Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
  • BCO-DMO Processing Description
  • Problem Description
• Related Datasets
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

SLO metadata tablea are included as supplemental tables in this dataset (See "Files" section).
* See "Related Datasets" section for other logs and sample lists from this cruise.
* Data from this and other cruises in this project are listed under the SALT project page https://www.bco-dmo.org/project/820030.

SALT = Seep Animal Larval Transport.
SLO = Seafloor Larval Observatory

Larvae were passively collected via benthic tube traps filled with RNALater. Some samples are from Technicap carousels that only had one tube collecting at a time and a motor that rotated sample tubes each month for 12 discrete monthly samples. Others were from homemade PVC larval traps that collected integrated samples. Traps were deployed in June 2021 on TN391 and recovered in October 2022 on AT50-04. Once recovered, sample tubes were capped and stored in a refrigerator (~4 °C) for months to a year before being processed. Samples were examined under dissecting microscopes and individual larvae picked out by hand by a team of trained graduate and undergraduate students. Isolated larvae were photographed under a compound microscope, individually tubed in fresh RNALater, and shipped to Shawn Arellano's lab at Western Washington University for genetic identification. 

Samples were examined under dissecting microscopes and individual larvae picked out by hand by a team of trained graduate and undergraduate students. Isolated larvae were photographed under a compound microscope, individually tubed in fresh RNALater, and shipped to Shawn Arellano's lab at Western Washington University for genetic identification.

Additional metadata to accompany data table:

* Sheet "Data" of submitted file "AT50-04_Larval Sorting_tube traps_RNALater_11Jun25.xlsx" was imported into the BCO-DMO data system for this dataset. Values "NA" and "n/a" imported as missing data values.   Table will appear as Data File: *.csv (along with other download format options).

Missing Data Identifiers:
* In the BCO-DMO data system missing data identifiers are displayed according to the format of data you access. For example, in csv files it will be blank (null) values. In Matlab .mat files it will be NaN values. When viewing data online at BCO-DMO, the missing value will be shown as blank (null) values.

* Column names adjusted to conform to BCO-DMO naming conventions designed to support broad re-use by a variety of research tools and scripting languages. [Only numbers, letters, and underscores.  Can not start with a number]

NSF Award Abstract:
Ever since hydrothermal vents and methane seeps were first discovered in the deep ocean more than 40 years ago, scientists have wondered how these isolated communities, fully dependent on underwater "islands" of toxic chemicals, are first colonized by organisms, and how the populations of these specialized animals are exchanged and maintained. These fundamental processes depend on the transport of babies (larvae) by the ocean currents, yet because the larvae are microscopic and diluted in the vastness of the ocean, it is very difficult to determine where and how they drift. This project uses an autonomous underwater vehicle to collect larvae from precise regions of the water column. Larval traps on the bottom and chemical analyses of larval shells will also be used to determine the depths where larvae swim. These findings will provide realistic estimates for mathematical models that show how biology interacts with ocean currents to predict which methane seeps will be colonized by larvae originating at different depths. A detailed knowledge of larval dispersal is needed for conservation and management of the deep sea. Without such information, we cannot know the best placement of marine protected areas, nor can we facilitate the reestablishment of communities impacted by deep-sea mining, drilling, or other human activities. This project will provide hands-on at-sea training for college students to learn the rapidly vanishing skills needed for studies of larvae and embryos in their natural habitats. Learning opportunities will also be available to individuals of all ages through new, interactive exhibits on deep-sea biology and larval ecology produced for small museums and aquaria on the coasts of Oregon, Washington and North Carolina.

Reliable estimates of connectivity among metapopulations are increasingly important in marine conservation biology, ecology and phylogeography, yet biological parameters for biophysical models in the deep sea remain largely unavailable. The movements of deep-sea vent and seep larvae among islands of habitat suitable for chemosynthesis have been inferred from current patterns using numerical modeling, but virtually all such models have used untested assumptions about biological parameters that should have large impacts on the predictions. This project seeks to fill in the missing biological parameters while developing better models for predicting the dispersal patterns of methane seep animals living in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Western Atlantic Margin. Despite the existence of similar seeps at similar depths on two sides of the Florida peninsula, the Western Atlantic seeps support only a subset of the species found in the Gulf of Mexico. It is hypothesized that the ability of larvae to disperse through the relatively shallow waters of the Florida Straits depends on an interaction between the adult spawning depth and the dispersal depth of the larvae. Dispersal depth, in turn, will be influenced by larval flotation rates, swimming behaviors, feeding requirements, and ontogenetic migration patterns during the planktonic period. The recently developed SyPRID sampler deployed on AUV Sentry will be used to collect larvae from precise depth strata in the water column, including layers very near the ocean floor. Larval traps deployed on the bottom at three depths in each region will be used in conjunction with the plankton collections to determine what proportion of larvae are demersal. Comparisons of stable oxygen isotopes between larval and juvenile mollusk shells will provide information on the temperatures (and therefore depths) that larvae develop, and geochemical analyses of larval and juvenile shells will determine whether larval cohorts mix among depth strata. Ocean circulation and particle transport modeling incorporating realistic biological parameters will be used to predict the movements of larvae around the Florida Peninsula for various spawning depths and seasons.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.