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Before the summer of 2017, the only thing that researchers knew from the depths of the Labrador Sea was that they did not know much about it.
"We did not know much about what was living in the background," David Cote, research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
But Côté and a team of experts are beginning to put this ignorance into the past, as they prepare for a second summer stay on the Labrador Sea using a mix of methods of the Victorian era and innovative technologies to discover the organisms that thrive from 500 to 3,000 meters lower.
There are good reasons for the region to remain virtually unexplored. Even the surface of the sea presents difficult conditions to scientists, as they try to fight against sea ice and short summer windows to work there. Then you have to travel the thirteen kilometers of line to perform the tests.
"When we try to drop the material, it does not take a few minutes to get to the bottom, we talk about the hours and the same thing to pull it up.
Despite the challenges of the first year of a three-year project, scientists made great discoveries in their early days of exploration that excited them to put their parkas – the surface of the sea Labrador is colder "
Sponges, corals and fish, oh my
" In fact, we've seen a lot of fish and life there, "says Cote. 19659009] Rabbit fish – so named for their r Long and terrifying teeth – sponges and deep-water corals, there is no shortage of organisms that l & # 39; team cataloged in the depths. These are clbadified as "habitat-forming species", which help to transform the mostly flat ocean floor into an ecosystem that is more favorable to other species.
In addition to interesting invertebrates, the 2017 team was particularly excited to document mature specimens of blue hake.
Bigeye fish are common all over the world at depths of 1,000 to 2,000 meters, but only immature species have already been captured, leaving the question of where it creates a mystery. The blue salmon fishery suggests that the spawning area may be somewhere in the Labrador Sea. "As a scientist, it's always exciting to have a discovery like this, and we think it's a sign of good things to come." 19659013] "This is a pretty important discovery, but we are really in the early days of this type of research, and we expect a lot of interesting things to come out in the next two years."
Some of the ways scientists are sampling the seafloor showcase advanced research methods. While the Expedition Expedition expedition was a pioneer of oceanography in the 1870s, the team of Side mixes them.
Beyond remote-controlled vehicles and deep-water cameras, scientists use the environmental DNA is based on the badumption that all animals pour cell fragments and genetic material into the column of 39 water and sediment, said Cote.
To capture this, the team took samples of water and sediment from selected locations, and began returning the samples to the lab, matching them in a DNA database for discover what was swimming in the area. "So we can get an idea of what animals live in this water, without seeing animals, which is really important," he said, adding that this has been used successfully in others ocean experiments. These techniques are complementary: each technique has an advantage that can cover the disadvantages of others
Race against Development
The field work planned for the months of August 2018 and 2019 will add much to the early incursions of the Team Cote team went from three scientists aboard a commercial fishing vessel last year to a team of 16 people this year who will work 24 hours a day aboard the Coast Guard ship Amundsen, which is well equipped for
But as the team is working to turn the mysteries into facts, one thing is already certain.
"We know that as technologies increase and demand increases," So we really need to understand what these communities look like before moving in, so we can predict those impacts. , and we can also potentially manage these impacts. "[19659027Lamiseenplaced'Aboutthebaseofmarineswine'accreditedacrossmotecarcettepartiedoceanannoncartographecontainsfragileecosystemswithchildrenwhichwereslowlydevelopingtoproduce
efforts on 11 Cote sites call mere" pinholes "in the 100 area. 000 km / square. They hope to enlarge these pinholes over the next two summers, adapting future strategies to their results. By 2019, he hopes the researchers will have a specialized sleigh that they will be able to hang out along the bottom of the ocean, capturing images.
Side tempers his enthusiasm for the future with the intimidating nature of the depths. Eighty-five percent of the world's oceanic areas have depths greater than 2,000 meters, and oceanography, often described, indicates that the moon has been better mapped and understood up to now.
"This is a huge hole in our"
"At least we can see the moon.
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