Last week, MBARI Senior Scientist Aaron Micallef and Principal Engineer Dave Caress participated in the GeoHab 2026 conference. During the five-day conference, 130 researchers from around the world gathered at the University of Malta’s historic Valletta Campus. This annual meeting brought together scientists, students, resource managers, and other stakeholders working at the intersection of marine habitat mapping, benthic ecosystems, and seafloor ecology to share their experience and expertise.

Micallef led the conference’s organizing committee, chaired a session on new approaches and technologies for seafloor science, and joined collaborators to present new research to map offshore freshened groundwater. Caress shared progress by MBARI’s Seafloor Mapping Lab to develop a next-generation lidar system for high-resolution, centimeter-scale mapping of seafloor geology and ecosystems. 

Scientific conferences like GeoHab are important opportunities to network with peers around the world and help facilitate new partnerships to share MBARI science, technology, and expertise.

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