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The oceans’ twilight zone must be studied now, before it is too late

Exploitation and degradation of the mysterious layer between the sunlit ocean surface and the abyss jeopardize fish stocks and the climate.
  1. Adrian Martin

    1. Adrian Martin is a research scientist at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

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  2. Philip Boyd

    1. Philip Boyd is a professor at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, University of Tasmania, Australia.

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  3. Ken Buesseler

    1. Ken Buesseler is a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA.

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  4. Ivona Cetinic

    1. Ivona Cetinic is an oceanographer in the Universities Space Research Association and the Ocean Ecology Laboratory at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.

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  5. Hervé Claustre

    1. Hervé Claustre is director of research in biogeochemical oceanography at Sorbonne University, CNRS, Villefanche Laboratory of Oceanography, Villefranche-sur-mer, France.

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  6. Sari Giering

    1. Sari Giering is a research scientist at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

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  7. Stephanie Henson

    1. Stephanie Henson is a principal scientist at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

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  8. Xabier Irigoien

    1. Xabier Irigoien is Ikerbasque Research Professor and scientific director in marine ecology at AZTI-Basque Research and Technology Alliance, Pasaia Gipuzkoa, Spain.

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  9. Iris Kriest

    1. Iris Kriest is a research scientist at GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany.

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  10. Laurent Memery

    1. Laurent Memery is director of research in environmental marine sciences at LEMAR Laboratory, European Maritime University Institute, Brest, France.

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  11. Carol Robinson

    1. Carol Robinson is a professor at the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

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  12. Grace Saba

    1. Grace Saba is an assistant professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA.

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  13. Richard Sanders

    1. Richard Sanders is director of the ICOS Ocean Thematic Centre at NORCE, the Norwegian Research Centre and the Bjerknes Centre, Bergen, Norway.

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  14. David Siegel

    1. David Siegel is a professor at the Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

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  15. María Villa-Alfageme

    1. María Villa Alfageme is a professor at the Department of Applied Physics, University of Seville, Spain.

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  16. Lionel Guidi

    1. Lionel Guidi is a research scientist at Sorbonne University, CNRS, Villefanche Laboratory of Oceanography, Villefranche-sur-mer, France.

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The twilight zone contains the largest and least exploited fish stocks of the world’s oceans. Spanning from just below 200 metres to 1,000 metres deep, it is an interface between the well-studied marine life in the sunlit zone above and the ecosystems of the abyss below. It has a major role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it for centuries or longer. The twilight zone is also privy to the largest migration on Earth. Huge numbers of fishes and zooplankton move hundreds of metres towards the surface each night to feed, before retreating back down at dawn.

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Nature 580, 26-28 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00915-7

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