Data for this project will reside in the West Coast Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey Data Base. This proposal relates to a continuation and augmentation of our efforts in creating a DNA sequence repository and voucher collection of coral and sponge species found off the U.S. West Coast, and initial steps toward population-level analysis in deep-sea octocorals and sponges using microsatellite loci. We propose to continue taking genetic samples from specimens collected during the 2012 West Coast Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey, and continue DNA sequencing of those specimens. We will then link the DNA data to our verified specimens to create a West Coast repository that will serve not only as an essential resource for coral researchers and other stakeholders, but also as a foundation for future research efforts at the NWFSC, aimed at understanding the biogeography and ecology of coral species in these deep-sea communities.

Our primary goals with this funding opportunity are to hire an NRC postdoctoral fellow to work full-time on this project, and to continue to support at-sea specimen collection.

Coral DNA represented by Data Set "Deep Sea Coral voucher sequence dataset".