Serpent Project Enfield 6 - measuring megafaunal abundance, diversity and distribution.

SERPENT - Scientific and Environmental remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Partnership using Existing iNdustrial Technology. A highly successful mission resulted after 5 days of ROV operations. Eight video transects were completed, for megafaunal abundance, diversity and distribution in the area. Transects were conducted every 450m and extend to 100m from the drill site. Videos will be analysed for megafaunal diversity and habitat mapping during 2006.

There is only one habitat type at END01 which is soft bottom. There is no evidence of any rock formations or hard bottom of any type. This will be accounted for when analysing video transects. Preliminary analysis indicates a high density and diversity of megafauna. The main component of the megafaunal community is consistent with soft bottom communities and includes echinoderms (asteroids, echinoids) a host of crustaceans (prawns and large isopods), eels that live in the sediment and some bottom dwelling fish. Unlike at ENC03, there were no large sponge beds only sparsely scattered sponges.

A variety of prawns, crabs, hagfish, amphipods, isopods and fish were attracted to the bait traps (first experiment). Initial examination of the data suggests that there is a difference in the diversity of organisms that visit the traps (inside vs outside the drill spoil). Isopods and hagfish only appeared to visit traps outside of the drill spoil. Further analysis will validate any trends in the data.

Species collected for determining the level of heat shock protein expression (second experiment):

* 5 isopods outside of the drill spoil
* 5 isopods outside of the drill spoil re-deployed within the drill spoil
* 5 isopods outside of the drill spoil re-deployed outside of the drill spoil
* 5 isopods outside of the drill spoil caged and attached to ROV garage, immersed to seabed and brought to surface again
* 23 isopods outside of the drill spoil
* 20 isopods outside of the spoil used for re-deployment experiment
* 40 shrimp outside of the drill spoil
* 57 amphipods outside of the drill spoil
* 3 hagfish outside of the drill spoil
* 20 shrimp within the drill spoil
* 8 amphipods within the drill spoil
* 1 sea cucumber within the drill spoil

SERPENT项目全称为基于现有工业技术的科学与环境远程遥控潜水器（Remotely Operated Vehicle, ROV）合作计划。本次历时5天的ROV作业任务取得圆满成功，共完成8条视频样带，用以调查该区域大型底栖生物的丰度、多样性与分布特征。样带布设间距为450米，最远延伸至钻井场地周边100米范围。相关视频资料将于2006年开展分析，用于解析大型底栖生物多样性并完成生境制图。

END01区域仅存在一种生境类型——软质底质，未发现任何岩组或硬质底质，该特征将在视频样带分析过程中予以考量。初步分析结果显示，该区域大型底栖生物具有较高的丰度与多样性。大型底栖生物群落的主要组成与软质底栖群落特征相符，涵盖棘皮动物（海星、海胆）、各类甲壳动物（对虾与大型等足类）、栖息于沉积物中的鳗类，以及部分底栖鱼类。与ENC03区域不同，本区域未发现大型海绵床，仅存在零星散布的海绵个体。

首次实验中，各类对虾、螃蟹、盲鳗、端足类、等足类及鱼类被诱饵陷阱吸引。初步数据检查显示，钻井弃碴区域内外的陷阱到访生物多样性存在差异：等足类与盲鳗仅会造访弃碴区域外的陷阱。后续将通过进一步分析验证数据中的相关趋势。

用于开展热休克蛋白表达水平检测的采集物种（第二次实验）如下：
* 钻井弃碴区外的等足类5只
* 从钻井弃碴区外转移至弃碴区内的等足类5只
* 从钻井弃碴区外转移至弃碴区外的等足类5只
* 置于笼中、附着于ROV存放舱、浸没至海床后再次回收的钻井弃碴区外等足类5只
* 钻井弃碴区外的等足类23只
* 用于转移实验的钻井弃碴区外虾类20只
* 钻井弃碴区外的虾类40只
* 钻井弃碴区外的端足类57只
* 钻井弃碴区外的盲鳗3只
* 钻井弃碴区内的虾类20只
* 钻井弃碴区内的端足类8只
* 钻井弃碴区内的海参1只