Deep sea corals in the South Atlantic: new insights from an interdisciplinary study

在所有海洋中无处不在，自三叠纪以来，核状珊瑚一直是浅海和深海的主要框架建设者。与浅水珊瑚相比，冷水珊瑚（也称为偶氮黄藻或深海珊瑚）不与光合鞭毛藻共生。这意味着它们可以在不需要光线的情况下生活在海洋深处。据报道，从南极洲到北极，深达6300米的深海珊瑚都有出现。尽管它们分布在全球，并且在形成栖息地方面具有潜在的重要性，但人们对它们分布的控制知之甚少。随着海洋环境的不断变化，考虑这些重要生态系统的潜在脆弱性是及时的。这一提议为英国（劳拉·罗宾逊和米歇尔·泰勒）和巴西（马塞洛·v·基塔哈拉）的深海珊瑚研究人员的努力提供了一个独特的机会。该项目旨在建立一个长期的合作伙伴关系，旨在建立一个关于南大西洋深海珊瑚长期控制（包括现在和过去）的连贯观点。南大西洋拥有许多深海珊瑚物种的记录，特别是在巴西边缘——延伸到海底山和山脊。这些记录涵盖了60多个物种，其中一些据称形成了世界上最大的深水珊瑚礁。如此大的礁群是在来自南北高纬度的几个水团的影响下形成的。这些水具有非常不同的特性，如营养浓度、pH值和温度。由于栖息地和水柱特性的多样性，南大西洋是一个理想的试验场，可以在空间和时间上探索对深海珊瑚的大规模控制。有了巴西北部和南部（英国合作者）和南大西洋（巴西）的样本，以及在分类学、遗传学、深海生态学和珊瑚矿物学、生长速度、地球化学和过去气候方面的世界领先专业知识，我们提议在新的合作中走到一起，分享我们的想法、样本和技术。在为期两年的计划中，我们将组织交流访问，建立共享数据库，共享样品和使用实验室。在项目期间，我们将寻求建立额外的支持，以在最初的泵启动建议范围之外继续这些努力。

Ubiquitous to all oceans, scleractinian corals have been the main framework builders in the shallow and deep-sea since the Triassic. In contrast to their shallow-water counterparts, cold-water corals (also known as azooxanthellate or deep-sea corals) do not live in symbiosis with photosynthetic dinoflagellates. This means that they can live deep within the ocean without the need for light. Occurrences of deep-sea corals have been reported from Antarctica to the Arctic and down to depths as great as 6,300 m. Despite their global distribution, and potential importance in forming habitats, little is known about the controls on their distributions. With ongoing changes to the ocean environment it is timely to consider the potential vulnerability of these important ecosystems. This proposal represents a unique opportunity to combine the efforts of deep-sea coral researchers in the UK (Laura Robinson and Michelle Taylor) and Brazil (Marcelo V. Kitahara). The project seeks to initiate a long-term partnership which aims to build a coherent view of the long term controls (both today and in the past) on deep-sea corals in the South Atlantic.The South Atlantic holds numerous records of deep-sea coral species, especially on the Brazilian Margin - extending onto seamounts and ridges. These records encompass more than 60 species of which some are purported to form the largest deep-water coral reefs in the world. Such large reefs are formed under the influence of several water masses originating in both the high northern and southern latitudes. These waters have very different properties such as nutrient concentrations, pH and temperature. With this diversity in habitat and water column properties the South Atlantic is an ideal testing ground to explore the large scale controls on deep-sea corals in space and time. With access to samples to the North and South of Brazil (UK collaborators) and within the South Atlantic (Brazil) and with world leading expertise in taxonomy, genetics, deep sea ecology and coral mineralogy, growth rate, geochemistry and past climates we are proposing to come together in a new collaboration to share our ideas, samples and techniques. Within the two-year program we will organise exchange visits, establish a shared data base, share samples and access to laboratories. During the project we will seek to establish additional support to continue these efforts beyond the scope of this initial pump priming proposal.