The Pelagic In situ Observation System (PELAGIOS) to reveal biodiversity, behavior and ecology of elusive oceanic fauna

Abstract. There is a need for cost-efficient tools to explore deep ocean ecosystems to collect baseline biological observations on pelagic fauna (zooplankton and nekton) and establish the vertical ecological zonation in the deep sea. The Pelagic In situ Observation System (PELAGIOS) is a 3000 m-rated slowly (0.5 m/s) towed camera system with LED illumination, an integrated oceanographic sensor set (CTD-O2) and telemetry allowing for online data acquisition and video inspection (Low Definition). The High Definition video is stored on the camera and later annotated using the VARS annotation software and related to concomitantly recorded environmental data. The PELAGIOS is particularly suitable for open ocean observations of gelatinous fauna, which is notoriously undersampled by nets and/or destroyed by fixatives. In addition to counts, diversity and distribution data as a function of depth and environmental conditions (T, S, O2), in situ observations of behavior, orientation and species interactions are collected. Here we present an overview of the technical setup of the PELAGIOS as well as example observations and analyses from the eastern tropical North Atlantic. Comparisons to MOCNESS net sampling and data from the Underwater Vision Profiler are provided and discussed.

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