The ecosystems in the open seas including deep-sea

Abstract

Deep-sea is the largest, but probably biologically the least explored biotope. New results from numerous expeditions, often obtained with sophisticated instruments, and application of newly developed methods have changed our view on the concept of the utility value of the deep-sea. Recent foci of deep ocean researches are associated with climate change, utilization of deep-sea living resources, hydrothermal vents, deep-sea biodiversity and environmental problems related to deep-sea mining. Many of the pressing questions in deep-sea biology are large in scale and so early results from the various field projects of the international Census of Marine Life (CoML) programme address these issues, notably the information from ChEss (Biogeography of Chemosynthetic Environments), MAR-ECO (Mid Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems), CeDAMar (Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life), CenSeam (Census of Seamount Biodiversity), COMARGE (Continental Margin Ecosystems on a Worldwide Scale), CAML (Census of Antarctic Marine Life) and ArcOD (Arctic Ocean Diversity). We have several advantages in obtaining bioresources from marine and extreme marine environment because, as a peninsular nation, Korea faces seas from three sides and operates research stations in polar and tropical areas. The Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) has conducted marine biological surveys in the surrounding deep-sea and world ocean using Research Vessel ONNURI since 1995.