Nearly 5,000 records of polychaetes from the Southern Ocean, posted by Dr. Myriam Schüller of the University of Bochum,  are now available in the database of SCAR-MarBIN (www.scarmarbin.be/index.php). The records are in part based on the SOAP workshop held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA in March 2010. To find out more, go to SCAR-MarBIN news and click on "17 new datasets available" (scroll down when the window opens, it may initially appear empty).

Through SCAR_MarBIN these records are being supplied to OBIS. 

CAML and CeDAMar are hosting a workshop on benthic
biodiversity in the Southern Ocean, trying to elucidate the factors driving it.
It will take place from 21 to 25 March 2010 at the
German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research (DZMB) Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

See the anouncement for details.   

The movie Oceans by Jacques Perrin will soon be available in German movie theatres under the German title "Unsere Ozeane". The German publisher Knesebeck has published two books accomanying the movie, one for adults and one for children age 6 and older. Please check the website Knesebeck-verlag.de for details.

A beautifully illustrated book full of exciting information on life in the Mid-Atlantic by the late Peter Boyle is available. Check the Mar-ECO website!

On 1st November, Volume 56 (23) of Deep-Sea Rearch II has appeared. PDFs of 17 publications on results of the French project Biozaire, in addition to an obituary, can be downloaded from the website sciencedirect.com. Articles deal with benthic organisms from microbes to megafauna and the environmental setting, including geology and sedimentology of the Congo River fan.

Congratulations to Myriam Sibuet and Annick Vangriesheim for an interesting, beautiful and comprehensive volume.

Members of the CoML Education and Outreach department have published a beautiful book about the Census of Marine Life, available everywhere. Check the website of Firefly Publishers!                                                          

In the near future, two workshops will be held, supported jointly by CeDAMar and CAML (Census of the Diversity of Antarctic Marine Life).

One is going to be held in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, hosted and organised by S. Kaiser and S. Brix, on the subject of biodiversity in the deep sea and factors driving it, and the other one will take place in Woods Hole, USA, dealing with circum-Antarctic distributional patterns of polychaetes.

As the workshops are becoming more concrete, more details will be posted here.

The next CeDAMar expedition DIVA 3 has started - the German research vessel Meteor left the port of Montevideo on Saturday, 10 July to head for the Southwestern Atlantic. Daily reports of the participants about the life at sea, their problems and discoveries can be followed at www.deepsea-research.org.

The German Centre of Marine Biodiversity Research (DZMB) has had the opportunity to present one of ist most fascinating research fields, the deep sea, and the international project CeDAMar which is managed from there, twice in only a few weeks.

On May 11th, the long awaited second special volume of the journal Zootaxa on biodiversity in the abys has appeared. More than 50 deep-sea species are described in 29 papers, including many belonging to the meiofauna, such as nematodes and copepods. Single-celled organisms with global distribution were investigated with molecular methods to confirm their identity. With this publication, the number of newly described abyssal species within CeDAMar rises to 395, putting our goal of 500 species by 2010 well within reach. All papers of the special volume are open access publications and can be downloaded freely from www.mapress.com/zootaxa .

At the Senckenberg Institute in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, activities in the hallways and storage buildings are putting an end to the stillness of winter- just as spring finally arrives in middle Europe. The next CeDAMar cruise is just weeks away! Read more about the scientific background, schedule and participants below.

Expedition DIVA 3 10 July – 23 August, 2009 from Montevideo (Uruguay) to Ponta Delgada (Azores) aboard the RV METEOR

It is planned to take quantitative samples in the Brazilian and the Argentinean Basin (western South Atlantic). In approximately 5,000m depth, the organismic biodiversity of all size classes (from nano- up to megafauna) shall be recorded and correlated with biotic, abiotic, and historical variables. The aim is to recognize possible relationships between the primary production in the water column and the benthic biodiversity.

The Marine Barcode of Life project (MarBOL) is hosting a series of three workshops at three locations between the end of April and the end of May 2009. 

EUROPE: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven, Germany.  Date: April 16 - 17, 2009

USA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, MA, USA. Date: April 30 - May 1, 2009

ASIA: Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Date: May 21 - 22, 2009

Photos by Jesse Ausubel      

At the Synthesis Meeting aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, the CeDAMar team was given two awards from the Census of Marine Life. The first is for achievements in science (left) and the second one for the cross-project collaboration in education and outreach as part of the DESEO-group (right). What an encouraging start for the final two years of the Census and CeDAMar!

