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Exploring
Australia's Deep Sea
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Description
of personnel
A
team of Australian and international experts in marine and deep-sea
biology, will participate and share expertise, equipment and
funding over the duration of this exciting project. The science
experts, headed by Prof. Justin Marshall of the Sensory Neurobiology Group at the University of Queensland, are pleased to now be working in close collaboration
with Don and Cameron Schofield of Australian Oceanographics. The DOA project has an exciting history, also involving Mike McDowell and previous collaborating organisation Deep Ocean
Quest (DOQ) who worked hard in the initial 2 years to enable this venture to come
to fruition.
Prof
Justin Marshall is the coordinating Chief Investigator (CI)
and is responsible for project organisation as well as aspects
of the sensory adaptations project.
Don Schofield is Director while Cameron Schofield is Operations Manager of Australian Oceanographics (AO) the Collaborating Organisation. AO are
responsible for organisation of mobilisation and demobilisation
and provision of technologies.
Alan
Goldizen is the project manager and coordinates
logistical and scientific issues
Lee
Frey is director of Blue Turtle Engineering and chief engineer at Australian Oceanographics. Lee designs and develops all technical equipment
for deep ocean science including the state-of-the-art closing
cod ends for the mid-water trawl nets. Lee directed the full redesign and refit of AO DeepWorker 2000 Submersibles.
CIs,
Partner Investigators (PI), foreign collaborators (FC) and national
collaborators (NC) are responsible for various projects which
are listed on Project
Details. |
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Chief
Investigators, Principal Investigators and Technical Advisors
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Prof
Justin Marshall
Sensory Neurobiology Group (formally VTHRC), University
of Qld
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Justin
is a visual ecologist, working to unlock the secret of understanding
colour vision through the eyes of other animals. His multidisciplinary
approach allows the necessary aspects of visual system, colour
signals and environmental constraints to be combined for a full
understanding of why colour vision systems evolve in the way they
do. His work in the deep-sea examines how animals communicate
in limited or no-light environments, the importance of colour
in the deep and what senses deep-sea animals use other than vision.
Communicating results is an important part of Justin’s research.
In the last four years, he has par ticipated in making six natural
history films, appeared on TV and radio 15 times and had his work
detailed in popular press including The Sydney Morning Herald,
The New York Times (USA) and The Times and Guardian (UK). |
Don Schofield
Director
Australian Oceanographics |
With a background in science, decades of experience in worldwide natural resources industries and a master’s degree in marine geology, Don recognised the necessity to support the exploration, research and documentation of Australia’s oceans. Through his experiences working with the renowned Nekton Gamma and other human-occupied submersibles within the United States of America, Don saw the need to introduce this type of novel underwater vehicle and other advanced tools into Australian waters. Don’s passion for the oceans and his experience in directing innovative and leading-edge projects around the world support the company’s progression and continues to lead the Australian Oceanographics team. |
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Cameron Schofield
Operations Manager
Australian Oceanographics |
To be updated soon. . . |
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Alan
Goldizen
Sensory
Neurobiology Group (formally VTHRC)
University
of Qld
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Alan
is the acting project manager and is a Senior Research Assistant
in Justin Marshall's lab. For the past five years he has coordinated
the Vision and Remote Sensing Linkage Project (VRS), an effort
to use natural vision systems as models for improving satellite
and airborne remote sensing for shallow-water ecosystem health
monitoring. Deep Ocean Quest joined the VRS Linkage as an industry
partner in 2006. Alan has a broad range of experience over 25
years in field and lab science, including terrestrial ecology,
surgical research, animal behaviour, and several aspects of
marine biology. His primary technical interests are in field-based
research: it's techniques, equipment, and support. Interesting
animals in interesting places have always been the central spark
in Alan's working life.
