BATHYPELAGIC Cruise, RV Sarmiento de Gamboa

BATHYPELAGIC Cruise (29SG20180524) carried out on the Research Vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa in 2018The main objective of the Project is to estimate the active flux towards bathypelagic waters (carbon sequestration) with a global perspective. We propose a cruise during summer 2018 covering the subtropical and temperate zones of the Atlantic Ocean . Nine 48 h oceanographic stations will be performed along a transect from the Canary Islands to Reykjavik in Iceland. 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. Exported at the mesopelagic and sequestered carbon at the bathypelagic zone by active flux will be assessed in zooplankton and micronekton. Knowledge of the sequestration due to the pelagic fauna is a gap in the study of the biological pump in the ocean. Carbon reaching the base of the permanent pycnocline will remain at depth during a long period (>100 years) and the role of zooplankton and micronekton in sequestering carbon has not been evaluated yet. This project will be the first estimation of these fluxes. Acoustic data will be recorded along the transect and in all the oceanographic stations, which combined with the information obtained from the Acoustic Zooplankton Fish Profiler (AZFP) and video cameras attached to the rosette sampler will allow a complete acoustic and visual picture of plankton and micronekton layers . The use of different nets (Mocnees and Mesopelagos or MOHT) to obtain the ground truth will give an insight into the overall biomass of these communities. Calibration of echosounders will be performed leeward of Gran Canaria Island, a suitable place (calm and deep) for this wor