Deep-sea hydrothermal communities are host to a relatively small number of very specialized taxa that are only found near active hydrothermal vents. Community composition varies among biogeographic provinces in the world. In the West Pacific, the complex geological history has led to similar-looking communities amongst different regions. The goal of this research line is to use molecular barcode approaches (a fragment of mitochondrial CoxI gene) to compare the species composition of each community, determine whether larval exchange takes place (connectivity) and whether our estimation of biodiversity is skewed by the presence of cryptic species.

These data will have important repercussions in our understanding and in the management and conservation of these unique ecosystems and the species that inhabit them. This is especially important in the West Pacific, where deep-sea mining is planned in the upcoming years. The produced data will be made accessible on public databases such as GenBank use by other researchers in the world.