Expedition Objectives

Click here for pdf of Project Instructions (pre-expedition plans) or see below for more on priority research objectives:

Shelf Edge Reef Ecosystems
Biomedical Resources
Deep-Sea Coral Ecosystems (DSCE)

Shelf Edge Reef Ecosystems:
As described by USGS scientists, Pulley Ridge is a 100km-long series of N-S trending, drowned, barrier islands at depths of 60-90m on the southwest Florida Shelf approximately 250 km west of Cape Sable, Florida (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/pulley-ridge/).  In 1999-2003, USGS led expeditions that noted extensive cover of live corals on the Ridge, producing a poster and presentation to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council entitled “Pulley Ridge: The US's Deepest Hermatypic Coral Reef?” and subsequent publication (Jarrett, B.D. et al. 2005) suggesting the southern end of the Ridge had up to 60% live cover of stony corals.  In 2003, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (GMFMC) voted to designate Pulley Ridge as a Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC). Designation as a HAPC identifies the area as a unique habitat that deserves priority for conservation and management.

Recent dives in 2010 with the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible during the FLOSEE expedition noted virtually no large scleractinian corals at several dive sites on Pulley Ridge.  The FLOSEE II Foster cruise will revisit previous sites at which USGS had documented corals to see if there has been coral loss.  Quantitative and qualitative ROV video and photographic surveys will be made at each site to quantity and characterize the benthic habitats, fish populations and coral cover.  If there is any evidence of oil impact, detailed quantitative surveys will be made along with sediment and specimen samples.  Coral samples will be collected for coral health surveys; sponges, gorgonians, black corals, and algae will be targeted for species documentation.  Similar methodology will be conducted at the deep water reef sites for habitat characterization, fish populations, and to document any oil impact, if any.  All ROV dives will be documented with DGPS USBL navigation, and various sensors including CTD, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity.  If oil sensors are available, they will be added.  Water and plankton samples will be collected at most sites during nightly MOCNESS trawls to document plankton over the mesophotic and deep water reef habitats.

Specific objectives include:

  • Characterize and map benthic hard bottom habitats at select deep water and mesophotic reef sites with emphasis on macro-benthic, sessile species including scleractinian corals, gorgonians, sponges, and algae.
  • Characterize fish populations at each dive site with emphasis on commercially and recreationally important species including grouper, snapper, and tilefish.
  • Conduct shipboard multibeam sonar surveys at each dive site, prior to ROV dives, for ROV dive planning, ROV dive tracking, and for habitat classification.
  • Assess coral condition and health through observations and samples for reproductive studies, genetic studies and various physiological experiments.
  • Collect gorgonians, black coral, sponges, and algae for taxonomy, habitat characterization, and biomedical research.
  • Collect plankton samples to assess water column community above and adjacent to deep reef ecosystems.
  • Collect any apparent oil impacted fauna or sediment.
  • Conduct education/outreach activities (at-sea experience for university students, CIOERT web site, daily blogs).

Biomedical Resources:
As described by HBOI’s Marine Drug Discovery Program, “Natural products, or secondary metabolites, are small organic molecules produced by organisms. These metabolites are not essential to sustain life (unlike sugars, fats, or proteins), but are thought to confer an evolutionary advantage because energy is required for the organisms to produce natural products. For example, if a sponge makes a compound that is toxic to predators, or tastes bad, that sponge may be protected from being eaten, and has an advantage over one that does not produce the compounds. Because there are similarities between proteins found in humans and those found in sponges, soft corals and other organisms with which we work, we can take advantage of these compounds to use as medicines for diseases affecting those proteins.”  Many target species with discovery potential live on reefs. Deep reefs are vast, unexplored reservoirs of potential products. CIOERT partners at FAU/HBOI and UNCW have the resources to explore this frontier, target and sample potential discoveries, isolate compounds, and bring new products to market with industry partners, for example, through UNCW’s MARBIONC consortium.

Led by Amy Wright, Ph.D., HBOI/FAU, the Natural Products Drug Discovery Project seeks to discover new therapeutic agents from pelagic, midwater and benthic frontier habitats explored by the CI. These frontier habitats represent a rich repository of unstudied biodiversity including marine actinomycetes, fungi, microalgae, sponges, ascidians and cnidarians. The HBOI group has worked in the proposed target areas previously and specimens can be compared pre-exposure and post-exposure for effects of oil on microbial communities and natural products chemistry. After the expedition, materials will be evaluated in a broad range of biological assays related to human disease both in the PIs laboratories and through collaborative agreements with researchers having complementary assays. The active components will be purified and the structures defined through spectroscopic methods.

Deep-Sea Coral Ecosystems (DSCE):
Deep-sea corals do not require sunlight or warm water to live, unlike shallow tropical corals that rely on symbiotic algae for nutrition and thus need light to grow. Both deep and shallow coral ecosystems provide essential habitat for fish and other marine life. Recent research has revealed the extent and ecological importance of deep-sea coral communities and the threats they face. Sound management of these ecosystems requires scientifically based information on their condition.  In 2008, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council designated the largest marine managed area on the U.S. east coast to protect deep coral ecosystems from North Carolina to Florida.

NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Science and Technology Program will partner with CIOERT’s FLOSEE II expedition to explore DSCE off Southeast Florida.  Research objectives of the program’s multi-year science plan include to map and characterize coral and fish populations in and adjacent to the new managed areas.  Previous partnership expeditions with CIOERT explored deep coral ecosystems from North Carolina to Florida in 2009 and 2010.  Learn more about NOAA’s DSCE interest and research priorities.