Send
Alan a message
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Lee
Frey
Blue Turtle Engineering and Australian Oceanographics |
Lee
is the director of Blue Turtle Engineering and chief engineer at Australian Oceanographics, following a highly successful career as Senior Research Engineer and head of the Instrumentation
& Robotics Laboratory at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
in Ft. Pierce, Florida (USA). His areas of interest are in instrumentation,
underwater vehicles, and the interface between science and engineering.
Current research projects include quantitative bioluminescence
measurement, unobtrusive exploration of the deep sea, and the
use of swarming autonomous vehicles to study coastal ecosystems.
Lee was in charge of the full redesign and refit of Australian Oceanographics DeepWorker 2000 Submersibles. He
will serve as the chief liason between science and engineering
on expeditions, as well as a member of the submersible team. |
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Toby Mitchell
Technician & Submersible Crew ....Australian Oceanographics |
To be updated soon. . . |
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Mark
Taylor
Advisor on Submersible Operations |
Mark
Taylor is an advisor on submersible operations. Mark's expertise comes from a successful career with the NATO and UK submarine
rescue systems. As well as one of the LR5 rescue pilots he was
also responsible for the management of the submarine rescue decompression
facility. Prior to this, Mark spent 14 years in the British Royal
Navy as a bomb and mine clearance diver, travelling and diving
all over the world. Mark is passionate about all aspects of the
ocean, its exploration and its protection. His role within Deep
Ocean Quest and Deep Ocean Australia will allow him to pursue
his interest in the ocean. |
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Prof.
Shaun Collin
University of Western Australia
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Professor
Collin's research falls broadly into the field of comparative
neurobiology with emphasis on the neural basis of behaviour. Using
models from the extant relatives of the first vertebrates (agnathans)
to elasmobranchs and teleosts, various aquatic sensory systems
(including vision, audition, olfaction and electroreception) are
investigated to establish broad concepts of plasticity and adaptation
to environments as diverse as coral reefs and the deep-sea. Anatomical,
electrophysiological, molecular and behavioural techniques are
used to trace the prehistoric origins of colour vision, the visual
ecology of deep-sea fishes and sharks, the evolution of the vertebrate
eye and the development of sensory input to the shark and teleost
brains. Having published 2 books and over 110 publications in
sensory ecology and comparative neurobiology (many on sensory
adaptations of deep-sea fishes to changes in pressure, light and
resources), Prof. Collin is well placed to oversee a number of
deep-sea projects with special emphasis on primitive species such
as hagfishes, lampreys and sharks and also on comparing deep-sea
fish sensory systems to those in shallow water environments. |
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Bernie
Degnan integrates breakthrough knowledge in genomics, molecular
and developmental biology into the fields of invertebrate biology,
marine science and evolution. He is interested in how the interplay
between ecology and development influences the evolution of animal
life cycles and life history strategies, including the evolution
of biosynthetic pathways of complex inorganic materials and organic
compounds that are often targeted in biodiscovery programs. His
work in the deep ocean will focus on the discovery and characterisation
of novel invertebrate adaptations and how these systems evolved.
Using a range of molecular and genomic approaches, he will compare
how a wide range of deep sea invertebrates differ from their shallow
water relatives. These studies will provide the foundation for
the discovery of biocompounds and biomaterials for manufacturing
and biotechnology industries, which can yield benefits in areas
as diverse as pharmaceutics and environmental sustainability.
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Dr
Sandie Degnan
School
of Biological Sciences, University
of Qld
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Sandie¹s
focal interest is the role of variation in local adaptation, range-shifting,
colonisation, population divergence and speciation. Her previous
work has included evidence for the rapid rate at which populations
colonising new habitats can evolve adaptive phenotypic divergence.
More recently, she has integrated molecular developmental studies
with population genetics to address problems in marine invertebrate
ecology and evolution from a functional genomics perspective.
In Deep Ocean Australia, Sandie will be studying the functional
genomics underlying adaptations of invertebrates to the deep sea
environment. How is genetic/gene expression variation structured
among deep sea invertebrate populations and species? How does
this variation contribute to the evolution of deep sea adaptations?
