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Life Sciences Seminar

School of Life Sciences Seminar Series Speaker: Fanny Girard, Assistant Professor, SOEST, UH Manoa. Friday September 6, 2024, 2:30 PM, ART 132 Seminar Title: Deep-sea corals in the age of the Anthropocene: resilience to human activities and climate change. Abstract: The deep sea (> 200 m depth) is the largest but least studied living space on Earth. Unlike initially thought, it can be highly heterogeneous, with variable environmental conditions affecting the physiology, distribution and behavior of deep-sea organisms across space and time. Understanding the relationship between environmental variability and ecosystem dynamics is therefore essential for the management and conservation of deep-sea habitats, especially in the context of increasing human impacts. This information is particularly needed for vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as deep-sea coral communities, but remains scarce. Image-based surveys and monitoring, combined with seabed mapping and in situ environmental measurements, represent powerful tools to advance our understanding of the basic ecology and resilience of deep-sea benthic ecosystems. Through two different examples: 1) inter-annual monitoring of deep-sea corals impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and, 2) intra-annual monitoring of a deep-sea coral community within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, I show that considering multiple temporal resolutions in monitoring studies is key to fully understand the dynamics of deep-sea coral ecosystems. In particular, these studies confirm the low recovery ability of deep-sea corals, underlining the importance of impact prevention (e.g., creation of marine protected areas) as the best conservation strategy. In addition, high-resolution monitoring sheds new light on the interactions between corals and associated fauna, and on the effect of cyclic environmental variability, including seasons and tides, on coral feeding behavior and community dynamics at depths below 1000m. Overall, monitoring over multiple temporal resolutions can fill critical knowledge gaps on the ecology of deep-sea corals, enabling better protection and management of these vulnerable ecosystems. Pau Hana with the Speaker to follow, 1st floor lanai, Edmondson Hall.

Event Sponsor
School of Life Sciences, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Kellie Gushiken, (808) 956-8303, lifesci@hawaii.edu,