COBRA Webinar – October 2024
Deep-sea discoveries from early career researchers (Part 2)
Dr. Kristen Johannes (Ocean Discovery League/Scripps Institution of Oceanography) and Dr. Johanna Weston (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Kristen is a Research Scientist at Ocean Discovery League and a Visiting Scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Integrative Oceanography Division). She will present her work in developing the Seafloor Observation Scenario Exploration Tool, an online suitability modelling platform focused on marine spatial planning for the deep seafloor. In her presentation, Kristen will provide an overview of the tool, focusing on the challenge of making planning-relevant ocean data accessible and usable for deep-sea stakeholders and rights holders. She will also discuss the supplemental outreach and science communication resources designed to guide users and decision makers, which were supported by a COBRA early career accelerator award.
Johanna is an ecologist passionate about understanding the crustaceans that thrive in the deepest 50% of the ocean. While seemingly remote, the deep abyssal and hadal zones are tightly connected to activities at the surface. In this talk, Johanna will highlight an exciting new example of this connection through an opportunistic encounter by DSV Alvin with a paddle-swimming isopod carrying a frond of Sargassum at 6288 m deep in the Puerto Rico Trench. She will detail how an integrative approach revealed this isopod to be highly poised to capitalize on Sargassum food falls with a specialized swimming stroke, grinding mouthparts, and containing a diazotrophic gut microbiome. Together, this remarkable animal’s reliance on sinking forests of algae underscores this tight surface-ocean floor connection and raises important food for thought on how increasing biomass flux to the seafloor may lead to downstream impacts on these communities.
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