She anticipates that comparisons between shallow water and deep
water relatives are likely to prove fruitful. |
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Dr
Robert McCauley
Centre
for Marine Science and Technology, Curtin University, WA
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Robert’s
primary research interest is marine bio-acoustics, the study of
the production, reception and use of sound by marine animals,
and of the impacts of sound on them. In a continuing collaboration
with the Australian Defence, Robert has made extensive recordings
of ambient sea noise around Australia that is being incorporated
into ambient sea noise prediction models. In 2001, Robert and
collaborators concluded a four-year study into the impacts of
offshore seismic noise on squid, fish, sea turtles and humpback
whales. This work is used globally as a benchmark for impact assessment
of offshore seismic operations. Since 1994, he has carried out
research projects studying the impacts of vessel and seismic noise
on humpback whales and has used whale vocalisations in census
work. He is studying blue whales in the Perth Canyon, using passive
acoustic techniques to study whales through their sounds, and
active acoustic techniques to study whale diving behaviour and
the density of their krill prey. |
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Gert
leads the Molecular Geobiology Lab at the Courant Research Center
Geobiology at the University of Göttingen in Germany. He applies
cutting-edge genomic- and molecular techniques to answer questions
about the micro- and macroevolution of marine invertebrates and
the evolution of biomineralization. He has a partner project funded
by the DFG (German Research Foundation) to explore the "relict
faunas" on the Queensland Plateau in the Coral Sea off Queensland
using DeepOceanQuest's submersible technology. In Deep Ocean Australia
he is mainly interested in the biodiversity and evolution of deep-sea
invertebrates, biodiscovery and evolution of biocompounds and
biomaterials, which may lead to novel drug discoveries and/or
the production of biomimetic materials, and the molecular ecology
of deep-sea organisms to understand how their diversity is generated
and maintained in time and space. |
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Dr
Hooper’s professional career as a marine biologist spans 25 years,
primarily working in natural history museums in Darwin, Paris
and Brisbane, with expertise in benthic biodiversity in general,
and the Phylum Porifera in particular. He commenced work on sponges
in the western and northwest Australian and Southeast Asian faunas,
and subsequently throughout the western Pacific rim and the Pacific
islands, and currently also in the western Indian Ocean. Dr Hooper
is recognised as an international authority on marine sponges
(Phylum Porifera), with specific research interest in systematics,
biogeography and chemotaxonomy of Porifera, and biodiversity of
sessile marine invertebrates & marine conservation in general.
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Dr
Mark Norman
Museum
Victoria
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Scientist,
author and filmmaker, Mark Norman is a Senior Curator at Museum
Victoria and one of the world's leading experts on octopus, squid,
nautilus and cuttlefish (Cephalopods). He studies their diversity,
behaviour and biology. His main focus has been defining the Australian
and Indo- West Pacific cephalopod fauna, primarily the octopuses.
In collaboration with Dr Eric Hochberg of the Santa Barbara Museum
of Natural History, he has discovered more than 150 new species
of octopus. He has published Australasian and world field guides
on cephalopods. His award-winning photographs and video footage
capture the bizarre appearances and fascinating behaviours of
these extraordinary and often misunderstood animals. He has a
passion for discovering bioluminescent creatures in any water
column on moonless nights. He has worked extensively with Discovery
Channel, National Geographic, BBC and NHK, with the BBC/Discovery
Film on his research, "Octopus Hunter", winning the 2000 Panda
Award at Wildscreen in the “Revealing the Natural World” category. |
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Edith
Widder is a biologist and deep-sea explorer who combines expertise
in oceanographic research and technological innovation with commitment
to reversing the worldwide trend of marine ecosystem degradation.
