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Research Voyage: TT 1/2008
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The project aims to integrate and synthesise data on deepsea octocoral identifications and distribution from CSIRO surveys and museum holdings in Australian waters to support research such as identification of ecological and biological significant areas (EBSA) and vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME), climatology, monitoring of benthic habitats (impacts and recovery) and biogeography. The confirmed octocoral identifications are added to or updated in CAAB as necessary, with 99-codes being established for alpha-species Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) based on the combined collection. In addition, project staff Dr Phil Alderslade is contributing to training workshops and guides for coral identification in collaboration with NIWA. The geographic extent of the project is primarily Australia's EEZ but reaching into neighbouring Oceania regions (e.g. NZ, NC). Physical specimens are lodged with Australian museums based on region of collection: (1) North Tasman Region: Northern Territory Museum & Art Gallery (NTM), with some duplicate specimens lodged with the Australian Museum (AM); (2) south-eastern Australia region: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG); (3) south-western and north-western Australia: Western Australian Museum (WAM). RELATED ACRONYMS: RAD -Rank Abundance Distributions EBSA -Ecological and Biological Significant Areas VME -Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems OTU -Operational Taxonomic Units CAAB -Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota (CSIRO)
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The collaborative voyage, on RV Thomas G Thompson, including US and Australian researchers was led by chief scientists Dr Jess Adkins from the California Institute of Technology and Dr Ron Thresher from CSIRO's Climate Adaptation and Wealth from Oceans Flagships. This voyage follows up on work done on RV Southern Surveyor during SS 01/2008. The survey deployed the ROV Jason in the Huon and Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserve, south-west of Tasmania, It also sampled areas of the Cascade Seamount and seamounts off the coast at St Helens (Tas). The focus of the survey was collection of fossil corals (Desmophyllum sp.), description of habitats at depth between 700 and 4000 m depth and establishing two long-term monitoring sites in the Huon CMR (settlement plates). It explored and sampled on the near vertical slice in the earth's crust, known as the Tasman Fracture Zone, which drops from approximately 2000 metres to over 4000 metres. Jason was used to collect video, high definition still images (mosaiced images) and selective samples of fossil corals and invertebrate fauna.