Midwater Exploration with Mesobot, Radiometry, and Environmental DNA

Teeming with life and extending from about 200 m to approximately 1,000 m depth, the midwater ocean or "twilight zone" makes up one of the largest and least explored biomes on our planet. Although light levels are insufficient to support primary production, this vast region hosts abundant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOceanography (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 35; no. 1; p. 34
Main Authors Yoerger, Dana R, Govindarajan, Annette F, Adams, Allan, Curran, Molly, Frates, Erin, Hayden, Eric B, Kawasumi, Lui, Marin, Fredrick, Stanway, M Jordan, Stover, Sarah
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Rockville Oceanography Society 01.03.2022
Subjects
Biogeochemistry
Carbon cycle
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Ocean floor
Primary production
Underwater exploration
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Summary:Teeming with life and extending from about 200 m to approximately 1,000 m depth, the midwater ocean or "twilight zone" makes up one of the largest and least explored biomes on our planet. Although light levels are insufficient to support primary production, this vast region hosts abundant life and plays a key role in the global carbon cycle, thereby helping to regulate Earth's climate and the biogeochemistry of its ocean. NOAA Ocean Exploration and the NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute have expanded focus to include the midwater ocean, which creates both opportunities and challenges in defining specific objectives for exploration and developing the needed technology. Like our community's ongoing efforts to explore the seafloor, midwater exploration must provide us with an overview of the underlying physical and biogeochemical environments and a comprehensive summary of which animals live there, and reveal the temporal and spatial dynamics of those populations and how they relate to the adjoining epipelagic and deeper layers.
ISSN:1042-8275
2377-617X