MAR-ECO, a Census of Marine Life Programme

Mar-Eco is an international exploratory study of the macro- and megafauna of the northern Mid-Atlantic in the waters around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) from Iceland to the Azores. Scientists from 16 nations around the northern Atlantic Ocean are participating. Research is focussed on the following questions: 1) Are the MAR communities extensions of the communities inhabiting the North Atlantic continental slope regions? 2) Is there a difference in species occurrence either side of the MAR? 3) Do circulation features, such as the Gulf Stream, act as barriers between the northern and southern fauna? 4) What is the effect of eastward drift and import of material from the west in the region of the Gulf Stream,? 5) What is the significance of individual seamounts within the ridge system? 6) Is the trophic structure of the northern mid-Atlantic ecosystem similar to that on the slope regions of the eastern and western sides of the Atlantic? 7) What is the life history strategy of key species, and how vulnerable are they to habitat disturbance and exploitation ? Organisms from surface waters to the ocean floor will be studied by a number of different technologies e.g acoustics, ADCP, nets, UVP's, ROV's and observations of birds and mammals in order to map the species composition and distribution patterns, to identify trophic interrelationships and modelling of foodweb patterns, and to analyse life history strategies