Marine Life Talk: The weird and wonderful life at the Mid-Atlantic ridge Event

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a large mountain range in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, creating the largest bathyal habitat (habitat encompassing depths between 200-3000 m water depth) in the Atlantic. With increased anthropogenic pressures on continental margins, it is important to understand ridge structures, as they might become the only bathyal areas relatively unaffected by pollution and waste disposal.

In her research Claudia will describe the benthic invertebrate fauna at four different sites, in the vicinity of the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. Her main focuses were the effects of the ridge and fracture zone on the dispersal of benthic invertebrate fauna, as well as the effects of varying food supply on the benthic megafauna. Claudia further investigated small-scale habitat variability and its effect on benthic invertebrates.