BOEMRE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM:  ONGOING STUDIES

BOEMRE OCS Region:

Gulf of Mexico

Planning Area:

Central and Western

Title:

Investigations of Chemosynthetic Communities on the Lower Continental Slope of the Gulf of Mexico (GM-05-03)

Total Cost:  $3,291,368

Period of Performance:  FY 2005-2011

Conducting Organization:

TDI Brooks International Inc.

BOEMRE Contact:

Gregory S. Boland

Description:

Background:  In 1984, the first dense chemosynthetic communities were discovered in the northern Gulf of Mexico .  Recognized as unique and sensitive biological communities, the first mitigation protecting them from oil and gas activity impacts was established through Notice to Lessees (NTL) 88-11 (now NTL 2000-G20).  The BOEMRE (formerly MMS) subsequently supported two major studies of these ecosystems.  The successful BOEMRE-sponsored Chemosynthetic Ecosystems Study and following study that ended in 2002, Stability and Change in Gulf of Mexico Chemosynthetic Communities have provided important detailed information on several very different chemosynthetic communities on the continental shelf of the central Gulf.  All of the sites from these two studies are located at water depths shallower than 700 m.  There are at a minimum, several hundred perennial hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf originating in water depths deeper than 1,000 m as well as abundant 3D seismic geophysical data indicating signatures of hydrocarbon seepage represented by both low amplitude returns as well as hard bottom authigenic carbonate.  These signatures, as well as a few discoveries of chemosynthetic communities as deep as 3,200 m in the Gulf, indicates that there may be many more undiscovered high-density communities in deeper areas of the Gulf, particularly between 1,000 and 2,000 m in depth.  Differences in bottom sediment regimes, water temperatures, and hydrate stability compared to the upper slope may radically alter the abundance and composition of lower slope communities.  Lower slope hard bottoms not necessarily populated with chemosynthetic communities is also a significant community type where little is presently known.  Deepwater coral habitats are becoming internationally recognized for their value as unique fish habitat, high biodiversity, and even as sources for discoveries of compounds with biotechnology potential.  This study will focus on exploration, survey, and experimental work on chemosynthetic communities and hard bottom habitats located deeper than 1,000 m on the lower continental slope of the Gulf of Mexico.

Objectives:  This study will characterize known, or newly discovered chemosynthetic communities and all other hard bottom biological communities encountered regardless of associations with active hydrocarbon seep activity at depths below 1,000 m in the central or western Gulf of Mexico.  Objectives include determination of the degree of sensitivity to anthropogenic impacts through a variety of approaches such as rarity, unique taxonomy/biodiversity, or other environmental risk assessment methodologies.  An important aspect will be determining how these deep communities are similar or different from their shallower counterparts.  These objectives will be accomplished through a combination of both exploratory work and more focused studies including process-based work on known communities.

Methods:  NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration is partnering with BOEMRE and providing valuable facilities support for both field sampling years 2006 and 2007.  The only manned deep submergence facility, the submarine Alvin is being funded primarily by NOAA OE for use in May of 2006.  NOAA will also provide use of other yet to be identified facilities (likely the Jason II ROV or equivalent) in 2007.  Modern ROVs can be outfitted with the capability for collection of a wide variety of sample types including sediment, water, or biota.  Other study methods include long-term deployment of instrumentation to measure processes and in situ laboratory experiments similar to previous studies.  The first two years will involve field sampling; the last two years include laboratory work, data analysis, and synthesis.

Additional studies will be funded and performed through the Department of Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey.  During 2006, this will include genetics of selected megafauna (targeting scleractinian corals).

Products:  Reports, imaging products, GIS layers/maps, archived data sets, and peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Importance to BOEMRE:  Information on the deepwater environment and its biota is needed because the oil and gas industry is moving into deeper and deeper water in their continuing search for extractable reserves.  Knowledge of the distribution, relative abundance, and population structures of deepwater organisms, particularly the high-density chemosynthetic communities and deepwater corals, will provide critical information to estimate of the potential effects of deepwater exploration and production and allow refinement of mitigation measures for this deeper continental slope area.  Our current basic understanding of chemosynthetic communities is limited to the study sites chosen by previous projects that were limited by the depth capabilities of available submersible technology, i.e., the Johnson Sea Link submersibles with a depth limit of 1,000 m.  Little is presently known about the potential occurrence of lower slope communities or their characteristics and sensitivity to impacting factors.

Current Status:  A two week exploratory cruise was successfully completed in April of 2006.  A total of nine new discoveries of chemosynthetic communities were made at depths between 1,082 and 2,875 m using a drift camera system from the R/V Gyre.  Several sites were remarkable and included extensive tube worm and muscle communities as well as some areas with exposed carbonate boulders and attached gorgonian corals.  The primary field sampling cruise for 2006 using the submersible Alvin and R/V Atlantis II from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was successfully accomplished between May 7 and June 4.  All but three days of the 28-day expedition is being funded by NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration.  The expedition was highlighted as one of NOAA OE’s “Signature Expeditions” of 2006 and is featured on a dedicated web page with educational lesson plans at:  http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06mexico/.

