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Jon Copley Profile picture
@expeditionlog
Jul 24 • 9 tweets • 2 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
BIG new paper just out, led by @bokamero:



TL;DR: a 6 million km2 area of the Pacific, currently the focus of interest for #DeepSeaMining, is not a single biogeographic province (like a continent) for deep-sea life.

Why does it matter? Here's a 🧵👇nature.com/articles/s4155…
This paper shows a change in the types of animals inhabiting the seafloor at a depth of 4400-4800 metres in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), and this boundary matches a change in seawater chemistry. 🧵1/n
The boundary matches the "carbonate compensation depth": animals with carbonate shells or skeletons (e.g. snails) live on the shallow side of the boundary, and animals with soft bodies or siliceous skeletal structures (e.g. glass sponges) dominate at greater depths. 🧵2/n
This is the first observational study afaik to show that the carbonate composition depth may control the distribution of animals at "abyssal" depths, which cover ~60% of the surface of our planet. 🧵3/n
The depth of the ocean floor generally increases from 4000 to 5500 metres across the 5000 km east-to-west width of the CCZ...

...so the depth boundary divides the marine life of the CCZ region into two "provinces" (a bit like continents, in terms of their inhabitants).
🧵4/n
The inhabitants of each province may vary in vulnerability to #DeepSeaMining, so the Areas of Potential Environmental Interest set aside as no-mining zones by may need some re-evalulation.

This shows how "further research is needed" in considering impacts of #DeepSeaMining 🧵5/n
The analysis uses data from >150,000 m2 of seafloor images, collected by deep-diving vehicles across 5000 km of the Pacific.

This bridges a gap between previous biogeography studies based on patchy global databases and traditional small-scale distribution studies. 🧵6/n
The CCZ has become one of the most-visited areas of the deep ocean, given the need to understand impacts of #DeepSeaMining. Multiple expeditions, using standardised techniques, provided the regional-scale ecological dataset for this paper. 🧵7/n
Other studies show climate change is reducing the carbonate compensation depth, which raises the possibility of changes in the distributions of abyssal animals in this region (in addition to impacts of any future #DeepSeaMining).

More here -

🧵/endnoc.ac.uk/news/faunal-bo…

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More from @expeditionlog

Jon Copley Profile picture
Nov 20, 2019
Spires of sulfur... a dead zone of deceased shrimp & squid... hardy limpets, scurrying sea-spiders, lush anemones...

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents unlike most others revealed in our new paper:
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

So here's some info about their discovery (/thread...)
These vents are at 1.4 km deep on the slopes of a small undersea volcano...

...in an undersea crater (the "Kemp Caldera")

...next to an undersea mountain ("Kemp Seamount")

...at the southern end of the South Sandwich Islands

...in the Antarctic (2/n)

🎞️ @AGCGraham
In 2009 @rdlarter led the first of our @NERCscience ChEsSo (Chemosynthetic Ecosystems of the Southern Ocean) expeditions, aboard the RRS James Clark Ross...

...during which we discovered a seafloor caldera next to "Kemp Seamount" (3/n)
Read 11 tweets
Jon Copley Profile picture
Jul 11, 2019
Today’s media coverage of fruit juice/cancer offers a chance to see how well outlets follow guidelines for responsible reporting of risk…

(e.g. drawn up by scientists & journalists: royalsociety.org/-/media/Royal_…)

…so wearing my #scicom hat, here’s a /thread:
What matters is reporting of relative AND absolute risk, ideally with equal clarity & prominence.

Relative risk: X doubles the risk of Y (scary?)

But is that increase from 1 in ten to 2 in ten (ok, scary) or 1 in a million to 2 in a million (not so scary)? (=absolute risk)
Today’s news story is a study in the BMJ, for which there was this press release:
eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2…

Relative risk is given in sentence 10; absolute risk is sort-of stated (via total number of cancer cases in the study), but you’d have to do some sums to make it as clear…
Read 15 tweets
Jon Copley Profile picture
Jan 23, 2019
My book "Ask An Ocean Explorer"(*) is out in 30 days (on 21 Feb).

So for the next 30 days, I'll be sharing some of the wonders & history of exploring the deep here, in #30daysofdeep

(*<cough>available for pre-order, e.g. amazon.co.uk/Ask-Ocean-Expl…; also for Kindle, & audio book)
On this day, 59 years ago, two people reached the ocean's deepest point for the first time.

Here's a wonderful account by one of them, Don Walsh, in his own words: scientificamerican.com/article/diving…

And here's some archive newsreel footage:

#30daysofdeep 1/30
#30daysofdeep 2/30

Here's Gorringe Bank, a twin-peaked seamount near Portugal that rises from ~5 km deep to ~50 m deep, taller than Mont Blanc in the Alps. Home to >800 species, from deep-sea glass sponges to kelp.

Discovered by USS Gettysburg in 1875 under Capt Henry Gorringe.
Read 32 tweets
Jon Copley Profile picture
Dec 21, 2018
Today being the solstice & anniversary of HMS Challenger setting out on her voyage of ocean exploration in 1872, it's a good day to reflect on some of the deep-sea discoveries of 2018.

Here are three that show how there are still surprises out there for us... (thread/) Image
2018 deep-sea surprise 1: deep-sea skates may use the warm waters of hydrothermal vents to incubate their egg cases, revealed in a research paper published in February, from exploration at >1.6 km deep in the Galapagos Marine Reserve

nature.com/articles/s4159… (2/6)
2018 deep-sea surprise 2: tantalising evidence that some whales might dive much deeper than thought, from seafloor marks discovered at >4 km deep in the Pacific, analysed in a paper published in August by @Leigh_Marsh @VeerleHuvenne @DanielOBJones

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.10… (3/6)
Read 6 tweets
Jon Copley Profile picture
Aug 8, 2018
Deepest dives & years:
🌊surface
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435m Beebe & Barton 1930
671m " 1932
923m " 1934
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1372m Barton 1949
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3167m Piccard & Piccard 1953
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4050m Houot & Willm 1954
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10916m Piccard & Walsh 1960
11 June 1930: 435 metres

William Beebe & Otis Barton start to set new depth records, diving off Bermuda in the "bathysphere" that Barton designed ()
22 September 1932: 671 metres

Beebe & Barton return to Bermuda and set a new depth record - while broadcasting live on the radio from the bathysphere to listeners on NBC across the US and BBC in the UK.

blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2…
Read 11 tweets

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