CE13008 Celtic Explorer Biodiscovery and Ecosystem Function of Canyons Survey 2013

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES (i) identify and map benthic macrofauna using conventional cores and ROV surveys; (ii) improve systematic knowledge of Porifera and Mollusca, groups with known biodiscovery potential, using traditional morphological techniques in combination with molecular biology; (iii) collect marine specimens for freeze-drying, the preparation of extracts in the MI Marine Biodiscovery Laboratory and screening of bioactivity within the Beaufort Biodiscovery Consortium; (iv) collect deep-sea sediment likely to harbour micro-organisms capable of producing novel bioactives; (v) collect marine specimens likely to have novel photoactive molecules; (vi) characterize bacterial and archaeal diversity in deep sea water and sediment samples over spatial and temporal scales; and (vii) collect marine invertebrate samples (particularly sponges), seawater samples, and marine sediment to study and compare the microbiota associated with each of the samples, culture microorganisms and construct metagenomic libraries.