A specialist in bioluminescence (the light chemically produced
by many ocean organisms), she has been a leader in helping to
design and invent new submersible instrumentation, and equipment
to enable unobtrusive deep-sea observation of environments. Working
with engineers, she has built a number of unique devices that
enable scientists to see the ocean in new ways, including HIDEX,
a bathyphotometer that measures how much bioluminescence there
is in the ocean, and LoLAR, the most sensitive deep-sea light
meter. Most recently, Widder helped to design a remotely operated
camera system, known as Eye in the Sea (EITS), which, when deployed
on the sea floor, automatically detects and measures the bioluminescence
given off by nearby organisms. EITS has produced footage of rare
sharks, jellyfish, and squid in their natural habitats. In 2005,
Widder left her post at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
to help establish and lead a new organization, the Ocean Research
& Conservation Association. |
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Born
and raised in Australia, I studied the odd but fascinating combination
of physics and entomology at the University of New South Wales
in Sydney, receiving an Honours degree in Physics in 1985. I completed
my PhD on the optics of arthropod superposition eyes in 1990 at
the Australian National University in Canberra. My time in Lund
began in 1990 when Dan Nilsson invited me to undertake a post-doctoral
fellowship. I gained tenure in 1997. A year later Almut Kelber
arrived as my new post-doc, and is now tenured herself. Together
with her, a team of gifted students and post-docs (Rikard Frederiksen,
Marie Dacke, Henrik Malm and Magnus Oskarsson) I have had the
privilege of studying how nocturnal and deep-sea animals manage
to see well in very dim light, a fascinating topic that even has
applications in digital image processing. |
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All
my life, I never wanted to be a biologist. After choosing a college
solely on the fact that a family friend's hardware store was in
the same town, I began a major in Physics. An Algebra professor
who danced and told funny stories about pathological geniuses
convinced me to change my major to Mathematics. I added a major
in art, mostly abortive because I refused to take art history,
and left college disenchanted with education. I then worked as
a daycare provider and kindergarten teacher for Quakers, a freelance
carpenter, and a dance teacher for three year olds. It was during
this last job that I met Sarah, the daughter of Scott Gilbert,
who wrote the developmental biology textbook used by many colleges.
After hitch-hiking across the Pacific Northwest, I decided that
I needed more education. A friend and I went through the alphabet.
Deciding that a career in art was likely to be a raw deal, settled
on Biology and met with Scott Gilbert and Rachel Merz. Rachel
suggested good places to go to graduate school and Scott got me
a job with a friend of his, Stuart Kauffman. Luckily, the job
with Stu required no knowledge of biology and several graduate
schools admitted me despite the same lack. I went to the University
of North Carolina, and after a year of reading and drawing picture
of insects on the lawn, I decided that biology was "okay". With
little knowledge but high enthusiasm, I chose a high-risk, low-benefit
project that I left behind the moment I handed in my thesis. My
advisor, Bill Kier, pointed me to oceanic zooplankton, we both
thought about transparency, and I applied to two oceanographic
institutions, both of which turned me down. I cleaned fish tanks
for a year, applied again, and both now accepted me. I went on
my first research cruise to the Gulf of Maine with Edie Widder.
It was stormy, the ship smelled, and I was seasick. It was the
best time of my life. Ten years later, I have yet to look back. |
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Tammy
Frank studies how downwelling light controls the behavior and
distribution patterns of midwater animals during the day as well
as how it triggers their vertical migrations at night. Her work
combines in situ studies from the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible
to quantify animal distribution patterns with shipboard based
laboratory studies on the photosensitivity of animals brought
up with midwater trawl nets. She is particularly interested in
the adaptations of animal eyes to dim light environments, both
in the pelagic and benthic realm. Her most recent research involves
studying how ontogenetic migrators (animals that migrate with
life history stage) adapt to the vastly different light environments
they experience during their lives. She has participated in over
70 research cruises, both as chief scientist and lucky hitchhiker,
conducting work in the Gulf of Maine, and off the coasts of the
Bahamas, Cuba, California, Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, Costa Rica
and the Canary Islands. Her educational background includes a
B.A. from California State University, Long Beach, M.A. and Ph.D.
