MicroNekton diversity, distribution and abundance using eDNA

EuroMarine considers supporting capacity building for young scientists a key priority. For this, EuroMarine currently funds the OYSTER Working Group. OYSTER is an independent working group dedicated to promoting and supporting opportunities for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in marine science and in 2022 opened a Pilot Call for Marine ECR Cooperation Projects. NEAT was funded under this call. NEAT will actively contribute to the objective 1 of the Mission “Restore our Oceans and Waters” as well as to the enabler “Ocean and waters knowledge system”.
Specifically, NEAT will develop and integrate a set of innovative methodologies to better study micronekton. Micronekton consists of crustaceans, cephalopods and mesopelagic fishes, of 2 to 20 cm in size. There is an urgent need to study micronekton since basic biological knowledge is still lacking, despite its key trophic link between zooplankton and top predators, and its role in the oceanic biological pump. The poor knowledge of micronekton communities is mainly due to the limitations of traditional tools such as acoustics and trawls, to infer their diversity, abundance and migration. Environmental DNA can overcome the above limitations by providing new insight into the presence of mesopelagic species escaping traditional net sampling.
NEAT is a multi-facetted project with technological, ecological, scientific and sustainable use perspectives, aiming at understanding micronekton communities prior to their commercial exploitation to fulfil SDG2 Zero Hunger and SDG14 Life Below Water. By using eDNA collected at sites where organisms were taxonomically identified, the 3 leading ECRs will relate identified specimens to the horizontal and vertical distribution from acoustic data, and to oceanographic features. Metabarcoding of micronekton specimens collected during previous cruises will allow the enrichment of open access DNA reference databases, thus allowing the R&I objectives to be verified and compared to international standards. NEAT will link with EU’s mission Digital Twin of the Ocean to address how to digitally record and manage open eDNA data and facilitate knowledge sharing for biodiversity monitoring and modelling. It will strengthen the EU position in research, innovation and technology, and excellent science.
NEAT will hence address the following priorities:
1) Managing ocean complexity; NEAT will contribute to the understanding and assessment of the state of deep-sea resources and biodiversity to inform sustainable fishing practices and management.
2) Target ocean and human health; There is a growing interest for the commercial exploitation of micronekton for pharmaceutical products and fishmeal. However, many micronekton species are still not yet described and their ecological role and their associated services are not fully understood. NEAT will allow the characterization of deep-sea ecosystems and will be the stepping stone for future discussions on using micronekton for increased food provision and the discovery of pharmaceutical products.
3) Protect ocean commons; The multidisciplinary integration of eDNA, acoustic, coupled morphological taxonomy and barcoding will allow better observations, evaluations and predictions of the ocean’s common resources so as to provide an integrated framework to inform decision making on the governance of micronekton resources.