Media Releases and Opportunities

Researchers at Dalhousie University will venture to a recently discovered stand of deep-water corals on steep submarine cliffs off the Labrador coast to collect data on their health, assess climate change impacts and help identify areas that should be protected.

Deep-water corals provide critical ecosystem services for a variety of species and support biodiversity oases in the deep ocean. Unfortunately, these fragile corals are vulnerable to a range of climate and human-caused stressors, like bottom-contact fishing and ocean acidification.

Dr. Wilder Greenman, a postdoctoral Earth and Environmental Sciences fellow at Dalhousie, is leading the collaborative study into understanding the long-term ecological shifts in deep-water coral habitats at the Makkovik Hanging Gardens, a discovery that relied heavily on local Inuit knowledge. This research will inform the development of Inuit-led conservation areas and influence regional conservation policy in partnership with the Nunatsiavut government to better protect these vulnerable marine ecosystems.

The project -- Tracking long-term ecological shifts in deep-water coral habitats along the Labrador margin to identify the conditions where they thrive and inform marine protection strategy -- was named a grant recipient of the Northern Biodiversity Research Program from the Weston Family Foundation today (July 3, 2025).

The team will gather the information in two research expeditions. This year, members will use remote operated vehicles (ROV) deployed from the CCGS Amundsen to survey the Makkovik Hanging Gardens and the Sentinel, targeting sites that are important to the Nunatsiavut government.

Next year, they will conduct ROV surveys in underexplored parts of the Hatton Basin Conservation Area and Disko Fan, take video and collect coral colonies that will be frozen and taken to Dalhousie. The project also includes the development of a lab at the Nunatsiavut Research Centre to provide training opportunities and strengthen research collaborations.

Dr. Greenman is available to discuss the ambitious project and how, due to the lack of historical scientific data from these regions, it will fill important knowledge gaps as Canada works to fulfil its commitment to the UN to protect 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030.

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Contacts:

Dr. Wilder Greenman
Earth and Environmental Sciences
wilder.greenman@dal.ca

Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Dalhousie University
902-220-0491
alison.auld@dal.ca