Habitats and fish communities at mesophotic depths in the Mexican Pacific

Mesophotic ecosystems, found at the limit of light penetration in the ocean, are rich in biodiversity and harbour unique ecological communities. However, they remain among the least studied habitat zones on earth due to the high costs and technological limitations. Here, we characterize mesophotic communities in two marine reserves across a range of habitat types, depths and temperatures using submersible technologies, with the goal of understanding the processes that structure these communities across biogeographical regions.中光带生态系统（Mesophotic ecosystems）分布于海洋光穿透极限深度，拥有极高的生物多样性，并孕育着独特的生态群落。然而，受高昂研究成本与技术瓶颈制约，此类生态系统仍是地球上研究程度最低的生境区域之一。本研究借助潜水器技术，对两处海洋保护区内覆盖多样生境类型、深度与温度梯度的中光带生态群落进行特征解析，旨在揭示不同生物地理区域内驱动此类群落构建的生态学过程。