FRN is participating in projects on deep-water ecosystems, aiming, amonst others, to survey the structure and species diversity of the benthic communities of the Azores Islands.

One of the objectives is to identify what type of habitat deep-sea corals are found in and to use these data to produce habitat suitability models at high resolution for the NE Atlantic. It is also intended to extend such habitat suitability modelling to a global scale.

Several transects were done with the submersible LULA for habitat surveys.

Coldwater Corals

Two regions were chosen for the surveys, both located directly south of the Monte da Guia peninsula, Faial Island, Azores: Coral Garden Hill, a small hill peaking at around 320m depth and rich in mixed coral habitat, and Squid Hill, another small peak reaching 220m and sloping more gently to 470m depth on its southern side.

Settlement panels comprising large square plates of PVC with small tiles of granite had been deployed on Coral Garden Hill and Squid Hill at around 320m and 470m on each hill, and were recovered after one year. Video footage was recorded at all times during the dives from the onboard HD camera. Samples of stylasterids and octocorals were collected for genetic analyses.

During the dives, video images as well as oceanographic data were obtained, and several samples of narella and whip corals were collected, at different locations.

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