About This Project

Following the discovery of extensive deep-water marine forests made up of rare tropical kelp species in the Galapagos, we will carry out comprehensive community surveys to characterize these communities for the first time. Using innovative ROV methods, we aim to find, survey and sample these mesophotic kelp forests to provide critical baseline data on their distribution and ecology and determine their possible role as deep-water thermal refuges in the Galapagos

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Kelp forests are formed by large cold-water brow algae and are among the planet's most productive and diverse marine ecosystems. The Galapagos is home to one of the few known tropical kelp species, but following the 1983 El Nino marine heatwave, they almost entirely disappeared from the archipelago. While piloting the use of small ROVs to survey seamounts in the Galapagos in 2018, I unexpectedly discovered extensive kelp forests at mesophotic depths (-40 to -90m). Could these represent one of the last remaining kelp forests of this region? Or have Galapagos kelps long been thriving in deeper and less explored waters, where it's cooler and enough light reaches, and form productive biodiversity hotspots that could act as thermal refuges?

What is the significance of this project?

Little to nothing is currently known about Galapagos kelp communities, thus managers of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) have no information on hand to support the conservation of this endangered species and ecosystems. Using innovative ROV technology to reach these deep-water habitats, we have the opportunity to produce the crucial baseline datasets on the population structure, biomass, associated biodiversity, and environmental condition under which they exist. We plan to survey them during Galapagos' cold and warm seasons, to evaluate how kelp communities respond to thermal changes and examine their roles as deep-water refuges. We will present these data to the relevant governmental and managerial structures to support their conservation efforts of this endangered kelp species.

What are the goals of the project?

This project’s goal is to carry out six field trips to survey two newly discovered kelp forests in the Galapagos during the cold season in August/September 2022. At each site, we plan to undertake ROV stereo-video transects for the assessment of kelp population structure, density and biomass, and record associated species. We will also monitor key environmental conditions by deploying sensors to measure temperature, light and turbidity, and collect water samples for nutrient content analysis. These data, together with those collected in the warm season (March 2023), will enable us to characterize the community structure, productivity and phenology of Galapagos’ mesophotic kelp forests, and evaluate how these respond to thermal changes to elucidate their roles as deep-water refuges.