Shipwreck Microbiomes of Keathley Canyon
Leila Hamdan (USM) and Christopher Horrell (BOEM)
Photo by NOAA Ocean Exploration
Overview
Our work will first attempt to discover up to five new historic shipwrecks on the seabed in the Keathley Canyon lease area found in close proximity. That discovery will enable the first possible process-based study of co-located shipwreck and permit validation and training of a machine learning based exploration support tool, which harnesses microbiomes as sensors of built habitats. Our approach will produce significant and new discoveries about the history and ecology of historic shipwrecks and lead to paradigm shifting findings regarding human-built environments in the deep ocean.
