Banda deep-sea research: History, mission and strategic plan

Abstract

Attention to the deep-sea ecosystem research in order to achieve blue economy goals is low. The Banda Sea is important deep-sea ecosystem in Indonesia and it was identified as a global marine mega-biodiversity site. The objectives of this paper are 1) to document the history, achievements, and challenges of deep-sea research development and 2) to develop a grand design and innovative strategic plan for deep-sea research. Literature reviews and questionnaire survey for scientists across Indonesia were carried out. The literature reviews indicated that deep-sea ecosystem is not well documented. Few articles on deep-sea were published (mean 0.8 article y-1) which were mainly focused on geological (45%) and physical oceanography (32%), less research on biological (16%) and chemical oceanography (8%). Deep-sea ecosystem faced tremendous threats due to ecosystem degradation, pollution, and climate change. The questionnaire survey showed that research infrastructure/facilities (Ranking 1) and institutional management systems (Ranking 2) were the main obstacles to Indonesian deep-sea research development. A grand design named Indonesian Deep-sea Research and Monitoring (I-DREAM) and its strategic plan were developed to achieve blue economy goals. Strengthening research infrastructure and institutional management systems are the top priories that should be achieved in the short-term period to support deep-sea research in Indonesia. Scientific pursuit in long-term period should be focused on biodiversity and deep-sea ecology including chemical oceanography (24%) and its interaction with other ecosystems and atmosphere (18%) were identified as the top priorities to be implemented for future research (Ranking 1 and 2). The Banda Sea was identified as a suitable core study area of the I-DREAM's pilot project. The grand-design and its innovative strategic plan are essential to fulfilling high demand on a guideline for deep-sea research to achieve blue economic development goals.