Programma: ESF – EUCORES
Titolo progetto: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Contrasting Southern European Deep-Sea Environmentas: from viruses to megafauna
Acronimo: Biofun
Durata: 2007-2010
Budget totale: € 1.090.000
Sito Web: http://www.eurodeep.net/biofun/
Sommario: The aim of BIOFUN is to characterise, under an ecosystem approach, two deep-sea habitats – the mid-slope and abyssal plain – including for the first time the analysis from viruses to megafauna, to understand the linkages between biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning in relation to environmental conditions along a gradient of increased oligotrophy from West to East. The BIOFUN team, composed of 10 partners, proposes a multidisciplinary coordinated research programme to investigate the Algerian-Balearic Basin (1200 & 3000 m) and the Ionian Sea (1200 & 3000 m) in the Mediterranean, and the Galicia Bank in the Atlantic (1200 & 3000 m). Supplementary areas will be sampled by different partners, including the Catalan slope (NW Mediterranean), the Messina Abyssal Plain (4100 m) and the Levantine Basin. The sampling programme is based on several multidisciplinary cruises to be conducted in 2008 and 2009: two trans-Mediterranean cruises using the new Spanish RV Sarmiento de Gamboa and the Italian RV Urania, two cruises to the Galicia Bank on board the Belgian RV Belgica and the Dutch RV Pelagia and several smaller cruises in the NW Mediterranean.
Contatto in ISMAR: e.manini@ismar.cnr.it
Partnership:
- ISMAR-CNR, IT
- UGent, BE
- NIOO, NL
- NIOZ, NL
- NUIG, IE
- CEFREM, FR
- UNIVPM, IT
- HCMR, GR
- SNG, DE