degrees from University of California, Santa Barbara, and post-doctoral
fellowships from the University of Connecticut Medical School,
Hatfield Marine Science Center in Oregon, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic
Institution. |
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Dr
Pat Hutchings is a Senior Principal Research Scientist at the
Australian Museum, in Sydney. Pat’s interests are the systematic
and ecology of polychaete worms especially those belonging to
the Terebellida. While she has extensive experience in collecting
using scuba and from oceanographic vessels this will be first
excursion into the deep sea using a submersible. She hopes to
be able to collect using corers and by scraping off pieces of
substrate to which the polychaete worms are attached. Some of
her group have also been recorded as swimming in the water column
you never know we may some of these animals too. Pat is approaching
this project as one of discovery and who knows what we will find
given our very limited knowledge of polychaetes in deep water
around Australia. |
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Julian
Partridge is a Reader in Zoology and heads the Ecology of Vision
Laboratory at the University of Bristol, School of Biological
Sciences. The broad aim of The Ecology of Vision Group is to seek
to understand variation in visual spectral sensitivity by the
application of multidisciplinary methods. Research is wide ranging,
encompassing work as diverse as the role of ultraviolet vision
in birds, to flower discrimination by Australian marsupials, to
vision and bioluminescence in deep sea fish and crustaceans, with
research approaches ranging from receptor cell physiology to behavioural
experiments and computer modeling. An important component of Julian’s
work within the University of Bristol is in the area of Public
Engagement in Science which dovetails naturally with his involvement
in natural history filmmaking, radio and new media |
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Dhugal
John Lindsay received his Ph.D. in aquatic biology from the University
of Tokyo in 1998. He is a Research Scientist with the Japan Agency
for Marine-Earth Science & Technology (JAMSTEC). Dr. Lindsay's
research focuses on mid-water ecology, particularly concentrating
on gelatinous organisms that are too fragile to be sampled by
conventional methods and their associated fauna. Dr. Lindsay has
extensive experience with the Japanese research vessel and submersible
fleet, both as Chief Scientist and as a member of multidisciplinary
teams. His sailing experience includes over 46 cruises aboard
various Japanese research vessels and 21 dives in crewed submersibles.
He has used conventional sampling techniques such as nets and
sediment traps (e.g. IKMT, MTD, ORI, Norpac, IONESS, MOCNESS,
R/V Tanseimaru, University of Tokyo; R/V Ronald H. Brown, NOAA)
and towed camera arrays (e.g. 4000m and 6000m Deep-Tow Cameras,
R/V Kaiyo,) and has also used both manned submersibles (e.g. Shinkai
2000, R/V Natsushima; Shinkai 6500, R/V Yokosuka) and remotely-operated
vehicles (e.g. ROV Dolphin 3K, R/V Natsushima; ROV Ventana, R/V
Point Lobos; ROV HyperDolphin, R/V Kaiyo; ROV Kaiko, R/V Kairei.)
to investigate fauna from depths as shallow as the euphotic layer
to as deep as the Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench. Dr. Lindsay
is a member of the Japanese Society of Biologging Science, Plankton
Society of Japan, and the Oceanographic Society of Japan, is on
the editorial board of the journals "Plankton and Benthos Research"
and "The Marine Technology Society Journal", and served on the
National Academies of Science (U.S.), Ocean Studies Board, Committee
on Future Needs in Deep Submergence Science and on the interim
planning committee for the Okinawa Marine Life Science Research
Institute. Dr. Lindsay is also a reknowned and prolific haiku
poet, working in the Japanese language. |
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Dr
Mark Meekan
AIMS, Darwin NT
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Mark
is a shark ecologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science
(AIMS) near Darwin. His many projects include researching schooling
hammerheads at Rowley Shoals, tracking Ningaloo Reef whale sharks
with satellite devices and critter cams and studying the impact
of shark fishing on reef in the Timor Sea, between Australia and
Indonesia. He uses acoustic techniques and Baited Remote Underwater
Video Stations (BRUVS) to attract, count, and measure sharks.
