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Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...

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Japan <strong>Marine</strong> Science and Technology Center<br />

<strong>Marine</strong> <strong>Ecosystems</strong> <strong>Research</strong> <strong>Department</strong><br />

Biological sampling equipment such as slurp gun systems<br />

have been redesigned and adapted for use on the<br />

JAMSTEC submersibles and other forms of biological<br />

sampling equipment, such as the gate sampler, have<br />

been newly developed in-house in conjunction with<br />

overseas colleagues from UCLA, UNE and MBARI.<br />

Working databases of the midwater fauna of Sagami<br />

Bay, the Japan Sea, and the waters above the Japan<br />

Trench have been developed.<br />

Limited midwater research has been carried out inhouse<br />

at JAMSTEC since . Sagami Bay has been<br />

the principle target area for midwater studies at JAM-<br />

STEC during this period. Dives made during and<br />

in Sagami Bay yielded a working database and<br />

taxonomic list. This database resulted in three manuscripts<br />

(Hunt and Lindsay, ; Hunt and Lindsay,<br />

; Lindsay et al., ). In -, limited<br />

dives were also carried out in other areas around Japan<br />

and comparison was made with the Sagami Bay database.<br />

This allowed basic characterization of the<br />

Japanese fauna and has helped target oceanographic<br />

areas of scientific interest for future in-depth surveys.<br />

Dives in Sagami Bay were also made during -<br />

and these yielded greater insights into the species<br />

diversity, vertical distributions and overall ecology of<br />

the bay. A large amount of effort during these first six<br />

years has gone into developing or otherwise acquiring<br />

biological (slurp guns, gate samplers, D-sampler<br />

hydraulic systems) and physico-chemical (CTD-DO,<br />

turbidity and chlorophyll a sensors) sampling gear,<br />

facilities to maintain midwater animals (on-board and<br />

lab-based planktonkreisels, coolers), lab equipment<br />

(night vision scopes, video-recordable microscopes,<br />

camera equipment, a DNA-sequencer), and otherwise<br />

laying the groundwork for a world-class mesopelagic<br />

biology program.<br />

In fiscal we conducted surveys in Sagami Bay<br />

(SHINKAI ), Suruga Bay (SHINKAI ) and<br />

offshore Sanriku (ROV HYPER-DOLPHIN). We surveyed<br />

several water masses with different environmental<br />

parameters to clarify the relationship between the<br />

Fig. 5 Tiburonia granrojo, of the new sub-family Tiburoniinae<br />

habitat environment (water temperature, salinity and<br />

dissolved oxygen) and the composition of fauna communities<br />

off the Sanriku coast. From this series of<br />

dives we discovered that the faunal composition of the<br />

Oyashio system, Kuroshio system and the transition<br />

region are significantly different. Comparing the composition<br />

of mesopelagic and benthopelagic communities<br />

in Sagami Bay and Suruga Bay has revealed significant<br />

differences in community composition, even<br />

though the bays are geographically close. These results<br />

were presented in scientific journals, and at conferences<br />

and symposiums both in Japan and overseas.<br />

We described Tiburonia granrojo, filmed and collected<br />

by the ROV HYPER-DOLPHIN, as a new subfamily,<br />

new genus and new species, in the journal<br />

<strong>Marine</strong> Biology in collaboration with colleagues at the<br />

Monterey Bay Aquarium <strong>Research</strong> Institute. This was<br />

also introduced by the journal Nature and reported on<br />

TV and in newspapers in Japan and overseas.<br />

Studies on Deep-sea <strong>Ecosystems</strong><br />

Period : FY-<br />

Apart from photosynthesis-based ecosystems,<br />

ocean ecosystems include chemosynthesis-based<br />

ecosystems, which are formed on the ocean floor<br />

through the ejection of hydrothermal fluid and cold<br />

seeps. Of particularly large scales are the hydrothermal<br />

vent populations and cold seep populations in<br />

deep-sea areas. Maintaining a large biomass, these<br />

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