Deep Sea Exploration to Advance Research on Coral, Canyon and Cold Seep Habitats
Project Goal:
Explore potential offshore energy leasing areas to locate and understand deep-sea habitats and provide the best available science to protect sensitive biological communities.
Scope and Objectives:
1. Explore and characterize the biological communities of the study area
2. Examine the sensitivity of habitat-structuring fauna and associated communities to natural and anthropogenic disturbance
3. Describe the oceanographic, geological, and geochemical conditions associated with each habitat type
4. Model the distribution of habitats and fauna with respect to environmental conditions
Study Area:
Offshore Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia in water depths over 200 meters
Habitats in the Area:
Deep-sea coral reefs, deepwater coral gardens, natural-gas seeps, mussel beds, tubeworm bushes, bacterial mats, submarine canyons, rocky ledges, soft-sediment communities