Sessions

Presentations on deep-sea biodiversity, ranging from systematics and taxonomy to biogeography and community analyses, among others are welcome. Subtopics could include:

• Fungal Diversity: advances in fungal diversity and molecular biology, ranging from metabarcoding, transcriptomics, and genomics to natural product discovery;
• Meiofauna e.g. meiofauna: contributions on using meiofaunal organisms and/or fingerprinting techniques to monitor diversity;
• Megafauna: cryptic species discovery, drivers of geographical patterns etc.;
• Other biodiversity topics as listed above. 

• Microbial processes in various deep-sea habitats e.g. deep pelagic ocean, hadal trenches, deep-sea hydrothermal and seepage environments, and subseafloor sediments;
• linking microbial diversity to function using meta-omics, stable isotope labeling, and other approaches;
• culture-based approaches and model deep-sea microbes, microbial physiology and metabolism in deep sea habitats;
• deep-sea microbial evolution, microbial evolutionary history, and microbial population ecology.

Recent advances on

• the poorly understood deep-sea symbiosis, including mutualism, commensalism and parasitism;
• interactions;
• the role of symbiosis in deep-sea ecosystems such as hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, coral reefs and others.

• Contributions on new discoveries in deep-pelagic ecology, biodiversity and conservation;
• recent technological advances ranging from molecular tools to imaging and acoustic platforms, as well as novel combinations of well-established methods for sampling the deep-pelagic zone, comparisons of sampling methodologies, and approaches to integrate multiple data types for synthesis.

• Studies on sensory systems in the deep ocean;
• research related to light and vision used in sensing the ambient environment;
• studies focusing on neuroethology and bioluminescence are encouraged.

Deep-sea animal studies using omic techniques such as metagenomics, whole genome and whole transcriptome sequencing, environmental DNA (eDNA), ancient DNA (aDNA), population genomics, and phylogenomics to reveal the evolution, diversity and biology of recent and historical metazoans. 

Studies on the ecology of deep-sea organisms and functioning of deep-sea ecosystems, and biomes (coral reefs and gardens, hydrothermal vents, seamounts, sponge beds etc.) and their conservation implications. Topics could include:

• Deep Reefs, Corals and Sponges: recent advances on mesophotic and rariphotic, as well as cold-water coral garden/sponges research, including biodiversity, connectivity, taxonomy, physiology, management, and cultural significance;
• Trait-based Approaches: use of traits, i.e., individual or species morphological, physiological and/or behavioral characteristics, to address questions related to community ecology, ecosystem functioning, vulnerability and conservation;
• Ecological Impact of Abrupt Bathymetry: effects of abrupt bathymetric features at any scale on the biology and ecology of deep-sea species, assemblages, and communities;
• Or other presentations on connectivity, ecology and conservation.

Climatic impact studies on the deep sea, including

• ecology, paleoecology, oceanography, physiology and modelling;
• contributions on population, species, community, ecosystem or biodiversity responses to changes in deep-sea temperature, oxygen content, pH, and other environmental parameters in annual, decadal, centennial and longer time scales;
• studies on other human impacts, particularly pollutants and debris, on deep-sea fauna either in situ, or ex-situ or using proxy species, as well as ecotoxicological studies, monitoring strategies and new methodological frameworks.
• Studies related to deep-sea mining and ocean based climatic interventions.

Contributions on novel methods and practices in studying deep-sea ecology and biology. The subtopic on Standards and Best Practices for Collaborative Deep-Sea Science focuses on applying existing or proposed standards, technology, and/or methodology to help future-proof data, improve our understanding of deep-sea processes, and foster a collaborative and holistic approach to enhance deep-sea science. Topics may include, but are not limited to,

• enhancing deep-sea data standards, deep-sea research best practices;
• using innovative processing tools (such as artificial intelligence) to ensure data quality;
• and improving deep-sea data vocabularies and standards.

Contributions on the successes and challenges of examples of science-policy interactions related to informing the regulation and conservation of the deep ocean; multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary presentations are most welcome.

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development seeks to stimulate ocean science and knowledge generation to reverse the decline of the state of the ocean system and catalyse new opportunities for sustainable development. In this session we will gather input from Decade programs, projects, centers and activities that address the deep ocean.  We hope to hear from Decade actions about how they are advancing for the deep sea the Decade goals of a clean, healthy, resilient, productive, predicted, accessible, inspiring and engaging ocean.

Unusual, novel and inspiring presentations on deep-sea biology which do not fit in other sessions are welcome. In particular, we invite speakers to share efforts and challenges faced by raising voices of diversity (women, minorities …..) in the interface with deep-ocean spaces, from science all the way up to decision-making.