Regional Drivers of Ecosystem Change and its Influence on Deep-Sea Populations in the Mediterranean

ReDEco

Nikolaos Lampadariou

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Marinera wrap-up meetingParis 28-29 January 2009

Project details

• Funded under the MarinERA call for proposals “Regional Drivers of Ecosystem Change – the measurement, modeling and prediction of ecosystem change”

• Total project budget €1.148K • Project duration 3 years (February 2009 - January 2012)• 6 academic partners• ReDEco is led by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of

Oceanography, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.• Partners include both universities and government laboratories• ReDEco is also expected to have a strong impact on education of young

scientists

Study areas and overall aims

• ReDEco will study a variety of ecosystems in a range of geographic settings, mainly in the eastern Mediterranean, but also in selected areas of the western Mediterranean

• ReDEco will focus on key drivers of climate change (such as temperature changes, shifts in surface primary productivity, cold water cascading etc.) and examine their impact on deep-sea ecosystems.

• ReDEco will combine previously collected data with new information to allow insights into long-term change in deep-sea ecosystems.

• This will enable a better understanding and prediction of decadal-scale fluctuations and their impact on biological communities and ecosystem functioning.

ReDEco study areas

The Ierapetra Basin is a long monitoring site. Significant changes have been observed during the eastern Med climatic Transient (1992).

• The eastern Mediterranean has unique but poorly understood ecosystems driven by events such as intermittent deep-water formation and DSWC…

The Kithira-antikithira have been studied mainly for hydrological parameters during 1987 and 1995. Results have shown that deep water masses, which are formed in the Cretan Sea overflow the sills of the eastern part of the Cretan Arc and sink into the Levantine and Ionian Basins

The Cretan Sea has been studied since 1994. Different water masses occur along the slopes. Time-series study with sediment traps (1999-2005)

Project structure

WP1: Project co-ordination and management

WP2Physico-chemical

environment

WP3Biodiversity

& communitystructure

WP4Dense

self watercascading

WP5Biogeography

of keyspecies

Area 1: Ierapetra basin

Area 3: Kithira-Antikithira straights

Area 2: Cretan Sea

Other areas: Western & Eastern Mediterranean & Atlantic

WP6: Ecosystem response and prediction

WP1: Co-ordination and management

WP Title Leader Organization1 Project co-ordination and management (HCMR) N. Lampadariou HCMR2 Characterization of the physicochemical environment (HCMR) P. Polymenakou HCMR

3 M. Cunha UA

4 M. Canals UB5 Biogeography and molecular analysis of key species (IMAR) S. Stefanni IMAR

6 A. Tselepides UP

Benthic community structure, including micro- meio- macro- and megafaunal communities, and its relationship to the environment (UA)Effects of Dense Shelf Water Cascading (DSWC) on mass and energy transfer and consequences on benthic diversity, functional traits, biological capacity and biogeochemical cycles in deep-sea basins (UB)

Ecosystem response and prediction to inter-annual and decadal variability (HCMR)

WP2: Physicochemical environment

• Aim: To describe key environmental factors - water column, organic

matter input, sediment geochemistry- and their variability in space and time.

Support to WP3 (biodiversity and population dynamics of benthic communities)

• Methods: Quantitative samples will be collected with multiple corers and box

corers Compact lander deployments Sediment traps

WP2: Temporal variability

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

POC Flux

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Dates

C F

lux

(mg*

d-1*

m-2

)

Trap ATrap B

Cretan Sea (Tselepides, unpublished data)

WP3: Biodiversity and community structure

• Aim: to examine the benthic community responses to natural drivers and

climate induced changes. Role of major benthic groups in processing of fresh organic matter in

the deep sea• Methods:

Processing of existing samples as well as collection of new quantitative samples from the three study areas;

All major benthic components (i.e. microbial, meiofaunal and macrofaunal communities).

Measurements of density, biomass and biodiversity (Biodiversity: both morphological and molecular approaches)

Enrichment experiments with 13-C-labeled organic substrates. Label uptake and incorporation by active microbial populations will

be tracked into specific biomarkers. Stable isotope analysis for larger organisms (i.e. meiofauna and

macrofauna)

WP3: Role of long term monitoring sites

Ierapetra Basin meiobenthos (Lampadariou et al. 2009)

CP

E (ì

g g-1

)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

CPE

Year

Met

azoa

(ind

10

cm-2

)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

Metazoa

1987 1993 1998 1999

WP4: Dense self water cascading

• Aim: Evaluate the impact of environmental fluctuations driven by

meteorological, hydrological and biological forcing at intra (seasonality) and interannual time scales.

Special attention to episodic events that are particularly efficient in transferring the signal from the upper, coastal ocean layers to the deep, like DSWC.

• Methods: Deployment of instrumented arrays along transects from the shelf

edge to the deep basin Measurement of physical parameters (T, salinity, current speed and

direction, suspended sediment concentration) of the water masses involved in DSWC.

Satellite imagery will be used to monitor the productivity and turbidity variations of the uppermost ocean layer in the source areas of DSWC.

WP4: Integration

• Integration: Parallel experiments for cross-basin analysis of the triggers, onset,

development and deep-sea ecosystem impact of DSWC events at basin scale

Cañón del Cap de Creus (invierno 2004-05, 750 m)

WP5: Biogeography of key species

• Aim: To determine the genetic structure of selected species in order to

identify potential migration corridors. • Methods:

Key species polychaeta, crustacea, fish Combined molecular approaches (microsatellites, mtDNA and nDNA

markers) Comparison western vs. eastern Mediterranean

Myriochele fragilisPliny Trench (4300 m)

Baited trap samples~ 3000 m

Chaceon mediterraneusCentral med ~ 3000 m

R/V Meteor 1998

WP6: Ecosystem response and prediction

• Aim: To integrate, ecosystem functioning, deep-sea biodiversity,

microbiology and physical oceanography To provide the most relevant and consistent information on changes

in marine ecosystems and functional biodiversity in relation to global change.

• Expected results: The results will hopefully provide sound scientific data from which to

develop management and conservation options and the baseline for future studies on the effects of climate change in the deep-sea.

Work plan

• Collection and analysis of historical data as well as analysis of existing samples (not yet analyzed) related to hydrology, prevailing environmental parameters, functional diversity and benthic communities (including microbial, meio-, macro- and megabenthic communities).

• Collection of new data during several new cruises which will be carried out mainly during the first two years of the project. Field activities will include measuring the main physico-chemical parameters of the water column as well as collection of bottom samples for sediment chemistry and benthic community analyses (including microbial, meio-, macro- and megabenthic communities).

• Collection of ichtyofauna using a commercial vessel that trawls inside the study areas during two phases of the project to cover a short temporal scale and seasonal recruitment.

• Identification of regional drivers which are potentially important for ecosystem change

• Creation of a baseline database with mapping of benthic biodiversity for each sampling area

• Construction of a conceptual model to run different hypothetical scenarios with varying environmental factors to predict effects of climate change on various ecosystem properties

Links to other ongoing project

• HERMES• BIOFUN• CeDAMar-LEVAR• DEECON• MarBef• MARECO• HERMIONE

Research vessels: R/V Aegaio; R/V Philia