Transcript PPT. 5MB - MarinERA

Regional Drivers of Ecosystem Change and its Influence on
Deep-Sea Populations in the Mediterranean
ReDEco
Nikolaos Lampadariou
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
Marinera wrap-up meeting
Paris 28-29 January 2009
Project details
•
Funded under the MarinERA call for proposals “Regional Drivers of
Ecosystem Change – the measurement, modeling and prediction of
ecosystem change”
•
Total project budget €1.148K
•
Project duration 3 years (February 2009 - January 2012)
•
6 academic partners
•
ReDEco is led by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of
Oceanography, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
•
Partners include both universities and government laboratories
•
ReDEco is also expected to have a strong impact on education of young
scientists
Study areas and overall aims
•
ReDEco will study a variety of ecosystems in a range of geographic
settings, mainly in the eastern Mediterranean, but also in selected areas
of the western Mediterranean
•
ReDEco will focus on key drivers of
climate change (such as temperature
changes, shifts in surface primary
productivity, cold water cascading etc.)
and examine their impact on deep-sea
ecosystems.
•
ReDEco will combine previously collected
data with new information to allow
insights into long-term change in deepsea ecosystems.
•
This will enable a better understanding
and prediction of decadal-scale
fluctuations and their impact on biological
communities and ecosystem functioning.
ReDEco study areas
•
The eastern Mediterranean has unique but poorly understood
ecosystems driven by events such as intermittent deep-water formation
and DSWC…
The Kithira-antikithira have been
studied mainly for hydrological
parameters during 1987 and
1995. Results have shown that
deep water masses, which are
formed in the Cretan Sea overflow
the sills of the eastern part of the
Cretan Arc and sink into the
Levantine and Ionian Basins
The Cretan Sea has been studied
since 1994. Different water masses
occur along the slopes. Time-series
study with sediment traps (19992005)
The Ierapetra Basin is a long
monitoring site. Significant changes
have been observed during the
eastern Med climatic Transient
(1992).
Project structure
WP1: Project co-ordination and management
WP2
Physicochemical
environment
WP3
Biodiversity
& community
structure
WP4
Dense
self water
cascading
WP5
Biogeography
of key
species
Area 1: Ierapetra basin
Area 2: Cretan Sea
Area 3: Kithira-Antikithira straights
Other areas: Western & Eastern Mediterranean & Atlantic
WP6: Ecosystem response and prediction
WP1: Co-ordination and management
WP Title
1 Project co-ordination and management (HCMR)
2 Characterization of the physicochemical environment (HCMR)
Benthic community structure, including micro- meio- macro- and
3 megafaunal communities, and its relationship to the environment (UA)
Effects of Dense Shelf Water Cascading (DSWC) on mass and
energy transfer and consequences on benthic diversity, functional
traits, biological capacity and biogeochemical cycles in deep-sea
4 basins (UB)
5 Biogeography and molecular analysis of key species (IMAR)
Ecosystem response and prediction to inter-annual and decadal
6 variability (HCMR)
Leader
Organization
N. Lampadariou HCMR
P. Polymenakou HCMR
M. Cunha
UA
M. Canals
S. Stefanni
UB
IMAR
A. Tselepides
UP
WP2: Physicochemical environment
•
Aim:
 To describe key environmental factors - water column, organic
matter input, sediment geochemistry- and their variability in space
and time.
 Support to WP3 (biodiversity and population dynamics of benthic
communities)
•
Methods:
 Quantitative samples will be collected with multiple corers and box
corers
 Compact lander deployments
 Sediment traps
WP2: Temporal variability
POC Flux
14
12
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Trap A
Trap B
10
C Flux (mg*d-1*m-2)
2004
8
6
4
2
0
Dates
Cretan Sea (Tselepides, unpublished data)
WP3: Biodiversity and community structure
•
Aim:
 to examine the benthic community responses to natural drivers and
climate induced changes.
