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Exploring the Biodiversity of Remote Pacific Ocean Deep-Sea Coral Communities With eDNA

Past Expedition

Dates
May 2022 - May 2024
Location
Pacific Ocean

Overview

From May 2022 through May 2024, a team of researchers will apply the emerging technology, environmental DNA or eDNA, to explore and characterize deep-sea coral communities in the remote tropical Pacific Ocean.

Deep-sea corals are an important component of community biodiversity in the deep ocean worldwide. However, due to the difficulty of accessing these environments, many of them remain uncharacterized. Currently, there is limited understanding of the taxonomy and overall diversity and connectivity of deep-sea coral communities across the remote tropical Pacific region.

The Exploring the Biodiversity of Remote Pacific Ocean Deep-Sea Coral Communities With eDNA project team is using existing eDNA and deep-sea coral samples collected on prior expeditions from around Pacific remote islands and seamounts to explore and characterize the biodiversity and locations of deep-sea coral communities.

The results from this project will provide an important source of baseline data, which will guide future exploration in the remote tropical Pacific, provide a basis for monitoring of deep-sea coral communities, and provide data for national marine sanctuary and marine national monument management.

The Ocean Exploration Trust's remotely operated vehicle Hercules collects an eDNA sample over a coral garden in the Howland Baker Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, now known as Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.
The Ocean Exploration Trust’s remotely operated vehicle Hercules collects an eDNA sample over a coral garden in the Howland Baker Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, now known as Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. Image courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc.
Download largest version (jpg, 1.3 MB).
Steve Auscavitch at the bench transferring freshly extracted deep-sea coral DNA from species collected in Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, now known as Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument during genome skimming library preparation in February 2023.
Steve Auscavitch at the bench transferring freshly extracted deep-sea coral DNA from species collected in Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, now known as Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument during genome skimming library preparation in February 2023. Image courtesy of Meredith Everett.
Download largest version (jpg, 5.54 MB).

Features

Multimedia

Featured multimedia assets associated with this project.

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Everett Map
Narella Macrocalyx
Transferring DNA
Edna Samples
Hercules Edna

Education

Our Learn & Discover page provides the best of what the NOAA Ocean Exploration website has to offer to support educators in the classroom during this expedition. Each theme page includes expedition features, lessons, multimedia, career information, and associated past expeditions. Below are related top education themes for this expedition.

Deep-Sea Corals

Resources & Contacts

Related Links
Partners
Media Contacts

Funding for this expedition was provided by NOAA Ocean Exploration via its Ocean Exploration Fiscal Year 2022 Funding Opportunity.

  • Published March 14, 2023
  • Last updated June 17, 2025