Scientific mission will explore one of the deepest ocean trenchesUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Outreach Coordinator, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
Jeffrey Drazen, (808) 956-3151
Associate Professor, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
Jeffrey Drazen, a UH Mānoa Oceanography Associate Professor, joins an international team of researchers led by deep-sea biologist Tim Shank of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to use the world's only full-ocean depth, hybrid remotely operated vehicle, Nereus, and other advanced technology to explore life in the depths of the Kermadec Trench.
The 40-day expedition, which began on April 12, kicks off an ambitious three-year collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the program, known as Hadal Ecosystem Studies (HADES), is to conduct the first-ever systematic study of life in ocean trenches, comparing it to the neighboring abyssal plain—flat areas of the seafloor usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 meters.
Due to the extreme pressures of these deep-sea environments and the technical challenges involved in reaching them, ocean trenches remain among the least explored environments on the planet.
"We know relatively little about life in our ocean trenches—the deepest marine habitat on Earth. We didn't have the technology to do these kind of detailed studies before," said Shank. "This will be a first-order look at community structure, adaptation, and evolution—how life exists in the trenches."
"The proposal to study the deep-sea environment as part of HADES was high-risk, but, we hope, also high-reward," added David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences. "Through this exciting project, we may shine a light on the darkness in Earth's deep-ocean trenches, discovering surprising results all along the way."
Another goal of this program is to use telepresence technology aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson to allow the public to share in the discoveries during several live-streaming web events from the seafloor that will include narration from the science team. The scientists' work will also be chronicled in video, still images and regular blog updates on the expedition website: http://www.whoi.edu/hades.
The Kermadec Trench, off the northeastern tip of New Zealand's North Island, is the fifth deepest trench in the world with a maximum of depth of 10,047 meters (32,963 feet or 6.24 miles). It is also one of the coldest trenches due to the inflow of deep-water originating from Antarctica.
What marine animals live in the trench and how do they survive the crushing pressures found at that depth —about 15,000 pounds per square inch? These are some of the questions the science team will be trying to answer.
"The energy requirements of hadal animals have never been measured before," said Drazen, who will lead the efforts to study distribution of food supply and the energetic demands of the trench organisms. Drazen, along with a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow from the UHM School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), eagerly prepares to deploy the world’s deepest oxygen sensors into the depths of the Kermadec Trench.
The multi-disciplinary international science team includes co-principal investigators Malcolm Clark and Ashley Rowden of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand, Henry Ruhl of the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, Alan Jamieson and Daniel Mayor of the University of Aberdeen (UA), and Paul Yancey of Whitman College (WC), as well as collaborators from Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Oregon.
The scientists are hoping to conduct research at 15 stations as part of the expedition, including sites in shallow water for testing purposes, sites along the trench axis, and sites in the abyssal plain. At each site, the team will deploy free-falling, full-ocean depth, baited imaging landers (Hadal-lander) and elev