Publication Date:
2023-02-12
Description:
AUV images of deep-sea megafauna on the seamount Mokumanamana in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands revealed a large aggregation of the diadematoid urchin Chaetodiadema pallidum. This species had not been previously recorded on this seamount, but was known from other locations in the Hawaiian Archipelago. A total of 11,360 individuals were counted by eye from 1,369 seafloor images along the 200, 250, and 300 m depth contours on the west side of Mokumanamana. To estimate the full population size, Inverse Distance Weighting and Empirical Bayesian Kriging interpolation calculated a total population size of between 139,552 and 144,063 individuals. These estimates are 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than any previous estimates of urchin aggregation abundances. Little biological data exists for this species; thus, it is difficult to know if this is a spawning aggregation, a feeding front, a type of "schooling" behavior, or some combination thereof, but a food source did seem to be present in the form of mesophotic green algal detritus.
Keywords:
AUV Imagery; Chaetodiadema pallidum; Conductivity; DATE/TIME; DEPTH, water; File name; Height above sea floor/altitude; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; Mokumanamana; MULT; Multiple investigations; Number of individuals; Oxygen; Seamount; Species; Species Range; Temperature, water; Transect; Uniform resource locator/link to image; Urchin Aggregation
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 14930 data points
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