2023-12-05 14:58:35
Updated Tuesday, December 5, 2023 – 13:58
They have located species unknown until now to science
New ocean species discovered in the Canary IslandsOceanography Marine life descends to deeper and colder waters
A group of explorer divers of the alliance Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census a four-week mission is underway in Tenerife to discover and protect marine life before the global warming drive some species to extinction. Their work under the sea is already producing interesting and unexpected results.
The archipelago’s coastal waters are known to be rich in biodiversity, but even experienced local scientists have been surprised by some of the early finds, especially those recovered from sediment and rock samples.
“We know very little about species and marine life, so the more and better we know them, the better we can protect them. And there may already be species that we don’t know about that have already become extinct, or are going to become extinct,” says Anna Vesanen. , marine biologist of the organization.
Professional divers go out daily to collect samples at depths of up to 50 meters in the dive sites richest in biodiversity in the area.
For his part, Perry Brandes, a diver with the organization, advances: “We will go into the cave and try to locate some beautiful critical sponges that scientists will be able to study, as well as take rock samples and, with luck, find some algae that they will be able to collect.” , break down and study thoroughly to find what we hope are some new species.
Finding new species is, in part, knowing where to look: in the caves, reefs and ledges of this volcanic island. Sampling techniques include capturing rocks and sediments in the hopes of finding even the smallest life forms.
Tenerife has two internationally renowned taxnomers who know more than most about what lies beneath the surface of this part of the Atlantic.
Leopoldo Moro has described about 200 new species throughout his career, an impressive figure, although dwarfed by the work of his friend and mentor Jess Ortea, whose lifetime tally amounts to 977 new species in the last half century.
“We are seeing the samples that have been labeled with tags, each with a number that corresponds to the information that divers have collected in the deep sea: date, temperature and the place where each sample was taken to store it with the data; thus “taxnomers can see all the information about where it was collected.”
Once recovered, the samples are transferred to trays so that the specimens continue to exist as they would in sea water.
Moro’s house has been transformed from a living room to a laboratory and this is where the work of Moro begins in earnest. identification of new species.
His partner and collaborator Carmen Hernanz is in charge of take small samples of the sediment and place them under a very high-powered microscope. That is when a world of wonders is discovered.
Between the grains of sand and stones there is life, only visible to the naked eye when magnified.
Each new find is carefully transported to be photographed and cataloged before passing on to the expert opinion of Jess Ortea, whose vast knowledge of the marine environment of all of Macaronesia is unrivaled.
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