Azores Deep-sea Research — Cruise Blue Azores 2018

Blue Azores 2018

Blue Azores Program: Expedition 2018

Blue Azores 2018

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Blue Azores Program: Expedition 2018

Location: Gigante seamount, Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Year: 2018

58 stations

13 dives

1540 km transits

6 areas visited

AZORES DEEP-SEA RESEARCH

Summary

Blue Azores Program: Expedition 2018

The main objective of the cruise was to map deep-sea biodiversity and identify Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME) using the ROV Luso, namely to (i) map benthic communities inhabiting unexplored seamounts, (ii) identify new areas that fit the FAO VME definition; and (iii) determine distribution patterns of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores. The results of this cruise contributed to identify the environmental drivers that determine the spatial distribution of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores region, evaluating at the same time the role played by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a barrier between the western and the eastern Atlantic. It will also provide valuable information in the context of Good Environmental Status (GES), Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and provide new insights on how to sustainably manage deep-sea ecosystems.

The Blue Azores 2018 cruise was a partnership between the Blue Azores Program of the Oceano Azul Foundation, in cooperation with the Waitt Foundation, and in the collaboration with National Geographic, the EU ATLAS project, the FRCT MapGES project, and the Regional Government of the Azores. The Blue Azores 2018 expedition aimed to visit some unexplored seamount of the Azores using the Portuguese ROV Luso and the vessel NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho.

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Statistics

Transits

1540 km

Multibeam Bathymetry

21500 km²

Filmed Seabed

11 km

Visited Areas

Stations

Dives

Video Footage Recorded

58 hours

Used Storage

5.86 Tb

Samples

118

— Several samples were collected with the ROV Luso, namely 79 biological samples for taxonomy and genetic analyses, 23 geological samples, and 16 water samples for edna, nutrients POM and total alkalinity analyses.

Highlights

A new hydrothermal vent field was discovered, at 570 m depth, on the slopes of Gigante, a seamount on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) in the Azores. This vent differs considerably from other known hydrothermal fields along the MAR in terms of fluid chemistry with dominance of hydrogen and iron, and low temperature.
We also discovered the densest and near-natural octocoral garden composed of large red and white colonies of bubble gum coral (Paragorgia johnsoni Gray, 1862) at 545–595 m depth, on the slopes of a small ridge East of Gigante seamount. This newly discovered octocoral garden is a good candidate for protection since it fits many of the FAO criteria that define what constitutes a VME.
We mapped the deep-sea benthic communities inhabiting previously unexplored seamounts (Gigante, 127 and Eastern ridge) and collected 118 biological, geological and water samples for taxonomy, genetic, eDNA and other studies.
We discovered, at least, 14 different benthic habitats or communities, potentially new species and biotopes that are still being analysed and described. Many biotopes may fit the criteria for defining indicators of VME.
We performed a total of 13 ROV dives on the Gigante seamount complex and on the slopes of Pico and São Jorge island, summing up 58 hours of bottom time.
More than 21,500 km² of new multibeam bathymetry data was collected by the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute (IH) during their 3 months expedition to the Azores.

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Location of operation

Gigante seamount, Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

AZORES DEEP-SEA RESEARCH © CRUISES

Stations

Blue Azores 2018

Leg	Period	Days at sea	Vessel	Departure	Return
1	03/06/2018 - 23/06/2018	21	NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho	Horta	Horta

A total of 21 days at sea

Activities

Multibeam Visual census Video survey (ROV Luso)

Cruise crew

Chief scientist

Telmo Morato

Scientific crew

Carlos Dominguez-Carrió

Laurence Fauconnet

Manuela Ramos

Gerald H. Taranto

Laurence Fauconnet

Noelia Ríos

Oscar Ocaña Vicente

Collaborators

Marina Carreiro-Silva

Cruise Report - BLUE AZORES PROGRAM EXPEDITION 2018 ON BOARD THE NRP GAGO COUTINHO

Zenodo

Jan, 2019

6 team members are authors

OA DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3416897

Authors 10.5281/zenodo.3416897

Morato, Telmo

Carreiro-Silva, Marina

Taranto, Gerald H.

Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos

Ramos, Manuela Ríos, Noelia

Fauconnet, Laurence Ocaña Vicente, Oscar Calado, António Afonso, Andreia Ramos, Bruno Souto, Miguel Bettencourt, Renato

Abstract

Objectives: to conduct an expedition to some unexplored areas of the deep Azores using the Portuguese ROV “Luso” and the vessel “NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho”. The sampling strategy that was designed to identify Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems and report the deep-sea benthic biodiversity using the ROV Luso also aimed to (i) map benthic communities inhabiting unexplored seamounts in the Central (Gigante complex) and Western (Cachalote complex) part of the Azores Region, (ii) identify new areas that fit the FAO vulnerable marine ecosystems definition; and (iii) determine distribution patterns of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores. The results of this cruise will also contribute to identify the environmental drivers that determine the spatial distribution of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores region, evaluating at the same time the role played by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a barrier between the western and the eastern parts. It will also provide valuable information in the context of Good Environmental Status (GES), Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and provide new insights on how to sustainably manage deep-sea ecosystems.

