MAFIA Cruise, RV Hespérides

MAFIA Cruise (29HE20150403) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2015Migrants and Active Flux In the Atlantic Ocean-MAFIA. In the ocean there is a set of organisms that perform vertical migrations, with daily periodicity. These are organisms of zooplankton and micronecton (mainly small fish and crustaceans), which during the hours of light occupy the dark region of the ocean and at night migrate to the layers closest to the surface. These animals play a very important role in marine trophic chains, since they are the food of large migrating fish, birds and marine mammals. Its role in the oceanic carbon flux is just what we have been studying in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.The main objective of the Project is to estimate the active flux in warm waters with a global perspective. We propose two cruises during winter-spring and autumn covering the subtropical, tropical and equatorial zones of the Atlantic Ocean . Fifteen oceanographic stations will be performed along a transect from the Canary Islands to the equivalent latitude in the South Atlantic Ocean. Oceanographic features will be studied thought CTD-rosette casts perfomed in all the stations, and plankton and micronekton abundances and distribution patterns will be analyzed through samples taken from the neuston to the bathypelagic zone in selected stations (upwelling and oligotrophic regions