RRS James Cook JC062 - Oceans2025: Porcupine Abyssal Plain - Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO)

While there has been an increase in the understanding of how climate and surface processes affect deep-sea communities, the ability to understand these links further is thought to be limited by sampling error from undetected habitat heterogeneity (i.e. irregular or uneven habitat distributions). Features like hills, valleys, depressions, small rock outcrops, and biogenic mounds add to habitat complexity, but links between such features and the animals that live among them are very poorly resolved in abyssal plain habitats using current methods.

Our efforts aimed to address the following objectives:

1. We serviced the PAP1, PAP3 and Bathysnap long-term observatory systems. These systems provide data that is critical in understanding connections between climate, surface ocean processes, and change in deep-sea habitats.

2. We ecologically surveyed the region around the PAP - Sustained Observatory (SO) to understand how the topography of the seabed alters the abundance and distribution of fauna in abyssal habitats. This surveying employed the use of acoustic mapping, megacoring, box coring, a baited camera lander, towed cameras, an amphipod trap, and trawling.

3. We also conducted a number of specialised research studies including research on low bandwidth observatory telecommunications, phytoplankton community structure, bioluminescence, the impacts of crude oil on benthic sediment communities, and the effects of pressure on photoreceptors, and the potential impacts of trawling on slope habitats in the Porcupine Seabight. These studies took advantage of the equipment above with the addition of conductivity temperature and depth (CTD) rosette casts and laboratory facilities.

The cruise achieved its main objectives including servicing of mooring infrastructure, ecological mapping of the PAP area, and a survey of potentially impacted sponge communities on the N PSB slope. We were favoured by good weather and what proved to be mainly minor issues with winches and other equipment. We surveyed three abyssal plain areas and four hill areas within the greater vicinity of the PAP-SO. At all of these seven sites we conducted a WASP transect and at least 5 megacore deployments. At all seven survey sites except PAP Cent. we conducted a baited camera and ampipod trap deployment as the deposition of ballast at PAP Cent. was to be avoided. At the PAP Cent. site we also conducted series of five box core deployments. Details on specific activities, their objectives and initial results are provided below including ancillary activities conducted at Goban Spur and the Porcupine Seabight.

 
Citation proposal
(2012) . RRS James Cook JC062 - Oceans2025: Porcupine Abyssal Plain - Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO). https://services.mspdata.eu:/geonetwork/srv/api/records/b3e8bc57-e7cf-4cad-a33b-82928a2233a8

Simple

Date ( Publication )
2012-02-27
Identifier
b3e8bc57-e7cf-4cad-a33b-82928a2233a8
Credit
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Status
Completed

  Distributor

Website
https://www.bodc.ac.uk/  
Thèmes Sextant ( Theme )
  • /Human Activities/Oceanographical Cruises
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ( Theme )
Mission Atlantic - BODC Parameters ( Theme )
  • /Biological oceanography/Fish , /Biological oceanography/Other biological measurements
Mission Atlantic - Data type (DMP) ( Theme )
  • Acoustic data
Mission Atlantic - Work Package ( Theme )
  • WP3 Pelagic Mapping
Mission Atlantic - Resources ( Theme )
  • Data
Other constraints
Spatial representation type
Grid
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Oceans
N
S
E
W


Vertical extent

Minimum value
4813
Maximum value
4813
Geometric object type
Composite
OnLine resource
All data series  
OnLine resource
Cruise summary report  
Hierarchy level
Series

Metadata

File identifier
b3e8bc57-e7cf-4cad-a33b-82928a2233a8   XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Series
Date stamp
2021-12-08T11:27:47
Metadata standard name
ISO 19115:2003/19139 - SEXTANT
Metadata standard version
1.0

  Point of contact

Website
https://sextant.ifremer.fr/eng  
 
 

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