The deep-pelagic realm as a ‘biological desert’?... hardly. A case study of a highly speciose meso/bathypelagic ecoregion, the Gulf of Mexico.

Tracey Sutton1, Jon Moore2, April B Cook3, Andrea Bernard4, Ron Eytan5, Max Weber5 and Mahmood Shivji6, (1)Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, FL, United States, (2)Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, FL, United States, (3)Nova Southeastern University, Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, Dania Beach, FL, United States, (4)Nova Southeastern University, United States, (5)Texas A&M University Galveston, United States, (6)London, United Kingdom