Project Title: Developing a Habitat Suitability Model to Predict the Occurrences of Deep Water Alcyonaceans in the US Eastern EEZ.

Principal Investigators: L. Watling, University of Maine and K. Scanlon, U.S. Geological Survey

The recent rediscovery of deep-water corals along the continental shelves and slopes of the United States has ignited strong public interest in their conservation. Many of the corals are long lived and others, especially those that form large bioherms, may be important habitat for a variety of invertebrates and fish, some of the latter of commercial importance. However, at the present time knowledge of the occurrences of deep corals in the U. S. is still imperfect so finding areas to target for conservation may involve best, guesses or limiting ourselves to the sites already known.

One solution to this problem is the development of a habitat suitability model, which can be used to predict where deep-water corals might be abundant. Using distributional data for deep-water alcyonaceans already in a GIS format, we will develop a HSI model using factors such as substrate composition and slope, bathymetry, bottom water temperature, bottom water salinity, carbonate saturation, delivery of food particles and mass flux of all particulates.

The model will be developed for at least 8 species of deep-water alcyonaceans and tested by diving in areas of the continental slope where there are currently no deep water coral records. A total of 16 dives have been proposed for canyon areas ranging from Powell Canyon in the north to Wilmington Canyon in the south. Each dive will cover depths ranging from 2000 m to 500 m, or some long interval in between.