Monitoring Structures (ARMS) in Antarctica

3D Model

This is a 3D model of an ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures), which are passive collectors used to sample marine understudied cryptofauna. They intercept settlers and provide shelter to marine fauna and flora providing a 3D structure which mimicks the complexity of hard bottom marine substrates. ARMS are deployed all around the world under a global monitoring program (http://www.oceanarms.org). This set of 6 ARMS represent the first one deployed in Antarctica, in the Terra Nova Bay area, by the Italian research project ICE-LAPSE (PNRA 2013/AZ1-16). The settlers are now being characterized from a molecular point of view by the program “TNB-CODE” (Terra Nova Bay barCODing and mEtabarcoding of Antarctic organisms from marine and limno-terrestrial environments, coordinated by Schiaparelli S.) in the framework of the PhD thesis of Matteo Cecchetto (DISTAV, University of Genoa, Italy). The model was based on still frames extracted from a video recorded underwater by Ian Hawes (University of Waikato).