Research into the biodiversity of WA’s deep-sea marine parks has been boosted by funding with The University of Western Australia’s Dr Paige Maroni receiving an award as part of the Federal Government’s National Taxonomy Research Grant Program.

The Australian Biological Resources Study Early Career Researchers Award is for Dr Maroni’s project, Chasms and connectivity: Linking deep-sea regions within Australia's EEZ, which aims to understand the evolutionary development and diversification of amphipods, a deep-sea crustacean.

“Amphipods offer significant insights into deep-sea life due to their ease of collection, which stems from their predatory nature,” Dr Maroni said.

“We will collect samples at depths from 1000 to 6000 metres in an area of over 5000km from Bremer Bay Canyon to Christmas Island.”

Dr Maroni aims to clarify the evolutionary relationships, document undiscovered species and provide baseline data to help provide effective management of Australian Marine Parks. 

“The project will involve DNA sequencing hundreds of East Indian Ocean deep-sea amphipod specimens and reconstructing the first evolutionary map of all species from this region,” she said.

“We want to advance our understanding of evolution in the deep-sea and make a significant contribution to the field of taxonomy.”

The grant of up to $20,000 is available to early career researchers through the National Taxonomy Research Grant Program, which aims to improve knowledge of Australia’s biodiversity.