CORDES LABORATORY

In the Cordes lab, our research is focused around the potential for organisms to alter their environment in deep-sea ecosystems. Specifically, we study the ecology of deep-water corals and their role in habitat formation, and the influence of vestimentiferan tubeworms (siboglinid polychaetes) on the ecology and biogeochemistry of cold seeps. Dr. Cordes received his B.S. from Southampton College in Long Island NY (now part of Stony Brook University), his M.S. from Moss Landing Marine Labs on Monterey Bay in California, his Ph.D. from Penn State University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. [CV]

Our work on cold-water corals includes investigations of the habitat preferences of Lophelia pertusa, and the genetic connectivity of deep-water gorgonian populations in the Gulf of Mexico. Cold-water corals have gained more attention in recent years due to the expansion of human activity in deeper waters (including the expansion of off-shore oil drilling in U.S. waters). These coral communities are fragile ecosystems that harbor a highly diverse community of associated organisms. In order to protect these systems, an understanding of their distribution, habitat preference, and connectivity among populations is essential. We are carrying out in situ and experimental examinations of the environmental factors that could control L. pertusa distribution in the Gulf of Mexico. [Jay Lunden] We are also studying the genetic relationships among populations of Callogorgia americana spp. and other gorgonians at the same sites. [Andrea Quattrini] The first cruise from this project was in Sept. 2008. [Cruise Page]

At many of the same sites are cold seep communities. These communities have been studied for far longer in the Gulf of Mexico, and yet we continue to discover new sites and community types even in this well-mapped area of seafloor. Ongoing studies of cold seeps include the biogeographic and bathymetric patterns in tubeworm- and mussel-associated communities in the deep Gulf of Mexico, below 1000 meters water depth. We are also examining and the influence of tubeworm tube-hosted microbial communities on seep biogeochemistry, particularly the sulfur cycle through a combination of genetic sequencing and fluorescent in situ hybridization techniques.