Hypercomf and Markos Digenis are working together on the Studiotopia residency at Onassis Stegi

Marine caves constitute unique ecosystems due to their use by several marine species as a precious, rare opportunity for refuge and due to the varying intensity levels of light penetrating them, which create several distinct ecological zones within each cave. Their dark interior creates the suitable conditions for sciaphilic (shade loving) organisms such as deep-sea creatures while endemic, rare and protected species can also be found. At the same time, marine caves attract an increasing number of invasive species seeking refuge, altering the biodiversity of the ecosystem in unpredictable ways. These dark, ancient and up to recent years, relatively undisturbed “homes” are being infused with new objects and materialities and their discreet inhabitants are being introduced to new interactions. Besides non-endemic species, plastics have been sighted by divers, littering the floor of the caves while intense human activity close to the cave entrances creates the possibility of added evolving threats.

A momentary gesture of “cleaning up” these sites would only cause momentary relief, the larger oceanic issues clearly require grand perceptual and systemic transformations such as the reforming of the social mentality towards consumption and the re-evaluation of our practises using a new set of values, one that focuses on the long term implications of our practises.

In order to investigate and communicate these issues that include both the perceptual and practical problematics that arise with marine ecosystem preservation, marine biologist Markos Digenis from the island of Crete, who is studying the marine cave benthos of Greece, will collaborate with Hypercomf, the artist team researching the landscape of the seabed as the stage of an anthropocentric culture’s undoing.

Their collaborative project is based on a detailed field study of the marine cave ecosystems of Chania, Crete, which will provide the first holistic approach on these environments and their threats from human activities (an extremely valuable baseline for future ecosystem monitoring) and the development of a sustainable design prototype that will incorporate the field study’s finds and utilize the hard to recycle, marine plastic waste that threatens marine biodiversity, for home flooring and surface construction. A sustainable design proposal that parallel to providing a use for this waste material and reintroducing it to the human home and domain, would help reduce the amount of concrete and river/marine sand extracted from the natural environment for such uses.

The study that forms the base of the project is, as mentioned, the first of its kind on the marine caves of the specific area of Crete and the first that focuses on the concentration levels of macroplastic and microplastic pollution in marine caves in the Mediterranean Sea. The year 2021 has been chosen as the International Year of Caves and Karst (IYCK); this study seizes this timely opportunity to present these ecosystems and raise public awareness.

During the diving expedition, data will be collected for both qualitative and quantitative assessment of sessile and motile cave fauna of hard and soft substrate via visual census, samples identification and photoquadrat analysis. The study will divide each marine cave into the three following established ecological zones. The Entrance zone were plenty of light intrudes, enhancing the survival and growth of photosynthetic organisms as rhodophytes, the intermediate Semi-dark zone where light diffusion decreases and sponges dominate in terms of coverage and the inner Dark zone where most of the substrate constitutes bare rock with some polychaetes (sea worms), encrusting bryozoans, brachiopods and sponges.

Different morphological and topographic characteristics of the studied caves such as min/max depth, total length, width, orientation, cave type (submerged or semi-submerged, blind end or tunnel), number of entrances and the possible presence of inner beach, air chamber, narrow passages and others will be reported. Impacts and threats as marine litter (e.g. macroplastics) and non-endemic species, species fragmentation and necrosis as well as protected and cave characteristic species will be recorded. Any and all found macroplastics will be collected. The study will result in an archive of a minimum of 60 photoquadrats per cave, samples of motile or/and sessile organisms and a minimum of 9 core samples for sediment analysis. Special care will be given to the search of small and highly cryptic motile species.

Following the dive, there will be filtering and separation of the collected sediment, sorting of the macrofaunal and its subsequent identification to general morphological groups as well as the sorting and archiving of microplastic material that will be found in the sampled sediment. Photoquadrats and motile species will also be extensively analyzed and archived through the use of software and laboratory equipment, creating the very first official documentation of the biodiversity of these caves and the first assessment of the level of threat they are facing from human activity.

The diving team will consist of HCMR researchers, professional divers and the resident scientist, Markos Digenis. The dive, field study and the process of sediment extraction and its subsequent analysis will be archived on video. This wide radius of visual archiving and data collecting, sample analysis, microscopy, photography and photoquadrat analysis from the walls and seabed of the underwater caves, will inform the design of the several sustainable terrazzo tiles who will link these unseen, relatively isolated marine ecosystems with the cultural, industrial and territorial affairs that inevitably surround any ecosystem.