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RV Maria S. Merian Cruise MSM20-4
WACOM - West Atlantic Cold-water Coral Ecosystems
Trans North-Atlantic Cold-water Coral Studies
◊ 14. March - 07. April 2012
◊ Bridgetown/Barbados - Freeport/Bahamas
◊ Gulf of Mexico & Straits of Florida
Have a look on the Cruise Blog!!!
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for further details please contact:
for further information see:
Interesting links
◊ Control Station/Leitstelle Merian (IfM - University of Hamburg)
◊ Cruise schedule 2012
◊ Current position of Maria S. Merian
◊ Briese shipping company
◊ MARUM logistics
◊ TRACES - Trans-Atlantic Coral Ecosystem Study
◊ Lophelia.org - All about Cold-Water Corals
Research programme
The expedition with RV MARIA S. MERIAN will investigate cold-water coral (CWC) ecosystems in the West Atlantic Ocean (Florida Straits, Gulf of Mexico). Occurring in water depths of 300 m to 900 m these cousins of the more famous shallow-water corals are still poorly known. The focus of the expedition will be on the assessment of the CWC ecosystem distribution, appearance and biodiversity under present and past glacial conditions. The overall aim is to compare the CWC ecosystems of the West Atlantic with the CWC sites of the East Atlantic that have been intensely studied during the past years. The samples and data to be obtained during the expedition will allow for the first time (1) to reconstruct the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of CWCs in the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico during the last glacial-interglacial cycle and (2) to put the resulting data in a North Atlantic-wide context by linking them with the available extensive NE Atlantic dataset, and finally (3) to identify the major environmental forcing factors that control CWC growth and development in the North Atlantic realm.
The sampling targets during the cruise to the NW Atlantic Ocean comprise "potential" CWC mounds along the N- and E-Campeche Bank (working areas A1 & A2, Yucatan Peninsula) and the West Florida Slope (working areas B1 & B2) within the Gulf of Mexico, and reported CWC occurrences in the Florida Straits (working area C: south off Florida, working area D: Great Bahama Bank, working area E: Little Bahama Bank). For all selected sites station work will start with a detailed bathymetric mapping (multibeam echosounder) and ROV video surveys to characterise the facies and fauna, and to identify the most suited coring sites. Based on this information, positions will be defined to conduct a dedicated sampling (gravity cores, box cores, grabs, water samples) and monitoring (CTD, lander) programme within or in the direct vicinity of the observed CWC sites. During previous expeditions this strategy (mapping -> video observation -> targeted sampling) has already been proven to be very successful in sampling CWC material and data of their surrounding environment.
