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DGoMB
The
"Deepwater Program: Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope
Habitats and Benthic Ecology" (DGoMB) program is funded by the
Minerals Management
Services (MMS).The program is intended to provide information
to the MMS to develop a better understanding of the deep-sea areas
that will be potentially impacted by current and future exploration
and production of fossil fuel reserves in the deep water Gulf
of Mexico (GOM), defined as the area with water depths from 300
to 3000 meters and mostly in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
of the United States. The study is focused on areas that are most
likely to be the target of future resource exploration and production.
However, to develop an understanding of deep-sea communities,
sampling in areas beyond those thought to be potential areas for
exploration may be needed. A Gulf-wide perspective is sought to
define the structure and function of the deep-sea communities
of interest.
The proposed program will provide a better understanding of:
- the present
condition of biological communities in the study area,
- the distribution
and patterns of important deep-sea biota,
- the biological
and physical processes that control the environmental setting,
and
- the effects
that these processes have on the character of benthic and benthopelagic
communities
The study
emphasizes understanding the make-up and variability of soft-bottom
biological communities with a secondary effort to characterize
the important biological and abiotic processes that sustain or
change the observed patterns. The study will:
- detail
the composition and structure of slope biological communities
- infer
the relationship between these communities and local conditions
and forcing factors,
- characterize
the "health" and functioning of deep-sea communities, and
- compare
and contrast the GOM region with similar oceanic basins.
Sample
Locations
Reports
from Gilbert T. Rowe, Ph.D., DGoMB Program Manager, Chief Scientist
aboard the R/V GYRE
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