 Currently, a new hall is being built at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt to hold a deep-sea exhibition that was produced in collaboration with the Museum in Basel. Check the website dedicated to the exhibition for news and background information: http://tiefsee.senckenberg.de

The book "Deeper than Light" can now be purchased conveniently via internet and payed with major credit cards. Visit http://www.eurocoml.org/ and choose the English, German, French or Spanish version! The price per book is 10 euros plus postage.

The special volume on deep-sea biodiversity compiled by CeDAMar and published in Zootaxa is now online under http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/list/2008/zt01866.html. In this volume edited by P. Martinez and S. Brix, different taxonomic groups are covered, e.g. Copepoda, Isopoda, Ostracoda, Brachiopoda, Nematoda, Mollusca and Porifera. In total, there are 23 papers including the descriptions of 44 new species and 5 new genera as well as several redescriptions.

All publications are open access and can therefore be downloaded as PDF for free. So check it out!

A second special volume of that kind is going to be published at the beginning of next year, with the guest editors being K.-H. George and W. Brökeland.

The review paper "Abyssal food limitation, ecosystem structure and climate change" published by Craig Smith et al.  is now available online on the "Trends in Ecology and Evolution" homepage. This paper is a summary of the current knowledge about factors influencing structure and functioning of deep-sea ecosystems. It shows that assessments of environmental impacts of global warming and ocean fertilization cannot be done without considering the response of the abyssal ecosystem.

To download the paper as PDF file, click  here.

During the last week of the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 9), hosted this time by Germany in Bonn, members of the German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research prominently represented the German Consortium of Marine Research (KDM) on the Plaza of Diversity. Thus CeDAMar and the study of abyssal plains were presented to a broad audience, including many delegates of the Conference who relaxed here between sessions.

European Day of the Ocean-The deep sea goes shopping!

CeDAMar -along with other projects carried out in the German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research- went public in a big way during the European Day of the Ocean on 20 May. An exhibit was set up in a shopping passage near the railway station of Wilhelmshaven, and it caught the interest of many young and old passers-by in this coastal town.

DESEO meeting in Aberdeen on 6 May 2008

The DESEO group, which includes all those responsible for education and outreach in CoML deep-sea projects and EuroCoML, met in Aberdeen to look at the Deeper than Light exhibition at the Maritime Museum and talk about its further development. The exhibition, which was put together by MAR-Eco, is to be augmented by the other DESEO projects CenSEAM, CoMargE, ChESS and CeDAMar in the upcoming months to be shown in its new set-up at the final CoML event in London in October 2010.

Details of contributions of the other projects were discussed, with much practical advice from Anne Aspen, the designer of the exhibits. Nikki King from EcoMar joined the group for the first time.

The group also decided to publish a calendar for 2009 with images mainly from the book Deeper than Light, complemented by some photographs from recent expeditions and special areas such as seamounts.

The book is available so far in English and German, and the French, Spanish and Norwegian versions will be printed soon. All members of the group agreed that there is much to learn about selling a book, as scientists are used to consider their job done once a manuscript is turned in to a publisher.

The intense and productive all-day meeting ended with a fittingly delicious meal at the only Turkish restaurant in Aberdeen.

On 4 February 2008, the German research icebreaker Polarstern called into the port of Cape Town, ending a successful 2-month expedition to the Weddell Sea. The expedition was a joint project of CeDAMar and CAML (Census of Antarctic Marine Life) in the framework of the International Polar Year.  Check the eXpeditions site for a daily logbook, written by all participants, to get many personal insights into scienice and day-to-day life.

International Workshop on Barcoding of Deep-Sea Organisms

The Census of Abyssal Marine Life "CeDAMar" in cooperation with the Marine Barcode of Life Initiative "MarBoL" are organizing a workshop to promote molecular barcoding of deep-sea organism and enhance cooperation between the Census of Marine Life and the Barcode of Life projects.

features CeDAMar, CoML and the DESEO book „Deeper than Light“. Pedro Martínez and Steffi Keller provided some background information for a detailed and informative article about the present state of the art of deep-sea research which appeared on 9 February 2008 in  “Die ZEIT”. The online version of the article can be viewed at www.zeit.de/2008/09/meereszensus. The determination of census scientists to share their knowledge and fascination with their subject with the general public plays no small part in raising continuous public interest in discoveries from the deep sea. The beautifully written article by Hans Schuh is an encouragement for all of us to continue with public outreach!

