RV Maria S. Merian MSM26
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RV Maria S. Merian (06M2) |
| Cruise identifier | MSM26 |
| Cruise period | 2013-03-20 — 2013-04-16 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Cork, Ireland |
| Port of return | St. John's, Canada |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | The scientific programme of cruise MSM 26 focused on a broad scale survey of the North Atlantic pelagic ecosystem as well as targeted process studies in different habitats. The activities were designed to establish habitat utilization of different taxa as well as their impacts on carbon flux using a combination of field sampling with conventional and new equipment as well as on board process studies. The EU (Germany and Norway) based synoptic cruises as part of the EU funded EURO-BASIN program will allow a basin-wide assessment of habitats, vital rates and plasticity of response of key rates relative to abiotic forcing. The ultimate goal of these activities is to identify the critical abiotic habitats utilized by key ecosystem and biogeochemical players. The occurrence of these habitats then can be linked to coupled atmosphere ocean ecosystem models enabling an assessment of the future dynamics of marine ecosystems and their services.
Poor weather meant that no scientific activity took place in UK waters. |
| Chief scientist | Bernd Christiansen (Hamburg University Institute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science) |
| Cruise report |  (2.22 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Atlantic Ocean Irish Sea and St. George's Channel Celtic Sea |
| Specific | Transect across the subpolar North Atlantic with stations in the Iceland Basin, Irminger Basin and Labrador Basin. |
| Track charts | (0.85 MB) |