His cutting-edge work has been featured on ABC TV and radio programmes,
National Geographic and Discovery Channel amongst others. |
| National
& Foriegn Collaborators and Technical Advisors |
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John
is a fish biologist interested in the anatomy, taxonomy, and evolution
of fishes. He joined the Australian Museum in 1968. In the last
few years he has focused his research almost entirely on pelagic
deep-sea fishes, especially lanternfishes (Myctophidae) and whalefishes
(Cetomimidae and relatives). The Alucia is an excellent opportunity
to study lanternfishes, the largest family of pelagic deep-sea
fishes, with 120 Australian species. As these have proven impossible
to keep alive for more than short periods, there is much to learn
about their use of the light organs for which they are named,
as well as their interaction with spawning tuna off Cairns. John
has coauthored/ coedited books on fishes, the latest being the
three fish volumes of the Zoological Catalogue of Australia. These
provide the taxonomic details and distributions of Australia's
4500 species of fishes. Discovery of new additions to Australia's
fish biodiversity is one of the challenges of these cruises. |
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John
Pandolfi is Professor at the Centre for Marine Studies and the
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland and a chief
investigator of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence
in Coral Reef Studies. He has published more than 70 articles
in peer-reviewed journals and received numerous research grants
and scholarships from the Smithsonian Institution, the National
Science Foundation (USA), the Australian Research Council, and
NOAA. Pandolfi is one of the world's leading experts on coral
reef palaeoecology. He has focussed on coral reef ecosystems to
shed light on a number of fundamental ecological questions where
long-term data are essential. In the Deep Ocean Australia project,
Pandolfi and colleagues will attempt to uncover the ecological
dynamics of coral reef communities during sea level lowstands
and still stands to understand the way in which coral reefs responded
to lowered sea level when available habitat was much reduced.
These issues are important for understanding the fate of living
reefs in the face of global warming should mortality on a large
scale develop. |
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Alan
Williams is a fishery ecologist with research interests in the
ecology and structure of deep sea communities and habitats. He
has been involved in many surveys off Australia and New Zealand
and has published research papers on the structure of benthic
and mesopelagic fish communities around Australia, the types,
distributions and uses of continental shelf and slope benthic
habitats, and the taxonomy of deep sea fishes. Alan is enthusiastic
about the development and use of camera systems to record aspects
of habitats and biology, and will use a system built at CSIRO
to film the seamounts sampled on this voyage. |
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Asst
Prof Mikhail Matz
University
of Texas
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My
lab is working on ecology, evolution and biotechnology of oceanic
bio-fluorescence. I am also interested in the mode and tempo of
evolution in the deep sea, addressed by molecular methods such
as statistical phylogenetics, gene expression analysis, genotyping
and a combination of these. Currently two projects are in focus:
Why are there "living fossils" in the deep sea, and How physiological
un-adaptation may create deep-sea specialists from invading species.
See more at my website.
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Steve
is working on deep-sea gelatinous zooplankton. He is doing research
on bioluminescence, biodiversity, and ecology of deep-sea and
open-ocean ctenophores, siphonophores, radiolarians, and medusae.
In addition to assembling phylogenies for these groups, he is
interested in cloning novel photoproteins and fluorescent proteins
from these jellies. See his publications listed on his website
for more details (click on his name). Steve's educational background
includes a B.S. from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. from the
University of California, Santa Barbara |
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Dan-Eric
Nilsson is a vision specialist, with a broad knowledge on design
and evolution of eyes across the animal kingdom. He has experience
of visual optics and visual neurobiology of vertebrates, insects,
crustaceans, gastropods, bivalves, cephalopods, box jellyfish
and numerous other animal groups. The eyes of any animal species
owes its design and function to a combination of evolutionary
history and current needs. Some environments and visual tasks
put unusual demands on eye structure, and pelagic habitats are
perhaps among the more remarkable habitats in this respect. For
the Deep Ocean Australia project Dan is investigating the specific
requirements of vision in the mesopelagic habitat. Here, both
bioluminescence and downwelling daylight contribute to the scene,
and the absorbing/scattering properties of water determines the
range of vision. Some of the more specific questions concern the
use of very large eyes in mesopelagic squid, and the motivation
for very small and specialised visual systems in other mesopelagic
invertebrates. |
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After earning a B.S. from Purdue University and an M.A. from the
College of William and Mary, Bruce H. Robison returned home to
California and Stanford University, where he completed a Ph.D.
