Molecular Biodiversity Assessment in the Deep-Sea
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Diversity".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2020) | Viewed by 5535
Special Issue Editors
Interests: omics sensor technologies; microfluidic sampling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, Sgonico, Italy
Interests: mollusc comparative genomics; biodiversity assessment with molecular tools; DNA metabarcoding; environmental DNA; gene expression; transcriptomics; molecular immunology; marine biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The deep sea is the largest biome on Earth, yet we have little knowledge of the ecosystems that harbor such a spectacular diversity of life—from tiny microbes to large corals and fishes. Around 97% of the Ocean’s biome occurs below 200 meters in depth, and this life performs many key ecosystem functions. Deep sea habitats offer unique ecosystem services to mankind, such as mineral resources, fisheries, and the as of yet almost unexplored sources of bioactive molecules. The deep sea may also provide solutions to societal challenges, such as finding alternatives to mining on land, and options for sequestering carbon to mitigate anthropogenic climate change.
Notwithstanding its natural capital and its remoteness, this environment is already showing clear signs of anthropogenic impacts. Many vulnerable deep-sea habitats and communities are being destroyed by destructive fishing practices and are under threat from the increasing exploitation of their mineral and living resources.
The changes of deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystem functioning provide information about how these habitats respond when they are affected or threatened by the existing or emerging human activities, and by climate change.
In the last two decades, new technologies have enabled scientists to start exploring this final frontier. The rapid advancing of molecular biology techniques has allowed scientists to understand this extreme environment in an unprecedented way; high-throughput sequencing platforms are nowadays widely used to unravel deep-sea biodiversity, adaptive strategies, and ecosystem functions. As a complement to the standard monitoring programs, the adoption of molecular methods either targeting whole marine organisms or environmental DNA offer powerful tools to assess biodiversity in these remote environments, and are becoming fundamental in order to better understand the changes that may reduce ecosystem productivity with a potential loss of ecosystem services.
Dr. Sergio Stefanni
Prof. Alberto Pallavicini
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Deep-sea
- Genetic diversity
- Ecosystem services
- Molecular ecology
- Mining
- Management
