Deep Sea Corals Research on the West Coast

The Center’s Genetics and Evolution Program supports molecular and genetic research on deep-sea corals and sponges.

West Coast

A rockfish nestles among a variety of corals and sponges on Mendocino Ridge. Credit: MARE, DSCRTP

You can find deep-water corals and sponges worldwide. They provide important structural habitat for various marine species, including commercially valuable species such as rockfish. However, we do not fully understand these deep-water coral communities' overall distribution and species composition.

A canary rockfish cruising by the GFOE ROV Yogi while it samples lycassine glass sponges on Daisy Bank during the 2019 EXPRESS cruise. These collections are being used to create a DNA voucher collection for west coast sponge species. Credit: GFOE

In collaboration with the Deep-sea Coral Research and Technology Program and partners from multiple NOAA centers and scientific organizations, we seek to understand these corals and sponges' distribution, connectivity, and biodiversity. Our team collects voucher specimens to develop and maintain a library of genetic markers for species identification and taxonomy. Also, we use specimens to study population structure across coral communities.

The deep-sea coral Paragorgia cf. yutlinux at a site called the “Brush Patch” off the California/Oregon border. Credit: MARE, DSCRTP

The deep-sea coral Primnoa pacifica on Mendocino Ridge, off the coast of central California. This species is largely known from much further north, especially British Columbia and SE Alaska, but large stands of P. pacifica were found here in 2018. Credit: MARE, DSCRTP

We use genetic tools including barcoding, environmental (eDNA) sequencing, and high throughput genotyping-by-sequencing to identify species, population connectivity, and community biodiversity in deep-sea coral habitats.

For example, in octocorals (sea fans), we use two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome oxidase, and a coral-specific DNA repair gene, MutS, to develop species-specific markers (commonly called "barcodes") in collaboration with taxonomists. We apply these barcodes to identify unknown samples in the NOAA collection and identify species in eDNA metabarcoding studies from deep-sea habitats. We apply these techniques to deep-sea sponge communities as well.