Monitoring of the deep-sea ecosystems for conservation of Marine Protected Areas and understanding of their ecological functions
Deep sea, which still includes some frontier areas, has been also threatened by direct and indirect human-induced impacts. Some deep-sea areas in Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) have been designated for Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2020 and they must be monitored and conserved all through. JAMSTEC has been tackling to understand more proper diversity and ecological functions of the deep-sea organisms and their knowledges have been utilized to understand the human-induced impact on them and to select MPAs. Developments of more useful and efficient tools to observe and monitor the deep-sea ecosystems are also within our focus. Such activities have been particularly contributing to target 14.2, 14.5 (i.e., conservation of MPAs).
