After RSV Aurora Australis sampled
benthic communities of the continental shelf and slope down to 2000 m (Hosie et al.
Rock samples were made into thin sections (2.5 x 5 cm) and the larger
benthic foraminifera (LBF) were photographed with a digital camera C-35AD-2 attached to Olympus Microscope BH-2 in the Centre of Excellence in Mineralogy, University of Balochistan, Quetta.
This sieve size is larger than typical
benthic community studies but was chosen to minimize potential taphonomic biases in the DA that could influence results.
The
benthic fauna samples were collected in Jun 2014 at ten different stations of the IRIS-1 drilling zone.
Benthic microalgae from tributaries and the main channel of the river (Table 2) consisted of thirty (30) genera belonging to five groups namely; Chlorophyceae (6), Euglenophyceae (2), Xanthophyceae (1), Bacillariophyceae (19) and Cyanophyceae (2).
It was recorded that the fauna present in the formation was mainly the larger
benthic foraminifera and their preservation was very good.
We evaluated the efficacy of using stomach content analysis of three commonly occurring benthophagous fishes belonging to three different orders and foraging strategies (Eigenmannia virescens (Valenciennes, 1836) --Gymnotiformes, electrical; Iheringichthys labrosus (Lutken, 1874)--Siluriformes, olfactory; and Leporinus amblyrhynchus Garavello and Britski, 1987--Characiformes, visual) as a proxy for providing information about
benthic macroinvertebrate communities.
Steve Pywell, chief executive officer of
Benthic, added: "
Benthic is very pleased with how the LARS4 design has been developed - to provide an enhanced deployment capability over a wide range of weather conditions yet fit within a relatively small on-deck footprint.
It has been designed to provide
Benthic, which is a global leader in offshore marine geotechnical investigation, survey, analysis and design, with an enhanced deployment capability in deep and ultra-deepwater conditions and harsh environments.
To visualize multivariate patterns, non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) ordinations were performed using PRIMER v.6.1.15 (Clarke 1993; Clarke & Warwick 2001) on
benthic community and environmental data.