Blue Azores Program Expedition 2018, Station 57, Dive 15: annotation of Paragorgia johnsoni Gray, 1862

Apr, 2021

6 team members are authors

OA Citations 1 DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4727164

Authors 10.5281/zenodo.4727164

Carlos Dominguez‐Carrió

Gerald H. Taranto

Manuela Ramos Oscar Vicente Ocaña

Laurence Fauconnet Emanuel J. Gonçalves

Marina Carreiro‐Silva

Telmo Morato

Abstract

Annotation of Paragorgia johnsoni Gray, 1862 colonies from underwater video footage recorded during the Blue Azores 2018 Expedition with the ROV Luso onboard the NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho, Station 57, Dive 15 (June 23^rd, 2018). The images correspond to the octocoral garden discovered between 545 and 595 m depth on the slopes of a small ridge-like structure located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, in the Azores region.

Spatial distributions, environmental drivers and co-existence patterns of key cold-water corals in the deep sea of the Azores (NE Atlantic)

Deep Sea Research Part I Oceanographic Research Papers

Mar, 2023

7 team members are authors

OA Citations 20 DOI 10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104028

Authors 10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104028

Gerald H. Taranto

José Manuel González‐Irusta

Carlos Dominguez‐Carrió Christopher K. Pham Fernando Tempera

Manuela Ramos

Guilherme Gonçalves

Marina Carreiro‐Silva

Telmo Morato

Dense cold‐water coral garden of Paragorgia johnsoni suggests the importance of the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge for deep‐sea biodiversity

Ecology and Evolution

Nov, 2021

7 team members are authors

OA Citations 21 DOI 10.1002/ece3.8319

Authors 10.1002/ece3.8319

Telmo Morato

Carlos Dominguez‐Carrió Christian Mohn Óscar Ocaña

Manuela Ramos

Luís Rodrigues Íris Sampaio

Gerald H. Taranto

Laurence Fauconnet Inês Tojeira Emanuel J. Gonçalves

Marina Carreiro‐Silva

Abstract

Mid-ocean ridges generate a myriad of physical oceanographic processes that favor the supply of food and nutrients to suspension- and filter-feeding organisms, such as cold-water corals and deep-sea sponges. However, the pioneering work conducted along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge failed to report the presence of large and dense living coral reefs, coral gardens, or sponge aggregations. Here, we describe the densest, near-natural, and novel octocoral garden composed of large red and white colonies of Paragorgia johnsoni Gray, 1862 discovered at 545-595 m depth on the slopes of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, in the Azores region. This newly discovered octocoral garden is a good candidate for protection since it fits many of the FAO criteria that define what constitutes a Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem. The observations described here corroborate the existence of a close relationship between the octocoral structure and the ambient currents on ridge-like topographies, providing new insights into the functioning of mid-ocean ridges' ecosystems. The ubiquitous presence of biogenic and geological topographies associated with mid-ocean ridges, which could act as climate refugia, suggests their global importance for deep-sea biodiversity. A better understanding of the processes involved is, therefore, required. Our observations may inspire future deep-sea research initiatives to narrow existing knowledge gaps of biophysical connections with benthic fauna at small spatial scales along mid-ocean ridges.

Predicting the distribution and abundance of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) in the deep sea of the Azores (North Atlantic)

The Science of The Total Environment

Aug, 2023

9 team members are authors

OA Citations 19 Rising DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166579

Authors 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166579

Emily M. Duncan Nina Vieira

José Manuel González‐Irusta

Carlos Dominguez‐Carrió

Telmo Morato

Marina Carreiro‐Silva Joachim Jakobsen Kirsten Jakobsen

Filipe M. Porteiro Nina Schläpfer Laura Herrera

Manuela Ramos

Yasmina Rodríguez João Pereira

Laurence Fauconnet

Luís Rodrigues Hugo Parra Christopher K. Pham

Abstract

Abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), represents a significant percentage of the global plastic pollution, currently considered one of the major sources from sea-based activities. However, there is still limited understanding of the quantities of ALDFG present on the seafloor and their impacts. In this study, data on the presence of ALDFG was obtained from a large archive of seafloor video footage (351 dives) collected by different imaging platforms in the Azores region over 15 years (2006-2020). Most ALDFG items observed in the images relate to the local bottom longline fishery operating in the region, and include longlines but also anchors, weights, cables and buoys. A generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) was used to predict the distribution and abundance of ALDFG over the seafloor within the limits of the Azores Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) using a suite of environmental and anthropogenic variables. We estimated an average of 113 ± 310 items km^-2 (597 ± 756 per km^-2 above 1000 m depth), which could imply that over 20 million ALDFG items are present on the deep seafloor of the Azores EEZ. The resulting model identified potential hotspots of ALDFG along the seabed, some of them located over sensitive benthic habitats, such as specific seamounts. In addition, the interactions between ALDFG and benthic organisms were also analysed. Numerous entanglements were observed with several species of large anthozoans and sponges. The use of predictive distribution modelling for ALDFG should be regarded as a useful tool to support ecosystem-based management, which can provide indirect information about fishing pressure and allow the identification of potential high-risk areas. Additional knowledge about the sources, amounts, fates and impacts of ALDFG will be key to address the global issue of plastic pollution and the effects of fishing on marine ecosystems.

Images