We dedicate the present volume to the late Howard Sanders, who passed away after a long illness on 7 February 2001. When as a young scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution he, together with his colleague Bob Hessler and his technical assistant George Hampson, collected and analyzed the first "quantitative" samples of deep-sea benthos (today one would call them semi-quantitative), he may not have had any idea how instrumental the resulting time-stability hypothesis would prove to be for at least four decades of biological deep-sea research. The image of the deep-sea floor being a lifeless desert or, at best, a desolate place harboring a depauperate fauna was shattered when investigations along a transect between Bermuda and Gay Head, a cliff on the island of Martha's Vineyard off Massachusetts, revealed that while densities decreased with depth, species richness actually increased. Since then, many more samples have been collected, our knowledge, limited as it may still be, has increased dramatically, and many new theories and hypotheses have been developed. Nevertheless, the work and personality of Howard Sanders are still something one feels obligated to measure up to. With ANDEEP I and II, we may not have entered as much of a terra incognita as Sanders and colleagues did 40 years ago, but our excitement was certainly comparable. We sincerely hope Howard would approve if he could hold this volume in his hands. |
