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Tempo-Mini Inhabits the Hot Vents

Overview

Located on mid-ocean ridges, hot vent ecosystems are characterized by extreme environments and unique organisms, which don't depend on sunlight - a rare feat! Photosynthesis is the way plants convert energy to food, but deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities are sustained by a special group of microorganisms, which carry out a process known as chemosynthesis. This allows the bacteria and archaea to produce organic matter for themselves and the animals using energy from chemical reactions that occur as hot vent fluids mix with seawater. Several studies have shown that the distribution of vent communities and their composition are strongly influenced by local geological, physical and chemical processes. We know very little about the day-to-day life of hydrothermal vent organisms or how these particular ecosystems evolve over time as a result of the various processes affecting them. During the last few years, engineering and science teams at Ifremer, France's national public institute for marine research have developed Tempo-Mini: a custom-designed instrument package for real-time monitoring of hydrothermal vent communities and their environment. Tempo-Mini integrates the following custom instrumentation: - 2 megapixel streaming video camera with embedded event detection; - 6 LED lights; - Aanderaa oxygen optode (used to measure oxygen concentrations as well as temperatures between 0 and 40°C); - 10m-long, 10-sensor temperature probe array; - CHEMINI Fe iron concentration chemical analyzer. To keep Tempo-Mini clean, an efficient and innovative anti-biofouling system protects the camera porthole, lights, and optical oxygen sensor. Tempo-Mini is remotely controlled by researchers in France via the Internet. Software at our Port Alberni shore station acquires the data and keeps all the measurements in order. In 2008, Ifremer collaborated with NEPTUNE and VENUS networks to collect live data from the seafloor in Saanich Inlet near Sidney, BC. After this 5-month test in relatively shallow water (100m), Tempo-Mini was recovered in February 2009. In September 2011, an updated version (Auffret et al., 2010) was connected to the NEPTUNE observatory. Its principal objective is to gather the data needed to describe how physical, geological and chemical variations influence the structure and growth of hydrothermal communities at Endeavour vent field in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

CFI Supports Future Endeavour Research

Overview

Ocean Networks Canada is kicking off a year of exciting research and innovation at the Endeavour node of the NEPTUNE observatory with a show of support from the Canadian Government. Today’s $1.62 million funding commitment through the **Canada Foundation for Innovation’s 2012 Leading Edge Fund** is intended for future study and continuous monitoring of the Endeavour Segment. "This funding support will nearly triple Ocean Networks Canada's current instrumentation at this spectacular location in the deep ocean and will provide a new way of monitoring the health of remote marine protected areas.” says Dr. Kim Juniper, NEPTUNE Canada's Associate Director of Science. "It's a huge vote of confidence in the technology we offer to the global research community." Located more than two kilometres below the surface, the Endeavour site is set in a challenging mid-ocean ridge environment featuring hot vent fields and actively spreading ocean crust, approximately 300 km offshore Vancouver Island in the northeast Pacific Ocean. The University of Victoria’s Dr. Laurence Coogan will lead a consortium of ten principal researchers from seven institutions across North America in this $4 million initiative to further investigate the hot fluids discharging from a secton of the volcanic chain that encircles the Earth beneath the oceans. Principal users include: - Laurence Coogan, University of Victoria - David Butterfield, University of Washington - Christopher German, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - Kathryn Gillis, University of Victoria - Mark Hannington, University of Ottawa - Kim Juniper, University of Victoria - Marvin Lilley, University of Washington - Anna Metaxas, Dalhousie University - William Seyfried, University of Minnesota - William Wilcock, University of Washington **Dr. Laurence Coogan on future research plans at Endeavour**
In the following clips, Dr. Coogan provides an overview of the project: **What does the Leading Edge Fund mean for future research at the Endeavour site?**

Ocean Networks Canada given international boost by BBC’s “Blue Planet II”

Overview

Ocean Networks Canada’s international profile has been given a boost—potentially reaching billions of people across the planet—as ONC video and audio highlights are featured as part of “[Blue Planet II](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/blue-planet-ii),” the British Broadcasting Corp.’s new natural history TV series, and in the lead-up to the show’s start on Sunday. ONC provided underwater video of the Endeavour hydrothermal vents for the second episode (“[The Deep](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/blue-planet-ii/the-deep)”) of “Blue Planet II” via ONC’s SeaTube video player that let BBC producers search and watch ONC’s archive of deep-sea videos. The TV series starts in Britain on Oct. 29, with the second episode on Nov. 5. The show will appear [in Canada on BBC Earth in early 2018](http://bbcearth.ca/show/planet-earth-blue-planet-ii/).

Endeavour site records the highest level of earthquake activity in 20 years

Overview

A peak of more than 200 earthquakes per hour were detected this week at a deep sea site within Ocean Network Canada’s northeast Pacific seafloor observatory, the highest rate of earthquakes observed in this region [since 2005](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JB025662). On March 6, 2024, ONC’s real time monitoring network detected significant tectonic activity including an approximately 4.1 magnitude earthquake at the North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments (NEPTUNE) observatory’s Endeavour site, at a depth of approximately 5 kilometres and 240 kilometres offshore of Vancouver Island. Increased earthquake rates have been observed at the site since 2018, with the March 6 peak swarm following several days of increased small earthquake frequency.