Other cruises associated with CODEMAP

CUMECS2: http://cumecs2.blogspot.co.uk/p/home_3.html

CUMECS-2 is a research expedition that will survey the Malta-Sicily Escarpment, one of the largest and least-explored underwater cliffs in the Mediterranean Sea. The expedition is a follow-on from the first, very successful CUMECS cruise in 2012, and will extend our mapping efforts and scientific understanding from that expedition into deeper waters.

CODEMAP participation: Tim Le Bas, Claudio Lo Iacono and Veerle Huvenne.  The Malta Escarpment is riddled with submarine canyons, hence the perfect terrain for the CODEMAP team to apply our skills and knowledge!

SORBEH: Slope collapses On Rockall Bank and Escarpment Habitats

 http://scientistsatsea.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/sorbeh-day-6.html

CODEMAP has teamed up with our Irish colleagues from the University College Dublin for this two-week expedition on board the RV Celtic Explorer. The aim is to study the Rockall Bank Slide Complex, in more detail, an extensive area on the SE flank of Rockall Bank where several submarine landslides have happened in the geological past, creating a exciting series of deep-sea escarpments.

Using the Irish ROV ‘Holland I’, together with a new gravity corer system, we are trying to better constrain the type of material in which these landslides developed. At the same time, the escarpments that formed are impressive vertical habitats, and from previous work (e.g. in Whittard Canyon) we’ve learnt these can be very rich! So the CODEMAP team, including Claudio Lo Iacono, Katleen Robert, Veerle Huvenne and our summer internship student Leo Chaumillon, together with PhD students Lissette Victorero and Laurence De Clippele will investigate the biological communities that grow on them, and will try out our vertical mapping technique once again!

TROPICS: https://tropics.blogs.ilrt.org/

An ERC-funded expedition using the ROV ISIS to collect cold-water coral and sediment samples for the paleoceanographic reconstruction of abrupt changes in the chemistry and circulation of the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean

CODEMAP participation: Veerle Huvenne. To sample cold-water corals for paleoceanographic reconstructions, the TROPICS team is targeting seamounts along the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean. Many of those seamounts have never been mapped in any detail, and host a wealth of different seafloor habitats in complex settings. CODEMAP will support its sister ERC project by providing mapping expertise, while in the meantime obtaining the opportunity to gather unique (ROV-based) multibeam and video data for further analysis in the project.

JC080 – CHESSO cruise : http://hotventscoldocean.blogspot.co.uk

The fourth expedition of the CHESSO programme will explore areas of the deep seabed of the Southern Ocean to locate and investigate hydrothermal vent systems and the associated fauna.

CODEMAP participation: Veerle Huvenne. In addition to submarine canyons and cold-water coral reefs, hydrothermal vents are a third type of deep-sea habitat considered a biodiversity hotspot with a very complex spatial structure. Using the re-built ROV ISIS and its new high-resolution multibeam system, the CODEMAP team will create very detailed maps of these vent fields, and will quantify their specific morphological heterogeneity.

JC073 – the 'Changing Oceans' cruise: http://changingoceans2012.blogspot.co.uk

Using a Remotely Operated Vehicle, the Changing Oceans cruise surveyed and sampled deep-water coral communities to examine the potential impact of changes in temperature and chemistry of the oceans ('ocean acidification').

CODEMAP participation: Veerle Huvenne. Although the Changing Oceans cruise was focussed on the effect of ocean acidification, it is important to understand the spatial context in which this happens, both at the ultra-local scale, and at the more regional scale. CODEMAP provided this information to the Changing Oceans team, while the opportunity to work with ROV-based mapping equipment provided CODEMAP with an extra ultra-high resolution dataset.

CUMECS: http://cumecs2012.blogspot.co.uk

A research expedition exploring the geology and habitats of submarine canyons in the Central Mediterranean Sea

CODEMAP participation: Tim Le Bas, Khaira Ismail, Veerle Huvenne and Claudio Lo Iacono. Submarine canyons are the prime target deep-sea environment of CODEMAP, and the participation in the CUMECS cruise provides the team with a new dataset on which it can test the latest habitat mapping methodologies.