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, and the Deepwater Horizon incident put a renewed emphasis on the need to understand their basic biology and ecology. We are carrying out in situ and experimental examinations of the environmental factors, including carbonate chemistry, 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] See the cruises page for updates on this project.

Natural hydrocarbon seep communities have been studied for far longer than the deepwater coral ecosystems of 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. The influence of tubeworm tube-hosted microbial communities on seep biogeochemistry, particularly the sulfur cycle, is being investigated through a combination of genetic sequencing and fluorescent in situ hybridization techniques. We have also obtained a series of community collections from the seeps on the Pacific margin of Costa Rica and the hydrothermal vents of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and are investigating the ecology and biogeography of these systems in the global context [Michele Grinar]