program in 1973. He then spent two years conducting post doctoral
research on deep sea fishes at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
before accepting a position at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. In 1987 he joined the newly-formed Monterey Bay Aquarium
Research Institute (MBARI), where he is presently a Senior Scientist.
Robison's research interests are centered on the biology and ecology
of deep-sea animals, particularly those which inhabit the oceanic
water column. He has pioneered in the use of undersea vehicles
for these studies and he led the first team of scientists trained
as submersible pilots for research in midwater. As pilot or observer,
Robison has spent a good portion of his career in deep water,
aboard more than a dozen different submersibles. At MBARI, his
research team has focused on the development of remotely operated
vehicles as research platforms for deep sea research. Dr. Robison's
midwater research program is presently addressing the ecology
of gelatinous animals in the deep sea. |
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Tracey
is a Fish Ecologist, working on various aspects of how fish 'make
a living' and their role in overall ecosystem structure and functioning.
He has worked primarily in deep-sea ecosystems, with concentration
on meso- and bathypelagic fishes and their ecosystem mates (other
nekton as well as plankton food resources). He is currently running
the pelagic trophic ecology program of the Census of Marine Life
field project MAR-ECO (www.mar-eco.no), with funding from the
US National Science Foundation (OCE 0623551). The goal of this
project is to understand the food-web structure of the ecosystems
associated with the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Iceland to the
Azores), with particular emphasis on new techniques (molecular
fingerprinting, stable isotopes) to elucidate poorly known trophic
pathways, such as the utilization of gelatinous zooplankton by
bathypelagic fishes. Tracey has participated on 65 deep-sea expeditions,
including the Gulf of Mexico (filming of Blue Planet: The Deep),
Southern Ocean (Weddell and Ross Seas), North Atlantic (Reykjanes
Ridge), Georges Bank, Bear Seamount, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Sargasso
Sea, Miami Terrace, Monterey Bay, and eastern Atlantic (Germany
to South Africa). He will also begin a new phase of research in
2008, running the National Shark Research Program at the Virginia
Institute of Marine Science. |
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Prof
Jochen Wagner
University
of Tuebingen
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Jochen
Wagner is interested in the sensory biology of deep-sea fish.
Most of his work deals with the structure of the retina with a
special interest in photoreceptors and connectivity. He has also
looked at the differentiation of sensory brain areas in mesopelagic
and demersal fish. More recently he studies the neurochemistry
of the optic tectum in order to characterise the special adaptations
in deep-sea fish. Additional projects deal with the question whether
deep-sea fish show signs of biological rhythms, and whether these
may be synchronised by lunar or solar cues. |
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A
geophysicist in a former life, Mike has built a career from adventure
and exploration in some of the most inaccessible regions on Earth
and beyond. A leading innovator in expedition cruising and ecotourism
ventures, Mike founded Quark Expeditions, pioneering the use of
icebreakers to take expeditioners into the frozen reaches of the
Arctic, Antarctic and the North Pole. In the late 1990's he founded
Deep Ocean Expeditions, the first company to make abyss-rated
submersibles available to the general public. More recently, Mike
co-founded Space Adventures, a company successfully offering space
travel to the public. Over three decades, Mike has specialised
in nurturing bold, 'off-the-wall' concepts from concept to fruition. Mike was a previous partner of Deep Ocean Australia in its beginnings and we hope to have an opportunity to work with him again in the future. |
Last
updated: March 2012 by Eva McClure
Sensory
Neurobiology Group
Queensland Brain Institute
University of Queensland
Brisbane Queensland 4072 Australia
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