 Role of major benthic groups in processing of fresh organic matter in
the deep sea
•
Methods:
 Processing of existing samples as well as collection of new
quantitative samples from the three study areas;
 All major benthic components (i.e. microbial, meiofaunal and
macrofaunal communities).
 Measurements of density, biomass and biodiversity (Biodiversity:
both morphological and molecular approaches)
 Enrichment experiments with 13-C-labeled organic substrates.
 Label uptake and incorporation by active microbial populations will
be tracked into specific biomarkers.
 Stable isotope analysis for larger organisms (i.e. meiofauna and
macrofauna)
WP3: Role of long term monitoring sites
30
220
CPE
25
200
180
Metazoa
CPE (ì g g-1)
20
140
120
15
100
80
10
60
5
40
20
0
1987
1993
1998 1999
0
Year
Ierapetra Basin meiobenthos (Lampadariou et al. 2009)
Metazoa (ind 10 cm-2)
160
WP4: Dense self water cascading
•
Aim:
 Evaluate the impact of environmental fluctuations driven by
meteorological, hydrological and biological forcing at intra
(seasonality) and interannual time scales.
 Special attention to episodic events that are particularly efficient in
transferring the signal from the upper, coastal ocean layers to the
deep, like DSWC.
•
Methods:
 Deployment of instrumented arrays along transects from the shelf
edge to the deep basin
 Measurement of physical parameters (T, salinity, current speed and
direction, suspended sediment concentration) of the water masses
involved in DSWC.
 Satellite imagery will be used to monitor the productivity and
turbidity variations of the uppermost ocean layer in the source areas
of DSWC.
WP4: Integration
•
Integration:
 Parallel experiments for cross-basin analysis of the triggers, onset,
development and deep-sea ecosystem impact of DSWC events at
basin scale
Cañón del Cap de Creus (invierno 2004-05, 750 m)
WP5: Biogeography of key species
•
Aim:
 To determine the genetic structure of selected species in order to
identify potential migration corridors.
•
Methods:
 Key species  polychaeta, crustacea, fish
 Combined molecular approaches (microsatellites, mtDNA and nDNA
markers)
 Comparison western vs. eastern Mediterranean
R/V Meteor 1998
Myriochele fragilis
Pliny Trench (4300 m)
Baited trap samples
~ 3000 m
Chaceon mediterraneus
Central med ~ 3000 m
WP6: Ecosystem response and prediction
•
Aim:
 To integrate, ecosystem functioning, deep-sea biodiversity,
microbiology and physical oceanography
 To provide the most relevant and consistent information on changes
in marine ecosystems and functional biodiversity in relation to global
change.
•
Expected results:
 The results will hopefully provide sound scientific data from which to
develop management and conservation options and the baseline for
future studies on the effects of climate change in the deep-sea.
Work plan
•
Collection and analysis of historical data as well as analysis of existing samples
(not yet analyzed) related to hydrology, prevailing environmental parameters,
functional diversity and benthic communities (including microbial, meio-,
macro- and megabenthic communities).
•
Collection of new data during several new cruises which will be carried out
mainly during the first two years of the project. Field activities will include
measuring the main physico-chemical parameters of the water column as well
as collection of bottom samples for sediment chemistry and benthic community
analyses (including microbial, meio-, macro- and megabenthic communities).
•
Collection of ichtyofauna using a commercial vessel that trawls inside the study
areas during two phases of the project to cover a short temporal scale and
seasonal recruitment.
•
Identification of regional drivers which are potentially important for ecosystem
change
•
Creation of a baseline database with mapping of benthic biodiversity for each
sampling area
•
Construction of a conceptual model to run different hypothetical scenarios with
varying environmental factors to predict effects of climate change on various
ecosystem properties
Links to other ongoing project
•
HERMES
•
BIOFUN
•
CeDAMar-LEVAR
•
DEECON
•
MarBef
•
MARECO
•
HERMIONE
Research vessels: R/V Aegaio; R/V Philia