Cruise Summary Report - MEDWAVES survey. MEDiterranean out flow WAter and Vulnerable EcosystemS (MEDWAVES)

• Main Authors: Orejas, Covadonga, Addamo, Anna, Álvarez, Marta, Aparicio-González, Alberto, Alcoverro, Daniel, Arnaud-Haond, Sophie, Bilan, Meri, Boavida, Joana, Caínzos, Verónica, Calderón, Rubén, Cambeiro, Peregrino, Castaño-Carrera, Mónica, Fox, Alan, Gallardo-Núñez, Marina, Gori, Andrea, Gutiérrez, Cristina, Henry, Lea Anne, Hermida, Miriam, Jiménez-Aparicio, Juan Antonio, López-Jurado, José Luis, Lozano-Ordóñez, Pablo, Mateo-Ramírez, Ángel, Mateu, Guillermo, Matoso, José Luis, Méndez, Carlos, Morillas-Kieffer, Ana, Movilla-Martín, Juancho, Olariaga, Alejandro, Paredes, Manuel, Pelayo, Víctor, Piñeiro, Safo, Rakka, María, Ramírez-Cárdenas, Teodoro, Ramos, Manuela, Reis, Jesús, Rivera, Jesús, Romero, Alberto, Rueda, José Luis, Salvador, Antonio, Sampaio, Iris, Sánchez, Héctor, Santiago, Rocío, Serrano, Alberto, Taranto, G.H., Urra, Javier, Vélez-Belchí, Pedro, Viladrich, Núria, Zein, Martha
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares; Medio Marino; Deep-Sea; conectivity; Mediterranean; Atlantic; Mediterranean outflow water; Mid-Atlantic Ridge; Stepping Stones; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10508/11264; http://hdl.handle.net/10261/318457; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.556516

The MEDWAVES (MEDiterranean out flow WAter and Vulnerable EcosystemS) cruise targeted areas under the potential influence of the MOW within the Mediterranean and Atlantic realms. These include seamounts where Cold-water corals (CWCs) 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 has been conducted in two of the case studies of ATLAS: Case study 7 (Gulf of Cádiz-Strait of Gibraltar-Alboran Sea) and Case study 8 (Azores). The initially targeted areas in the Atlantic were: the Gazul Mud volcano, in the Gulf of Cádiz (GoC) area, included in the case study 7, and the Atlantic seamounts Ormonde (Portuguese shelf) and Formigas (by Azores), both part of the case study 8. In the Mediterranean the targeted areas were The Guadiaro submarine canyon and the Seco de los Olivos (also known as Chella Bank) seamount. Unfortunately it was not possible to sample in Guadiaro due to time constraints originated by adverse meteorological conditions which obligate us to reduce the time at sea focusing only in 4 of the 5 initially planned areas. MEDWAVES was structured in two legs; the first leg took place from the 21st September (departure from Cádiz harbour in Spain) to the 13th October 2016 (arrival in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, Portugal took place the 8th of October due to the meteorological conditions that obligated to conclude the first leg earlier as planned). during the Leg 1 sampling was carried out in Gazul, Ormonde and Formigas. The second leg started the 14th October (departure from Ponta Delgada) and finished the 26th October (arrival in Málaga harbour, Spain). MEDWAVES had a total of 30 effective sampling days, being 6 days not operative due to the adverse meteorological conditions experienced during the first leg which forced us to stay in Ponta Delgada from the 08th to the 13th October. During ...