This post written by Michael Studivan.
PI Joshua Voss, graduate students Michael Studivan and Jennifer Polinski, and summer interns Alaina Weinheimer and Nancy Sealover recently concluded a productive cruise on board the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) vessel RV Manta. As a continuation of the ROV research cruise last October at FGBNMS, the team was once again exploring mesophotic coral banks currently outside the sanctuary boundaries. The Sanctuary Advisory Council is proposing an expansion of the FGB sanctuary, from just three banks (East, West, and Stetson), to include an additional nine banks (see map below). The Voss lab focused on three of these banks, McGrail, Geyer, and Bright, completing 52 transects overall.
PI Joshua Voss, graduate students Michael Studivan and Jennifer Polinski, and summer interns Alaina Weinheimer and Nancy Sealover recently concluded a productive cruise on board the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) vessel RV Manta. As a continuation of the ROV research cruise last October at FGBNMS, the team was once again exploring mesophotic coral banks currently outside the sanctuary boundaries. The Sanctuary Advisory Council is proposing an expansion of the FGB sanctuary, from just three banks (East, West, and Stetson), to include an additional nine banks (see map below). The Voss lab focused on three of these banks, McGrail, Geyer, and Bright, completing 52 transects overall.
Map of the current sanctuary boundaries (red) and the proposed expanded boundaries (blue). Map from flowergarden.noaa.gov
We explored these mesophotic banks using the UNCW Undersea Vehicle Program's (UVP) and FGBNMS' Mohawk ROV. This year, however, we used a new sampling toolsled designed by Harbor Branch that was attached to the bottom of the ROV to sample corals for molecular and morphological analyses. We were able to collect up to 10 individual coral fragments per dive, allowing us to sample 21 Montastraea cavernosa at McGrail and Bright Banks. These samples will be used for population connectivity, chlorophyll and zooxanthellae quantification, zooxanthellae genetic ID, gene expression, and skeletal morphometrics analyses.
To learn more about the Sanctuary Advisory Council's proposed sanctuary expansion, visit here. Also, check our Flickr for a photo album from the cruise, and see above for a video compilation put together from our two recent ROV cruises.
To learn more about the Sanctuary Advisory Council's proposed sanctuary expansion, visit here. Also, check our Flickr for a photo album from the cruise, and see above for a video compilation put together from our two recent ROV cruises.