The CeDAMar Crew was granted an award for outstanding achievements in science at the Census of Marine Life All-program meeting in Auckland, New Zealand. The achievement consisted mainly of the exciting findings and the discovery of many new species during the last Andeep-Expeditions. The Results of these expeditions were published in Nature in May last year under the leadauthorship of A. Brandt, and a picture taken during these trips even adorned the title page.

Press Release from RV Polarstern 04.01.2008

Antarctic biodiversity research hits Time magazine’s “Top 10” scientific discoveries for 2007

Time Magazine has recognised Antarctic biodiversity research in its Top 10 scientific discoveries for 2007. The discovery was reported in the journal Nature in May 2007. The researchers found over 700 new species of organisms, including isopod crustaceans, carnivorous sponges and giant sea spiders on the seafloor of the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, at bottom depths from 700 m to 6,000 m.

The entry of 13 December 2007 into the daily log of the Polarstern expediiton ANT XXIV-2, which includes the CeDAMar project SYSTCO, is going to be integrated without alteration into a popular science book on climate change for adolescents.
The author Dr. Myriam Schüller from the Ruhr University of Bochum had written that day about environmental rules to be strictly followed by all on board of the ship.
Congratulations! The book is scheduled to appear in print in the summer of 2008. We will keep you posted.

 

The next CeDAMar expedition has started - the German icebreaker Polarstern left the port of Cape Town on Wednesday, 28 November to head for the Weddell Sea, Antarctic. The expedition ANDEEP-SYSTCO, which is part of the International Polar Year events, will last 68 days and return to Cape Town on 4 February 2008. Daily reports of the participants about the life at sea, their problems and discoveries can be followed at www.deepsea-research.org.

After about two years of work, the richly illustrated hardcover book is available now!

This book, published by the DESEO-group, is accompanying the travelling exhibit of the same name, but is also a stand-alone educational book on deep-sea habitats for everybody who is interested in the deep sea. It is available in English and German from now on. Contact us for the German version or order it on Amazon in English !

The Consortium for the Barcode of Life and Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, organized the Second International Barcode of Life Conference. The conference was held from September 17th – 21st 2007 and brought together 350 participants from about 45 countries. It was an extraordinary opportunity to share information and to build up cooperation for DNA barcoding. CeDAMar was represented by Dr. Saskia Brix, German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research Wilhelmshaven. She presented the project “Barcoding CeDAMar Isopoda”.

Further conference information is posted at www.dnabarcodes2007.org

Exhibit Deeper than Light- Geheimnisse der Tiefsee in Essen, Germany

The multimedia travelling exhibit "Deeper than Light" can be seen in Essen, Germany, at the "Haus der Technik" as part of the "Essener Lichtwochen" (Weeks of Light in Essen) from 17 October to 14 December, 2007. For more information (in German) go to the website www.essen.de and click on "Veranstaltungen" (events)

Photo: Stefanie Keller and Uwe Piatkowski at the ‘Deeper than Light’ Vernissage in Essen in October 2007

Mark your calendars for the last weekend in November to go to the 49th Phylogenetic Symposium at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt. The topic is the origin of multicellular organisms- certainly a subject of great interest to many of us.

Please check details at the following Weblink:
Conference website
Marbef - Event Calendar 

First announcement and call for sessions

The World Conference on Marine Biodiversity will be held in Valencia
(Spain) from 11-15 November 2008. A call for sessions is open until 1
November 2007. Registrations will open after this deadline.

Weblink: Marbef - World Conference on Marine Biodiversity

Polychaete Workshop (APIP) Summary online! Dr. Adrian Glover from the Natural History Museum in London kindly compiled a summary of the polychaete workshop APIP that was held at the Darling Centre in January. The report can be downloaded in the workshop section ("Workshops" --> Polychaeta (London 2007) .

Meeting of the DESEO team (education and outreach team of CoML deep-sea projects) just completed in Bergen, Norway discussing travelling deep-sea exhibit "Deeper than Light" and accompanying book.