Biodiversity Exploration with 'Omics

Welcome! The Govindarajan lab studies the biodiversity and ecology of deep pelagic ecosystems ranging from the twilight zone to the deep seafloor. Much of our research focuses on the mesopelagic, or ocean twilight zone, but we have embarked on exciting new projects exploring seamount and trench biodiversity. Given the vast size of the deep ocean and the logistical challenges for studying these habitats, we develop and apply autonomous sampling technology which we use in conjunction with a range of deep sea exploration platforms including AUVs, ROVs, and towed instruments.

Specific research topics include:

• Assessing mesopelagic fish and zooplankton distributions, particularly related to the phenomenon of diel vertical migration, and how these patterns relate to functional roles in food webs and the global carbon cycle

• Exploring patterns and processes of biodiversity in deep sea habitats like seamounts and trenches

• Development and application of autonomous eDNA samplers with in situ filtration (the "Oceanic-WHOI" samplers) coupled with AUV, ROV, and towed platforms; including the development and application of adaptive sampling

• Interpreting animal eDNA signatures by improving our understanding of the "ecology of eDNA" - how it is shed, where it goes and how it decays. We are also creating genetic reference databases for mesopelagic fishes