Selected Aspects of the Ecology of the Continental Slope Fauna of the Gulf of Mexico

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) funded a Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope (NGOMCS) study which was conducted over the period 1983-1998. The studies were completed and a review of selected aspects were published in the peer-reviewed literature (Pequegnat et al. 1990). A new continental slope study was funded by MMS in the late 1990's. It was subsequently learned that large portions of the historical database had been lost or corrupted. In this study, we have 1) reconstructed and updated the database to include corrections to the data that were made after the contract was completed; 2) conducted new analyses to test the zonation hypothesis proposed in the original study; and 3) prepared a summary of the overall findings. We conclude that the Gulf continental slope appears to differ from the slope fauna of the U.S. Atlantic region in several fundamental ways and that the general pattern of faunal change on the upper slope is that of a non-repeating sequence of species arrayed along the depth gradient rather than three distinct and homogeneous megafaunal assemblages.