Fig 1.
Deep-sea camera system deployments on the Salas y Gómez and Nazca ridges.
Dotted lines depict exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Red dots depict camera deployment sites. Bathymetric data source: GEBCO Compilation Group (2020) GEBCO 2020 Grid (doi:10.5285/a29c5465-b138-234de053-6c86abc040b9).
Fig 2.
Representative and unique taxa observed with deep-sea camera systems around Rapa Nui and Salas y Gómez islands.
(A) Hexanchus griseus (B) Hydrolagus melanophasma (C) Chromis mamatapara* (D) Parapristipomoides squamimaxillaris (E) Homolidae, Yaldwynopsis sp. (F) Geryonidae (G) Rexea sp. (H) Polymixia salagomeziensis*. *endemic species.
Fig 3.
Representative and unique taxa observed with deep-sea camera systems at Desventuradas Islands.
(A) Nemadactylus gayi*, Scorpaena orgila*, Squalus sp. (B) Pterygotrigla picta (C) Hydrolagus sp. (D) Lithodidae (E) Antimora rostrata (F) Squalus sp. *endemic species.
Fig 4.
Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of environmental variables at camera deployment sites.
Data were Box-Cox transformed prior to analysis. Des. = Desventuradas.
Fig 5.
Vulnerable marine ecosystem indicator taxa, including deep-sea corals and sponges, observed on deep-sea camera deployments along the Salas y Gómez and Nazca ridges.
(A) Sala y Gómez—552 m (B) Desventuradas– 1,714 m.
Fig 6.
Environmental variables at the deep-sea camera system deployment locations.
(A) Crust age (younger → older: yellow → red) was extracted for the nearest seamount to each deployment location. (B) Nitrate levels; bubbles depict nitrate levels at deployment location and depth (low → high nitrate: small/light → big/dark). (C) Absolute broad-scale bathymetric position index (BPI); bubbles depict absolute BPI values at deployment location (low → high BPI: small/light → big/dark), basemap depicts absolute BPI values of region (low →high: dark blue → gray). (D) Depth of each deployment; bubbles depict depth at deployment location (small/light → big/dark: shallow → deep), basemap depicts bathymetry (deep → shallow: dark blue → white). Purple lines in Panel D are 500 m contour lines. Bathymetric data source: Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) [80, www.marine-geo.org].
Fig 7.
Distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA) ordination to investigate the relationship between the environmental variables and invertebrate assemblages.
Bray-Curtis similarity matrix based on ln(x+1) transformed MaxN higher level invertebrate taxa. Symbol sizes are proportional to depth.
Table 1.
Distance-based linear model for invertebrate assemblages and environmental variables.
Fig 8.
Fish assemblage characteristics (taxa richness, MaxN, diversity, and evenness) at Desventuradas and RN/SyG on hard and soft-bottom habitats.
Box plots showing median (black line), mean (red line), upper and lower quartiles, and 5th and 95th percentiles.
Table 2.
SIMPER for fish families most responsible for the percent dissimilarities between subregions using Bray-Curtis similarity analysis of hierarchical agglomerative group average clustering.
Fig 9.
Distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA) ordination to investigate the relationship between the environmental variables and fish assemblages.
Bray-Curtis similarity matrix based on 4th root-transformed MaxN higher level fish taxa. Symbol sizes are proportional to depth.
Table 3.
Distance-based linear model for fish assemblages and environmental variables.