New high-tech flexible networks for the monitoring of deep-sea ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of advanced, flexible deep-sea monitoring networks using innovative platforms and imaging technologies to improve ecological data collection and analysis of deep-sea ecosystems.

Contribution

It introduces new fixed and mobile monitoring platforms and proposes an automated framework for hierarchical ecological data analysis in deep-sea environments.

Findings

Implementation of seabed and water-column networks for continuous monitoring

Integration of imaging and environmental-DNA sequencing technologies

Proposal of an automated ecological information processing roadmap

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 (physico-chemical) parameters. Video and acoustic (i.e. optoacoustic) imaging are becoming central approaches for studying benthic fauna (e.g. quantifying species presence, behaviour, 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 of deep-sea ecosystems (i.e. from single species abundance and life traits, to community composition, and overall biodiversity)