Ramalho
Sofia P.
Ramalho
Sofia P.
No Thumbnail Available
Search Results
Now showing
1 - 3 of 3
-
ArticleA blueprint for an inclusive, global deep-sea ocean decade field program(Frontiers Media, 2020-11-25) Howell, Kerry L. ; Hilario, Ana ; Allcock, A. Louise ; Bailey, David ; Baker, Maria C. ; Clark, Malcolm R. ; Colaço, Ana ; Copley, Jonathan T. ; Cordes, Erik E. ; Danovaro, Roberto ; Dissanayake, Awantha ; Escobar Briones, Elva ; Esquete, Patricia ; Gallagher, Austin J. ; Gates, Andrew R. ; Gaudron, Sylvie M. ; German, Christopher R. ; Gjerde, Kristina M. ; Higgs, Nicholas D. ; Le Bris, Nadine ; Levin, Lisa A ; Manea, Elisabetta ; McClain, Craig ; Menot, Lenaick ; Mestre, Mireia ; Metaxas, Anna ; Milligan, Rosanna J. ; Muthumbi, Agnes W. N. ; Narayanaswamy, Bhavani E. ; Ramalho, Sofia P. ; Ramirez-Llodra, Eva ; Robson, Laura M. ; Rogers, Alex D. ; Sellanes, Javier ; Sigwart, Julia D. ; Sink, Kerry ; Snelgrove, Paul V. R. ; Stefanoudis, Paris V. ; Sumida, Paulo Y. ; Taylor, Michelle L. ; Thurber, Andrew R. ; Vieira, Rui P. ; Watanabe, Hiromi K. ; Woodall, Lucy C. ; Xavier, Joana R.The ocean plays a crucial role in the functioning of the Earth System and in the provision of vital goods and services. The United Nations (UN) declared 2021–2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Roadmap for the Ocean Decade aims to achieve six critical societal outcomes (SOs) by 2030, through the pursuit of four objectives (Os). It specifically recognizes the scarcity of biological data for deep-sea biomes, and challenges the global scientific community to conduct research to advance understanding of deep-sea ecosystems to inform sustainable management. In this paper, we map four key scientific questions identified by the academic community to the Ocean Decade SOs: (i) What is the diversity of life in the deep ocean? (ii) How are populations and habitats connected? (iii) What is the role of living organisms in ecosystem function and service provision? and (iv) How do species, communities, and ecosystems respond to disturbance? We then consider the design of a global-scale program to address these questions by reviewing key drivers of ecological pattern and process. We recommend using the following criteria to stratify a global survey design: biogeographic region, depth, horizontal distance, substrate type, high and low climate hazard, fished/unfished, near/far from sources of pollution, licensed/protected from industry activities. We consider both spatial and temporal surveys, and emphasize new biological data collection that prioritizes southern and polar latitudes, deeper (> 2000 m) depths, and midwater environments. We provide guidance on observational, experimental, and monitoring needs for different benthic and pelagic ecosystems. We then review recent efforts to standardize biological data and specimen collection and archiving, making “sampling design to knowledge application” recommendations in the context of a new global program. We also review and comment on needs, and recommend actions, to develop capacity in deep-sea research; and the role of inclusivity - from accessing indigenous and local knowledge to the sharing of technologies - as part of such a global program. We discuss the concept of a new global deep-sea biological research program ‘Challenger 150,’ highlighting what it could deliver for the Ocean Decade and UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.
-
ArticleVolcanically hosted venting with indications of ultramafic influence at Aurora hydrothermal field on Gakkel Ridge(Nature Communications, 2022-10-31) German, Christopher R ; Reeves, Eoghan P ; Türke, Andreas ; Diehl, Alexander ; Albers, Elmar ; Bach, Wolfgang ; Purser, Autun ; Ramalho, Sofia P ; Suman, Stefano ; Mertens, Christian ; Walter, Maren ; Ramirez-Llodra, Eva ; Schlindwein, Vera ; Bünz, Stefan ; Boetius, AntjeThe Aurora hydrothermal system, Arctic Ocean, hosts active submarine venting within an extensive field of relict mineral deposits. Here we show the site is associated with a neovolcanic mound located within the Gakkel Ridge rift-valley floor, but deep-tow camera and sidescan surveys reveal the site to be ≥100 m across-unusually large for a volcanically hosted vent on a slow-spreading ridge and more comparable to tectonically hosted systems that require large time-integrated heat-fluxes to form. The hydrothermal plume emanating from Aurora exhibits much higher dissolved CH/Mn values than typical basalt-hosted hydrothermal systems and, instead, closely resembles those of high-temperature ultramafic-influenced vents at slow-spreading ridges. We hypothesize that deep-penetrating fluid circulation may have sustained the prolonged venting evident at the Aurora hydrothermal field with a hydrothermal convection cell that can access ultramafic lithologies underlying anomalously thin ocean crust at this ultraslow spreading ridge setting. Our findings have implications for ultra-slow ridge cooling, global marine mineral distributions, and the diversity of geologic settings that can host abiotic organic synthesis - pertinent to the search for life beyond Earth.
-
ArticleHot vent beaneath an icy ocean: the Aurora vend field, Gakkel Ridge, revealed(Oceanography Society, 2022-11-08) Ramirez-Llodra, Eva ; Argentino, Claudio ; Baker, Maria ; Boetius, Antje ; Costa, Carolina ; Dahle, Håkon ; Denny, Emily M. ; Dessandier, Pierre-Antoine ; Eilertsen, Mari H. ; Ferre, Benedicte ; German, Christopher R. ; Hand, Kevin ; Hilário, Ana ; Hislop, Lawrence ; Jamieson, John W. ; Kalnitchenko, Dimitri ; Mall, Achim ; Panieri, Giuliana ; Purser, Autun ; Ramalho, Sofia P. ; Reeves, Eoghan P. ; Rolley, Leighton ; Pereira, Samuel I. ; Ribeiro, Pedro A. ; Sert, Muhammed Fatih ; Steen, Ida H. ; Stetzler, Marie ; Stokke, Runar ; Victorero, Lissette ; Vulcano, Francesca ; Vågenes, Stig ; Waghorn, Kate Alyse ; Buenz, StefanEvidence of hydrothermal venting on the ultra-slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Central Arctic Ocean has been available since 2001, with first visual evidence of black smokers on the Aurora Vent Field obtained in 2014. But it was not until 2021 that the first ever remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives to hydrothermal vents under permanent ice cover in the Arctic were conducted, enabling the collection of vent fluids, rocks, microbes, and fauna. In this paper, we present the methods employed for deep-sea ROV operations under drifting ice. We also provide the first description of the Aurora Vent Field, which includes three actively venting black smokers and diffuse flow on the Aurora mound at ~3,888 m depth on the southern part of the Gakkel Ridge (82.5°N). The biological communities are dominated by a new species of cocculinid limpet, two small gastropods, and a melitid amphipod. The ongoing analyses of Aurora Vent Field samples will contribute to positioning the Gakkel Ridge hydrothermal vents in the global biogeographic puzzle of hydrothermal vents.