Azores Deep-sea Research

WELCOME TO

AZORES DEEP-SEA RESEARCH

Unveil the depths of the Atlantic Ocean

Our Mission

Advance the understanding of deep-sea ecosystems in a changing planet to inspire the society and inform policy.

Who we are

Learn about us

We are a group of passionate scientists based at the Institute of Marine Sciences - Okeanos, University of the Azores to unveil the deep-sea with a special focus on the Azores, but with extensions to the Atlantic Ocean and other ocean basins. We conduct scientific exploration, research and education to advance the understanding of the structure, function, natural diversity, connectivity, and resilience of deep-sea ecosystems in a changing planet, while informing for a sustainable use of the ocean for current and future generations.

What we do

Some of the topics covered by our team

Deep-sea exploration

Our good friend Paul Snelgrove, explained it all:
"We know more about the surface of the Moon and about Mars than we do about the deep sea floor…”
At the ADSR group, we spend a considerable amount of time exploring unknown areas of our planet, visiting, for the first time, many seamounts and small ridges in the Azores, the Atlantic Ocean, and other ocean basis. Collaborations with the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute and other international organizations provide detailed maps of geomorphological structures for our explorations. Our low-cost imaging technologies along with other more effective tools allowed us to discover new deep-sea species, habitats, biotopes, species associations, and even new hydrothermal vents.
Understanding deep-sea ecosystems

Understanding the biology, ecology, biogeography and spatial distributions of marine organisms is of paramount importance for advancing scientific understanding of the deep-sea and inform management. In the ADSR, we develop integrated research targeting key deep-sea taxa, including cold-water corals, and sponges but also deep-sea fishes, and key deep-water marine ecosystems, such as seamounts, mid-ocean ridges, and island slopes. We have found that black corals that attain millennial ages and that the Azores is a hotspot of cold-water coral diversity in the NE Atlantic.
Climate change impacts on deep-sea fauna

The deep sea plays a critical role in climate regulation through uptake and storage of heat and carbon dioxide. These regulating services have consequences for the health of the ocean causing warming, acidification, and deoxygenation of deep waters, leading to decrease in food availability at the seafloor. In the ADSR group, we develop experimental and modelling research to unveil the impacts of climate change in the physiology, biodiversity, and distribution of deep-sea fauna, including species that underpin Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems as well as commercially important deep-sea fishes. We showed that cold-water corals and fish are vulnerable to predicted climate change with drastic consequences on their distributions.
Impacts of human activities in the deep-sea

Bottom fishing and deep seabed mining threaten deep-sea ecosystems, modifying the seafloor morphology and its physical properties, removing benthic fauna sitting still on the seabed, and generating potentially toxic plumes from mining operations. At the ADSR group, we conduct field work, laboratory experiments, and models to quantify the impact of human activities in the marine environment. We demonstrated that these human activities affect local biodiversity, species abundance and ecosystem services, as well as the marine food webs and deep sea ecosystem functioning.
Knowledge transfer for management and conservation

Ensuring the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of the deep sea natural capital, including the resources and ecosystem services, in balance with economic and social development, has been recognized at the highest levels of the scientific and political agendas. In this regard, we develop scientific research to inform the identification and conservation of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems and the implementation of Area-Based Management Tools for the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning and the designation of Marine Protected Areas. We are also engaged with informing the environmental regulations to govern deep seabed mining and developing tools for the restoration of deep-sea coral gardens.
New technologies for democratizing access to the deep-sea

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development recognizes the need to reduce inequality in ocean research capacity. In this context, the ADSR group developed a cost-effective video platform that enables rapid assessment of benthic habitats in the deep ocean. Built with commercially available components, the Azor drift-cam is an effective, affordable, simple to assemble, easy to operate, and reliable instrument for visual exploration of the deep sea down to 1,000 m depth. The main driver behind the development of this technology is to democratize deep-sea exploration by sharing a simple but versatile instrument that can be used aboard small local vessels to explore shelf and deep-sea habitats.

Discover

Explore some of the tailored pages for you

Azor Drift-Cam

A cost-effective tool to unveil the secrets of the deep and democratize deep-sea exploration.

ATLAS

Seamounts

A journey to the heart of the ocean, with printable digital files ready to be shared.

Catalogue

Species

Learn more about species and their taxonomy, from there you can go to occurrences also.

Communities

Learn about communities and their habitats in the deep sea.

Occurrences

Explore occurrences and their distributions on a marine taxonomic system.

A cost-effective tool to democratize deep-sea exploration

Learn more about Azor drift-cam

Team members

Current members of our team

Check all members

Statistics

Current stats of the team

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0 ↳ filmed seabed in Km

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LATEST

PUBLICATIONS

Jan, 2024

A simulation-based approach to assess the stability of marine food-webs and inform Good Environmental Status

Feb, 2024

First assessment of circle hooks as bycatch mitigation measure for deep-water sharks on longline fisheries

Mar, 2024

Report on the Marine Imaging Workshop 2022

Sep, 2024

Rethinking sustainability of marine fisheries for a fast-changing planet

Oct, 2024

Advancing the frontier of fish geolocation into the ocean’s midwaters

Feb, 2024

First assessment of circle hooks as bycatch mitigation measure for deep-water sharks on longline fisheries

Dec, 2024

Habitat shifts of the vulnerable crinoid Leptometra phalangium under climate change scenarios

Jul, 2023

Spatial distributions, environmental drivers and co-existence patterns of key cold-water corals in the deep sea of the Azores (NE Atlantic)

Nov, 2023

Predicting the distribution and abundance of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) in the deep sea of the Azores (North Atlantic)

Oct, 2023

Systematic evaluation of a spatially explicit ecosystem model to inform area-based management in the deep-sea

DATASETS

Feb, 2022

Multibeam Raw Data collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

May, 2022

Nutrient data collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Feb, 2022

ADCP data collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Feb, 2022

List of stations with data collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Feb, 2022

SVP data collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Feb, 2022

CTD data collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Mar, 2022

Outputs of predictive distribution models of deep-sea elasmobranchs in the Azores EEZ (down to 2,000m depth) using Generalized Additive Models

Feb, 2022

List of deep-sea benthic video stations collected during the iMAR 2021/Eurofleets+ research cruise in Mid Atlantic Ridge (Azores EEZ)

Apr, 2021

Blue Azores Program Expedition 2018, Station 57, Dive 15: annotation of Paragorgia johnsoni Gray, 1862

Apr, 2021

Blue Azores Program Expedition 2018, Station 57, Dive 15: annotation of Paragorgia johnsoni Gray, 1862