Gareth Andrews, Honours

The Effect of Physical Disturbance Associated with Deep-Sea Drilling on the Nutritional Ecology of Deep-Sea Scavengers

Project Summary

Nutritional ecology focuses on the exchange of nutrients between individual organisms and their environment. In the deep-sea nutrient-rich food fall events are rare and unpredictable. This leads to the question of whether deep-sea scavengers have the luxury of selecting an optimal nutritionally-balanced diet and, if not, whether they are limited by particular nutrients. Such nutritional problems may be exacerbated by habitat disturbance, such as that occasioned by ocean drilling. This study will focus on the nutritional ecology of the deep-sea and also the impact that anthropogenic disturbance events have on deep-sea communities.

Katie Robertson, Honours

Heat shock proteins as indicators of stress in marine organisms

Project Summary

This project will determine whether industrial deep-sea drilling causes stress to benthic organisms using heat shock proteins as a marker of stress. This is the first Australian project to investigate stress physiology of deep-sea organisms in their natural environment. The project will utilise remotely operated vehicles to study organisms in vivo and use drill mud and oil from drilling sites for in vitro experiments on the effect of drilling by-products on the expression of stress protein expression.