Southern Surveyor Voyage SS 05/2007 - Voyage of discovery - Sediments of the deep continental shelf and slope in Australia's "North West Region"

The overall aims were to provide data on the distribution of deep seabed habitats and fauna that are amenable to scientific hypothesis testing, can be immediately applied to marine resource management processes, and that enable strategic development of tools and techniques for understanding the processes that maintain deep sea biodiversity. This work was to support the process of NWR Estate inventory and management performance assessment by providing interpreted benthic habitat maps, faunal inventories, distribution maps and conservation values. Data will be collected at scientific reference sites from potential MPA areas that can be re-visited for monitoring purposes in the future. Sampling along environmental gradients (geographic range and depth) in this section of Australia's coast will also provide the opportunity to evaluate biogeographic hypotheses. Further refinement of predictive methods for identifying seabed habitat types, initially developed in temperate and cool-temperate environments, will be enabled by data collection from this tropical location in Australia. We intended to highlight the importance of this underlying science as a modern "Voyage of Discovery" given the likely significance of the findings in terms of Australia's biodiversity and its biogeography and evolution. (From Voyage Plan). Sediment samples were divided into two samples: an elutrition sample for macroinvertebrates that was sent to Robin Wilson at MV for analysis and a sediment sample to be analysed by Geoscience Australia.

本项目的总体目标为提供可支撑科学假说验证、可直接应用于海洋资源管理流程，且有助于开发解析维持深海生物多样性机制的工具与技术的深海海底生境与动物群落分布数据。本工作将通过提供解译后的底栖生境地图、动物群落名录、分布图谱及保护价值评估结果，支撑NWR Estate资产盘查与管理绩效评估工作。数据将采集自潜在海洋保护区（Marine Protected Area, MPA）范围内的科学参照点位，未来可对这些点位进行重访以开展监测工作。沿澳大利亚该段海岸的环境梯度（地理范围与水深）开展采样，也将为评估生物地理学假说提供契机。最初在温带与凉温带环境中开发的海底生境类型识别预测方法，可通过本次澳大利亚热带海域的数据采集工作得到进一步优化。鉴于本研究成果对澳大利亚生物多样性、生物地理学及演化研究具有重要意义，我们旨在将这项基础科研工作打造为现代版的"探索之旅"（资料来源：《航次计划》）。沉积物样品分为两类：一类是用于大型无脊椎动物检测的洗脱样品（已送至MV的Robin Wilson处开展分析），另一类沉积物样品将由澳大利亚地质调查局（Geoscience Australia）进行分析。