Dr. Heather Judkins and her grad student, Claire de Noyo, both presented new DEEPEND research at the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting in February in New Orleans! Heather shared results from her ongoing cephalopod diet metabarcoding study which helps piece together the complex deep-sea food web of the Gulf of Mexico. Of the 63 individuals analyzed, fishes accounted for the majority of prey items.

Recently, members of the DEEPEND|RESTORE Consortium traveled to the Gulf of Mexico Conference, GoMCON, in Tampa, Florida and had a great experience. GoMCON is a bi-annual conference that brings together scientists, students, stakeholders, industry leaders, and so much more to network and present on research being conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. Nova Southeastern Graduate students from Dr. Sutton’s Oceanic Ecology Laboratory, Hannah Johnson, Katie Lim, and Travis Kirk, students from Dr. Rosanna Milligan’s DEEPSCAPE Laboratory, Sidney Trimble and Ian Areford, as well as Florida International University Postdoc Dr. Pedo Peres were able to be in attendance for this year’s conference. Liberty Juno, a student in Dr. Jon Moore’s Deep Sea Ichthyology lab, attended the conference alongside the NSU students.

The journal Deep-Sea Research was first published in October 1953, directed by the Joint Commission on Oceanography to focus on the deep-sea floor as the main theme.

Some of the DEEPEND team members attended the Ocean Twilight Zone symposium at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution this week. Tracey Sutton, Heather Judkins, Zan Milligan, and Matt Woodstock presented their work over the three-day biological portion of the symposium. Tracey and Heather focused their talks on fish and cephalopods both of which included examining ways to examine biomass and its' importance related to carbon transfer through the deep ocean and were part of a panel discussion on the topic. Matt presented his work on food web modeling of the mesopelagic zone. Zan highlighted her work on mesopelagic fishes and their vertical distribution patterns. Overall, the team had a great time working and learning with their deep-sea colleagues at the event!