[M-IS21] Chemosynthetic community and mud volcano: biology, geochemistry, and geophysics of fluid discharge

[MIS21-P06] A Decade to Study Deep-Sea Science

*Hiromi Kayama WATANABE¹, Kerry Howell² (1.Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2.University of Plymouth)

Keywords:The Decade of Ocean Science, Challenger 150 Program

Deep-sea occupied most parts of Earth’s ecosystem, however, only a limited knowledge has been accumulated due to the physical and technical restriction of observation and sampling methods. Deep-sea is not a homogeneous environment, where various environments such as hydrothermal vent fields which are supported by chemosynthetic primary production, and hadal trench area which is occupied by specific microbes and faunas. Therefore, multi-disciplinary approaches, not only biological survey, but also physical and chemical observation that enable us to estimate how animals behave in invisible deep-sea, are required. Here I will introduce some projects including Challenger 150 program associating with the Decade of Ocean Science, and discuss how we can contribute to these projects.

Challenger 150 program is constituted with Decade working group in Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI), SCOR WG-159, and Deep-Sea Special Interest Working Group in Challenger Society in UK. The program attempts to archive social outcomes related to SDGs, with scientific output about diversity, connectivity, functionality and resilience of deep-sea ecosystem. Local and topical committees will be organized and contribution of deep-sea researchers are anticipated.



References

Howell et al. 2020 A Blueprint for an Inclusive, Global Deep-Sea Ocean Decade Field Program. Front. Mar. Sci., 25 November 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.584861; Howell et al. 2020. A Decade to Study Deep-Sea Life. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01352-5