that prioritizes southern and polar latitudes, deeper ( > 2000 m) depths, and midwater environments. We provide guidance on observational, experimental, and monitoring needs for different benthic and pelagic ecosystems. We then review recent efforts to standardize biological data and specimen collection and archiving, making “sampling design to knowledge application” recommendations in the context of a new global program. We also review and comment on needs, and recommend actions, to develop capacity in deep-sea research; and the role of inclusivity - from accessing indigenous and local knowledge to the sharing of technologies - as part of such a global program. We discuss the concept of a new global deep-sea biological research program ‘Challenger 150,’ highlighting what it could deliver for the Ocean Decade and UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.

Notes

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS KH and AH conceived the idea and convened the working group. KH, AH, AM, LL, ER-L, MB, PVRS, JX, HW, MC, EE, CG, SR, PE, and LM helped to conceive the manuscript and outline structure. All authors contributed ideas, text, and edits. FUNDING Development of this paper was supported by funding from the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) awarded to KH and AH as working group 159 co-chairs. KH, BN, and KS are supported by the UKRI funded One Ocean Hub NE/S008950/1. AH work is supported by the CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + 1432 UIDB/50017/2020) that is funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)/MCTES through national funds. AA is supported by Science Foundation Ireland and the Marine Institute under the Investigators Program Grant Number SFI/15/IA/3100 co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund 2014–2020. AC is supported through the FunAzores -ACORES 01-0145-FEDER-000123 grant and by FCT through strategic project UID/05634/2020 and FCT and Direção-Geral de Politica do Mar (DGPM) through the project Mining2/2017/005. PE is funded by national funds (OE), through FCT in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19. SG research is supported by CNRS funds. CG is supported by an Independent Study Award and the Investment in Science Fund at WHOI. KG gratefully acknowledges support from Synchronicity Earth. LL is funded by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (NA19OAR0110305) and the US National Science Foundation (OCE 1634172). NM is supported by FCT and DGPM, through the project Mining2/2017/001 and the FCT grants CEECIND/00526/2017, UIDB/00350/2020 + UIDP/00350/2020. SR is funded by the FCTgrant CEECIND/00758/2017. JS is supported by ANID FONDECYT #1181153 and ANID Millennium Science Initiative Program #NC120030. JX research is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program through the SponGES project (grant agreement no. 679849) and further supported by national funds through FCT within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada supports AM and PVRS. MB and the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative are supported by Arcadia - A charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. BN work is supported by the NERC funded Arctic PRIZE NE/P006302/1.

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Journal article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.584861/full#S12 (URL)

Funding

SponGES – Deep-sea Sponge Grounds Ecosystems of the North Atlantic: an integrated approach towards their preservation and sustainable exploitation 679849
European Commission