Characterising pelagic biodiversity at South Georgia through novel sampling methods
Key Facts
FUNDING SCHEME Darwin Plus
VALUE £336,538
WHERE South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
Summary
The pelagic ecosystem supports fisheries and higher predators. Establishing a pelagic biodiversity baseline at South Georgia is crucial to assess the stability of this system and its response to climate-related changes and species invasions. Monitoring through net sampling alone is costly, time-consuming and misses important fractions of the plankton community. Our project addresses this, developing new legacy methods and indicators to monitor zooplankton and ichthyoplankton biodiversity, invasions and future change, using novel image and molecular analyses, validated by net sampling.
