Lead institution:
Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum – Germany
The AleutBio expedition aims to shed light on the distribution of marine organisms and contribute to the understanding of changes in biodiversity and its distribution in the North Pacific, the gateway to the Arctic.
Thus, in addition to biogeochemical studies, the goal of the AleutBio Expedition SO293 is to analyze seafloor organisms of all sizes (protists, meio-, macro- and megafauna) in the eastern Bering Sea as well as in the Abyssal and Hadal areas of the eastern Aleutian Trench. We plan to describe biodiversity, highlight biogeographic relationships, and examine species connectivity with those from the Arctic Ocean and Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in times of rapid climate change.
Bathymetric mapping will be used to explore the bottom topography to define the most appropriate location for instrument deployment. We will analyze the seafloor topography (bathymetry), biogeochemistry, and microbiology, as well as the systematic composition, species diversity, and biogeography from protists to meio-, macro-, and megafauna in the Aleutian Trench, and investigate the evolution of selected species.
This Project is hosted by the Ocean Decade Programme Challenger 150 – A Decade to Study Deep-Sea Life
Start date: 01/01/2022
End date: 03/09/2024
Lead Contact: Angelika Brandt (angelika.brandt@senckenberg.de)