Diary
	3 July
	1/2 July
	30 June
	28/29 June
	25-27 June
	24 June
	23 June
	22 June
Participants

 

R/V Pelagia Cruise HERMES
Wednesday, 5 July 2006	Daniela and Gerard (Chief Scientist)
When I awoke this morning I thought that I had dreamed...2 box cores and 2 scores for Italy against Germany and instead it's all true!!!!! I'm an Italian marine biologist specializing in the study of the meiobenthic biodiversity in the deep sea and in extreme environments, in particular the diversity of the phylum of Nematoda, and its relationship with the prokaryotic community. My objectives for this cruise are to investigate the microbial and viral dynamics in different deep benthic areas of the Rockall Bank and in the Haas Mounds (where deep corals are present), to describe the benthic prokaryotic and meiofaunal assemblages in terms of density, community structure and biodiversity, to assess the quantity and quality of sedimentary organic matter available to benthic consumers,
and finally to study the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning along a bathymetric gradient in deep sea sediments. This is my first cruise in Atlantic Ocean and in spite of being afraid of the terrible waves of this sea, I was very lucky because the weather in these days was beautiful...like in my Mediterranean Sea. I took different sediment samples from stations in Haas Mounds, where my colleagues on board found live coral, and from 3 stations along a bathimetric transect from 500 to 1500 m. More than I expected, yesterday we took sediment samples using the box corer at 2000 and at 2500 m. With the help of all the crew we were successful at taking sediments from both of the 2 deep stations, and the box core of the station at 2500 m was perfect...the most beautiful box core from deep sea that I ever seen. In spite of a hard night of work there was another challenge...the semifinal of world cup GERMANY-ITALY!!!! We didn't watch the match on TV because of several problems with the Satellite, but Conny (my football rival) listened to the football match on the radio and she kept me informed continuously about the score while I was working in the lab.  0-0 for the whole game and in the extra time 2 goals for Italy....unbelievable...2 BOX CORES AND 2 GOALS....and beer for everybody to celebrate this Italian night. It was really a fantastic day...now I need only to make my trip to Italy bringing with me the samples and to see the final of world cup with my friends at home...for the moment I feel I am a winner...we'll see if my football team will be like me!!   Daniela Zeppilli Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy