MEDWAVES Cruise, RV Sarmiento de Gamboa

• Main Authors: Orejas, Covadonga, CSIC - Unidad de Tecnología Marina (UTM)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Mid-Atlantic Ridge; Sarmiento; Stepping Stones; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/232060; https://doi.org/10.20351/29SG20160921

MEDWAVES Cruise (29SG20160921) carried out on the Research Vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa in 2016 MEDiterranean out flow WAter and Vulnerable EcosystemS (MEDWAVES). Background and Aims MEDWAVES: The Strait of Gibraltar (SG) and the surrounding areas, Gulf of Cadiz (GoC) in the Atlantic, and Alboran sea (AS) in the Mediterranean, are key areas to understand the distribution and connectivity of marine communities (Patarnello et al. 2007), as the SG and the encounter of water masses at the Almeria Oran front represent an oceanographic transition area, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea (Lacombe & Richez 1982). The Mediterranean water flows out from Gibraltar (MOW), extends towards the East of the Atlantic, building a warm and salty water mass which propagates in North West direction from Portugal originating the “Mediterranean Water“ (MW) in the Atlantic. This warm and salty water mass becomes characteristic of the North Atlantic in mid waters (around 1100 m) (Candela 2001). The occurrence of cold-water coral (CWC) communities in the NE Atlantic has been related to the pathway of the MOW, whereby this current system would have an historical influence on the migration of coral larvae and (re)colonization of the Atlantic in the post-glacial era (De Mol et al. 2005, Henry et al. 2014). The MEDWAVES (MEDiterranean out flow WAter and Vulnerable EcosystemS) cruise target areas under the potential influence of the MOW within the Mediterranean and Atlantic realms. These include seamounts where CWC have been reported but that are still poorly known, and which may act as essential “stepping stones” connecting fauna of seamounts in the Mediterranean with those of the continental shelf of Portugal, the Azores and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. During MEDWAVES sampling will be conducted through two of the case studies of ATLAS: Case study 7 (Gulf of Cadiz-Strait of Gibraltar-Alboran Sea) and Case study 8 (Azores). The main goals of the cruise are: (1) to characterize physically and biogeochemically the MOW Path ...