PROSPECTS - International Seabed Authority

Working Group on Potential Collaborations in Biodiversity, Species Range and Gene Flow● 211
Megafaunal Biodiversity
The analysis of megafaunal biodiversity is recommended to complement the existing
Kaplan Project’s focus on macrofauna, nematoda, foraminifera and microbiota. Knowledge of
megafaunal diversity in the abyssal Pacific, particularly nodule provinces, is still limited except
for a comprehensive study in the French nodule area (see Appendix A). Nonetheless, there is
substantial potential to collect biodiversity data from existing archives of deep-sea
photographic images from other nodule areas. Only a small number of species have been
described taxonomically because of the low densities of megafauna at the abyssal seafloor.
Megabenthos from manganese nodule areas are especially difficult to collect due to the
grinding effects of nodules during the hoisting of trawls to the ocean’s surface.
As an addition to the Kaplan Project, the following steps to increase our knowledge of
megafaunal biodiversity within the CCZ are suggested:
• determine the availability of photographic archives with high quality images of
megafauna in contractor and museum collections (e.g., that of the
Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt, GER, IOM and IFREMER),
• digitize high-quality images of megafauna from the CCZ in archives and store
on DVDs. Find out what kind of information and what available format can be
delivered by institutions/contractors to accompany each image (e.g., position,
depth, date, other environmental information),
• set up a database including the name of the collector/describer and a
description of the animal to the lowest taxonomic level possible,
• add all available information about distribution, place of collection, water
depth, biology, ecology, and references,
• adjust database to internet requirements,
• make information available for science and public on the Internet,
• provide possibility for interactive discussions between the describer/collector of
the image and/or between scientists interested in working on the image,
• look for available deep-sea megafauna specimens collected and stored in
formalin in scientific museum collections and take samples for DNA-analysis,
• set up DNA-species library at the British Antarctic Survey,
• opportunistically collect new species, in particular scavenging fish and
Crustacea, during Kaplan cruises for preservation using DNA-friendly
techniques, and
• evaluate species ranges through merging of photographic, molecular and
museum-collection data.