![]() ![]() “We used these methods because more traditional approaches require large numbers of specimens,” says co-author Brian N. The researchers also studied the food web supporting Twilight Zone fish using advanced stable isotope methods to study animal tissue, which can reveal diets, primary producers, and more. Both corals and algae depend on sunlight to drive photosynthesis, and the study attributed the existence of many of the deep reef habitats to exceptionally clear water. More than seventy species of macroalgae inhabiting the deep reefs were identified during the study, and several more new species have not yet been assigned formal scientific names. ![]() In addition to the corals, the area is also home to extensive algal meadows that support unique communities of fishes and invertebrates. The reefs are dominated by stony, reef-building corals in the genus Leptoseris, a plate-like coral specialized for deep-reef environments. ![]() Some of these, including sites in the ‘Au‘au channel off the southwest side of Maui, are vast expanses of continuous coral cover, extending for tens of square kilometers. Combining both together on the same dives allowed us to achieve tasks that could not have been performed by either technology alone.”Ī major focus of the study, published last week in PeerJ, was to document extensive areas of 100 percent coral cover at depths of 90 meters (300 feet) or more off the islands of Maui and Kaua‘i. “Submersibles can go much deeper and stay much longer, but divers can perform more complex tasks to conduct experiments and collect specimens. (Pyle was also one of the scientists involved in two recent “ New Discoveries” from the same region.) “Free-swimming divers and submersibles don’t often work side-by-side on scientific research projects,” he says. One of the novel approaches taken during the project was to combine rebreather divers and submersibles together on coordinated dives, says lead researcher Richard Pyle. ![]() The Hawaiian team used a wide range of advanced technology to document these reefs, including two research submersibles, mixed-gas closed-circuit rebreather diving, towed and remotely operated camera systems, multibeam bathymetry mapping, and a variety of environmental sensors for recording light, temperature, water movement and other parameters. (Academy researchers’ work studying these habitats, including the rebreather technology needed to dive to those depths is feature in the Academy’s current exhibit, Twilight Zone: Deep Reefs Revealed.) Deeper than conventional scuba dives and shallower than most submersible-based exploration, these reefs represent a new frontier for coral-reef research. These coral reefs-at depths of 30 to 150 meters (100 to 500 feet)-are among the most poorly explored of all marine ecosystems on Earth. The region extends 2,590 kilometers (1,600 miles) so the team focused on deep coral reef environments, known as mesophotic coral ecosystems, also called the Twilight Zone. The Hawaiian Archipelago is vast and deep, so it’s not surprising that it took a large team of scientists twenty years to explore the waters surrounding the 50th state. ![]()
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