New High-Tech Flexible Networks for the Monitoring of Deep-Sea Ecosystems

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2019 papers

Abstract

Increasing interest in the acquisition of biotic and abiotic resources from within the deep sea (e.g., fisheries, oil-gas extraction, and mining) urgently imposes the development of novel monitoring technologies, beyond the traditional vessel-assisted, time-consuming, high-cost sampling surveys. The implementation of permanent networks of seabed and water-column-cabled (fixed) and docked mobile platforms is presently enforced, to cooperatively measure biological features and environmental (physicochemical) parameters. Video and acoustic (i.e., optoacoustic) imaging are becoming central approaches for studying benthic fauna (e.g., quantifying species presence, behavior, and trophic interactions) in a remote, continuous, and prolonged fashion. Imaging is also being complemented by in situ environmental-DNA sequencing technologies, allowing the traceability of a wide range of organisms (including prokaryotes) beyond the reach of optoacoustic tools. Here, we describe the different fixed and mobile platforms of those benthic and pelagic monitoring networks, proposing at the same time an innovative roadmap for the automated computing of hierarchical ecological information on deep-sea ecosystems (i.e., from single species' abundance and life traits to community composition, and overall biodiversity).

Related Papers

• → Trophic indices for micronektonic fishes reveal their dependence on the microbial system in the North Atlantic(2021)32 cited
• → Evolution of cannibalism in the larval stage of pelagic fish(1999)22 cited
• → Pelagic Fish(1990)5 cited
• Pelagic Fishing Should Develop Our Own Pelagic Trawler(2000)
• → A Problem on The Trophic levels calculation of aquatic organisms in marine ecosystems(2016)