Biology Commons^™

In Situ Manipulation Of Vertically Migrating Gelatinous Zooplankton Using Nighttime Blue-Water Scuba In The South-Central Adriatic Sea, William M. Graham, John H. Costello, Sean Colin, Alenka Malej, Davor Lučić, Vladimir Onofri, Adam Benović

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Technological advance in undersea exploration (e.g. tethered cameras, remotely operated vehicles [ROVs], Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUVsG, and manned submersibles)have opened new windows into diversityand distribution of fragile gelatinous organisms in the vast mesopelagic realm(300 m-1000 m deep). While exstraordinary in expanding our view of its richness, mesopelagic exploration remains largely a "look but don't touch" environment and this limits of our ability to understand these animals through physical manipulation relevant to the finer scales of the individual organism. We have been conducting a series of in situ observations and manipulations using blue-water SCUBA during the night at a 1, 200 …