The second year’s field sampling has also been accomplished with spectacular success.  Through the BOEMRE partnership with NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration the project utilized the NOAA research vessel Ron Brown and the Jason II remotely operated vehicle from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  This 32-day cruise took place between June 6 and July 7, 2007.  Most of the stations from the 2006 Alvin expedition were revisited along with several new sites discovered during the exploratory cruise earlier in 2006 as well as new locations yet to be explored by anyone.  Numerous remarkable habitats were explored and sampled including brine pools, an active mud volcano, extensive deepwater coral habitats and huge mussel beds.  The extraordinary ROV Jason II performed flawlessly on dives lasting as long as 40 hours straight on a single site.  This cruise was also featured on the NOAA web site for Ocean Exploration at:  http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07mexico/welcome.html

This study was awarded the Cooperative Conservation Award from the Department of the Interior to recognize an extraordinary collaboration among diverse organizations to conduct research on ultra-deepwater biological communities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Data analysis and report writing has continued through 2009 and a draft final report is very near completion.  Review and editorial changes will occur in early 2010 and a final published BOEMRE report should be available by mid-year.

Final Report Due:

September 2009

Delays moved the submission into the period of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill causing further delays for both submission and draft review.

Draft is in final stages of review

Final report expected 3-30-11

Publications:

Roberts, H. et al . 2007. Alvin Explores the Deep Northern Gulf of Mexico Slope. EOS Vol 88 (35), 28 August 2007, pp 341–348.

Fisher, C. Roberts, E. Cordes and B. Bernard. 2007. Cold Seeps and Associated Communities of the Gulf of Mexico. Oceanography Vol 20 Num 4, pp 68-79.

Cordes, E.E., S.L. Carney, S. Hourdez, R.S. Carney, J.M. Brooks, C.R. Fisher. 2007. Cold seeps of the deep Gulf of Mexico: Community structure and biogeographic comparisons to Atlantic equatorial belt seep communities, Deep-Sea Research I 54 (2007) 637–653.

Duperron, S., M. Sibuet, B. J. MacGregor, M. M. Kuypers, C. R. Fisher, and N. Dublier. 2007. Diversity, relative abundance and metabolic potential of bacterial endosymbionts in three Bathymodiolus mussel species from cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. _Environ. Micro._ 9; 1423-1438.

Becker EL, Cordes EE, Macko SA, Fisher CR. (2009) Importance of seep primary production to /Lophelia pertusa/ and associated fauna in the Gulf of Mexico. Deep-Sea Res I 56: 786-800.

Cordes EE, Bergquist DC, Fisher CR (2009) Macro-ecology of Gulf of Mexico cold seeps. Ann Rev Mar Sci 1: 143-168.

Garcia-Pineda, O, B. Zimmer, M. Howard, W. Pichel, X. Li, I. MacDonald, Using SAR Image to Delineate Ocean Oil Slicks with a Texture Classifying Neural Network Algorithm (TCNNA), Canadian J. Remote Sensing (Accepted for Publication)

O. Garcia, I.R. MacDonald, B. Zimmer, W. Shedd, and M. Frye. 2009. Satellite SAR inventory of Gulf of Mexico oil seeps and shallow gas hydrates. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 11, EGU2009-11633, 2009, EGU General Assembly 2009

O. Garcia-Pineda, I.R. MacDonald, B. Zimmer. 2008. Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Processing Using The Supervised Textural-Neural Network Classification Algorithm. Proceedings of the IEEE 2008 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS'08), Boston, USA.

O. Garcia-Pineda, B. Zimmer, A. Mestas-Nunez, I.R. MacDonald. 2008. Quantification Of Oil Seeps In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico By Satellite Remote Sensing. 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Orlando Florida, USA.

MacDonald, I.R. 2007. Compiling Regional Inventory of Gulf of Mexico Hydrocarbon Seeps, Talk. Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies and Gulf Coast Section of SEPM, Corpus Christi, TX October 21-23, 2007

MacDonald, I.R. 2007. Toward a basin-wide zoogeographic model of biological hotspots in the deep-sea. The Oceans in the Earth System, International Conference 2007 and 97th Annual Meeting of the Geologische Vereinigung e.V. 1-5 October 2007, Bremen Germany, Invited plenary lecture

MacDonald, I.R. 2007. The Gulf of Mexico gas hydrate system, sampling and observation. Invited Talk. Gas Hydrate Observatory Workshop Portland, JOIDES, OR, 18-20 October 2007

MacDonald, I.R., H.H. Roberts, C.R. Fisher, B.B. Bernard, S. Joye, R. Carney, J. Hunt, W. Shedd. 2007. Reconnaissance Strategies for seep chemosynthetic communities. AGU Joint Assembly Acapulco, MX 22-24 May Eos Trans. AGU, 88(23), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract OS51B-06

Garcia-Pineda, O. B. Zimmer, A. Mestas-Nunez, I.R. MacDonald. 2007. Monitoring Hydrocarbons Transfer in the Gulf of Mexico with Synthetic Aperture Radar; Radarsat-1, Envisat, ERS-1, ERS-2 and JERS-1. AGU Joint Assembly Acapulco, MX 22-24 May Eos Trans. AGU, 88(23), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract OS51B-01

Total of 19 peer-reviewed papers related to this study (some by USGS scientists) was published in a special issue of Deep-Sea Research II, Volume 57 November 2010.

Affiliated WWW Sites:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06mexico/welcome.html

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07mexico/welcome.html

Revised date:

February 2011

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