Three-dimensional ecological niche modelling of midwater jellyfish

中水是海洋的中上层地带，深度在200米到4000米之间，是地球上最大的连续生物群。尽管在过去的30年里，调查技术在技术上取得了进步，但在这片辽阔而难以到达的栖息地中，只有不到1%的样本被采样。随着远洋生态系统在生态系统服务方面的相关性得到广泛承认，我们对中水的认识差距正在成为一个日益严重的问题，因为它阻碍了我们预测它将如何受到全球变化和人为压力的影响的能力。在这里，我们将根据世界各地收集的水下视频片段，研究最丰富和最相关的中水生物：水母亚科(Cnidaria：水生动物)。使用三维(3D)生态位模型，我们将回答关于它们的生态学、分布、多样性和物种形成机制的基本问题。我们项目的最终输出将是一张3D互动地图，展示在当前和未来气候情景下不同中水水母物种在地球上实现的生态位。我们关于中水生态的发现将使我们能够预测气候变化将如何影响中水，从而让我们对我们的海洋未来的样子有一个一瞥。

The midwater, the oceans’ pelagic zone between 200 and 4000 meters of depths, is the largest continuous biome on our planet. Despite the technological advances in survey techniques over the last 30 years, less than 1% of this vast and hard to reach habitat has been sampled. As pelagic ecosystems are being widely acknowledged for their relevance in ecosystem services, our knowledge gap of the midwater is becoming an increasing problem as it hampers our ability to predict how it will be affected by global change and anthropogenic pressures. Here, based on underwater video footage collected worldwide, we will study the most abundant and relevant midwater organisms: the hydromedusae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa). Using ecological niche modelling in three dimensions (3D), we will answer fundamental questions regarding their ecology, distribution, diversity, and speciation mechanisms. The final output of our project will be a 3D interactive map projecting the realised niches of different midwater jellyfish species on a globe under present and future climatic scenarios. Our findings regarding midwater ecology will allow us to predict how climate change will impact the midwater, and therefore give us a glimpse on what our oceans will look like in the future.