CE19014 Cruise Report: Monitoring Changes in Submarine Canyon Coral Habitats - Leg 2 (MoCha_Scan II)

Cruise report - Executive Summary Cold-water corals generate lush, structurally complex habitats in otherwise barren parts of the deep seabed. They trap particulates including particulate organic matter (POM) and sediment enabling them to develop bathymetric structures called reefs and mounds. This survey focuses on the maiden retrieval of 8 novel, ROV-adapted lander systems in the Porcupine Bank Canyon (PBC) coral habitats, NE Atlantic. CWC habitats have been mapped on the Irish margin over the past 20 years to progressively higher resolutions. In recent years, repeat mapping at consistently higher resolutions show that these habitats are dynamic and change has been quantified (sediment types, coral status and biodiversity). However, this drivers controlling this change has yet to be quantified or characterised. The main objective of this survey is to retrieve 8 lander systems that have been deployed in the PBC during CE19008 (MoCha_Scan Leg 1). These landers have been deployed for a period of approx. 2.5 months within a range of coral habitats throughout the PBC. They have been sampling particulates continuously and binned into 2.7 day bins. Current speed and direction have been measured in 20 m profiles from the lander for a period of 2 minutes every 10 minutes. Data recorded via landers from each habitat will allow to determine the controls on habitat variability and process thresholds. Furthermore, this data can be used as a baseline to which later deployments at this site will be used to compare against. Data will feed into a number of projects including: the H2020 project “Integrated Assessment of Atlantic Marine Ecosystems in Space & Time” (iATLANTIC) and the SFI-, GSI- and MI-funded “Mapping, Modelling and Monitoring Key Processes and Controls on Cold Water Coral Habitats in Submarine Canyons” (MMMonKey_Pro) programme.Funding Information: This research survey is carried out with the support of the Marine Institute, funded under the Marine Research Programme 2014-2020 by the Irish Government to support and promote the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (2018-2021). Aaron Lim, Luke O' Reilly, John Appah, Kim Harris and Larissa Macedo are funded by the Science Foundation of Ireland Investigator Program (co-funded by the Marine Insititue and Geological Survey, Ireland)