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.中光层生态系统（Mesophotic Ecosystems）分布于海洋光照渗透的极限深度区间，其生物多样性极为丰富，且孕育着独特的生态群落。然而，受限于高昂的调研成本与技术瓶颈，这类生态系统仍是地球上研究程度最低的生境类型之一。本研究依托水下潜器技术，对两处海洋保护区内涵盖多种生境类型、深度及温度梯度的中光层群落进行特征表征，旨在解析不同生物地理区域内调控此类群落结构形成的生态过程。