Blue button jellyfish (Porpita porpita) Photo: Uwe Piatkowski/GEOMAR
Deep-Sea Biodiversity
The Deep-Sea Biology research group at GEOMAR, in close cooperation with Cape Verdean colleagues, investigates the role of pelagic fauna in the oceanic carbon cycle, conducts time series studies of deep-sea biodiversity and observes the distribution and abundance of deep-sea fauna also in relation to environmental parameters such as temperature and oxygen.
To document deep-sea organisms in their natural environment, scientists conduct in situ observations with camera systems on towed and autonomous platforms and bottom observatories. Furthermore, organisms are also collected with nets and studied with modern molecular biology techniques such as eDNA and DNA barcoding. DNA analysis can also be used to detect a wide variety of deep-sea organisms in water or sediment samples.
This approach has already allowed the documentation of species never before observed in the Atlantic Ocean, new insights into the functioning of organisms in the oceanic ecosystem of the eastern Atlantic, and the prediction of the adaptive potential of organisms to a changing ocean.
News about Marine Life
![[Translate to English:] Poster Tintenfische](/fileadmin/_processed_/e/9/csm_Poster_Tintenfische_cbe07a9f7a.jpg)
Squids of the tropical Atlantic
Poster with photos by Uwe Piatkowski, GEOMAR (german)
Squids are among the most striking creatures of the deep sea. This selection takes a look at their impressive diversity and thus illustrates the importance of the tropical ocean as a hotspot of biodiversity. The animals shown here were caught during the METEOR expedition M97 in June 2013 in the central East Atlantic south of Cape Verde. For this purpose, plankton nets were deployed at night or at dusk down to a depth of 4,000 metres. Most of the specimens are still in the larval or juvenile stage and live down to a depth of about 1,000 metres. These typical deep-sea creatures can grow to several metres in length when fully grown.
![[Translate to English:] Poster Tiefseefische](/fileadmin/_processed_/9/9/csm_Poster_tiefseefische_155979e803.jpg)
Deep Sea fishes
Poster with photos by Solvin Zankl (german)
With glowing hinges on their heads, mouths larger than their bodies and dangerous-looking fangs, many of these creatures seem to have stepped straight out of a science fiction film. In fact, these fish live in the deep sea, the largest habitat on our planet. For us humans, it is just as inaccessible, hostile and alien as outer space. The photos shown here are exhibits from the collection of Dr Johannes Kinzer. The marine biologist and former aquarium director of the Kiel Institute of Oceanography (IfM) collected these deep-sea fishes during numerous expeditions in the 1960s and 1970s in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
