Introduction

R/V Pelagia Cruise BIOSYS

INTRODUCTION

The 2nd of three BIOSYS cruises will lead us to relatively shallow ecosystems of deep water corals at the Mingulay and Hebrides area off the coast of Scotland. Main goals of the BIOSYS project is the study of the biology of deep water corals and the deep water coral ecosystem. A special emphasis is on coral growth, feeding and the role, abundance and diversity of microbial associations and their role as surplus food or energy supply for the deep water corals. In 2005, the first cruise, a joint BIOSYS/HERMES cruise led us to coral reefs of the Rockall Bank/Trough area in the NE Atlantik with coral banks ranging in depth from 500 to 800 m. This years cruise will allow us to compare these relatively deep corals to corals from the much shallower depth near Mingulay, where deep water corals can be found in water depths as shallow as 100 m. We will take samples of the most abundant stony corals Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata and carry out some experiments with living corals directly on board the research vessel in temperature-controlled cool-containers at 10�C to study the microbial community within the gastral cavity of these corals. Besides the BIOSYS researchers, a scientific team of the european HERMES project on cold water corals will be joining the cruise for sampling and to carry out side-scan sonar, multibeam mapping and deploy bottom Landers to measure physical parameters.