The POSEIDON – SEED oceanographic campaign, a collaboration between the National Research Council (ISMAR, IAS) and the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station (Sicily Marine Centre) as part of the PNRR projects for the development of the “National Biodiversity Future Center,” has come to an end. The main purpose of the campaign, carried out aboard the oceanographic vessel ‘GAIA BLU’, was to characterise the pelagic ecosystem in an area of the central-southern Tyrrhenian Sea influenced by the presence of the Marsili and Palinuro underwater volcanoes. During the campaign, acoustic data (Multi Beam Echo Sounder – MBES and Single Beam Echo Sounder – SBES) and CTD profiles were acquired to study zooplankton species aggregations and their behavior in relation to circadian cycles. To this end, samples of water, zooplankton, and pleuston were also collected, on which classical (taxonomic, molecular, and isotopic analyses) and innovative (DNA metabarcoding) techniques will be used to characterize the biodiversity and food web of these systems, which are areas of considerable importance for large pelagic predators.
Info: marco.barra@cnr.it
On the left: Drone and microscopic photography: marcello.felsani@cnr.it
