DISTANTCOM Cruise, RV Hespérides

• Main Authors: Àvila, Conxita, CSIC - Unidad de Tecnología Marina (UTM)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/231974; https://doi.org/10.20351/29HE20160204

DISTANTCOM Cruise (29HE20160204) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2016 The main objective of the project is to understand the diversity and structure of Antarctic marine benthic communities. The ecological activity of marine natural products from Benthic organisms will be studied using chemical ecology experiments in situ. We will collect various marine invertebrates (stars, worms, snails, etc.) and we will study its behavior in the laboratory. We will try find out what chemical defenses they use to repel their predators or to keep clean, preventing organisms from adhering to their surface. These chemicals can also have an activity potentially useful biological in the form of medicines. For putting a example, the compound that prevents the cells of your enemy from spreading it could serve to prevent the development of cancer cells. We will try to learn more about how the animals of the Antarctic fund live: what trophic relationships do they have (who eats whom), what relationships symbiotics present (who lives with whom) or what pollutants accumulate (that they feel bad). We intend to know also their relations of kinship, trying to unveil the family tree of some species, and what factors have conditioned its current distribution. This is important also in relation to climate change. Sampling has been done with beam trawls and with divers