For a year, the VENUS camera photographed the same area of seafloor in Saanich Inlet. A recent paper examines the response of the benthic animals to changing levels of oxygen. Only a few species cope with hypoxia but the high numbers suggest that food availability and refuge from oxygen-starved predators is a good strategy for some. The research predicts marked changes on the continental shelf with growing “dead zones”.

Reference

Matabos M., Tunnicliffe V., Juniper S.K., Dean C. 2012. A year in hypoxia: epibenthic community responses to severe oxygen deficit at a subsea observatory in a coastal inlet. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45626. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0045626.