Southern Surveyor Voyage SS 10/2005 - Voyage of discovery - benthic biodiversity of the deep continental shelf and slope in Australia's "South West Region"

The scientific objectives for the survey were split across two voyages (SS07/2005 for leg 1 and SS10/2005 for leg 2). The first leg was to map and visually survey (video) the upper continental slope (and at selected sites transects from the outer shelf to the mid-slope) at regular intervals of 1deg latitude; the second leg was to targeted sample the surveyed locations to document the benthic biodiversity. Epibenthic megafauna was sampled in 123 stations using the epibenthic sled Sherman and a beamtrawl at roughly 1 degree intervals from Bald Island in southern WA to Barrow Island (northern WA), at 100 and 400m depth; additional depths (200m, 700m 1000m) were sampled at targeted 'transect sites'. Invertebrate specimens were photographed and lodged with Australian Museums for identification, focused on sponges, corals, echinoderms, crustaceans, molluscs and ascidians. To date (Sept. 2014) we are aware of 27 taxonomic revisions or descriptions have been published from this collection. Fishes were only collected by chance, they are lodged with the CSIRO Fish Collection. The data of the biological samples is described here.

本调查的科学目标分为两个航段实施，分别为2005年的SS07/2005（第一航段）与SS10/2005（第二航段）。第一航段的任务为按1度纬度的固定间隔，对上大陆坡开展绘图与目视视频调查，并在选定站位设置从外陆架至中陆坡的断面样带；第二航段则针对上述已调查站位进行靶向采样，以记录底栖生物多样性。研究团队使用Sherman型底栖滑橇拖网（epibenthic sled Sherman）与桁杆拖网，在西澳大利亚州（Western Australia, WA）南部的鲍德岛至北部的巴罗岛之间，以约1度间隔布设123个站位，对底栖大型生物（epibenthic megafauna）进行采样，采样水深涵盖100m与400m；同时在选定的"断面站位"额外采集了200m、700m、1000m等水深的样品。无脊椎动物标本均进行了拍照记录，并送交澳大利亚各博物馆开展鉴定，鉴定类群聚焦于海绵、珊瑚、棘皮动物、甲壳类、软体动物以及被囊动物。截至2014年9月，已知该批次标本已发表27项分类学修订或新种描述成果。鱼类标本仅为偶然采集所得，现馆藏于澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织（CSIRO）鱼类标本馆。本文将对本次生物采样的相关数据进行详细说明。