MARIA S. MERIAN MSM55

Biogenic carbonate production by benthic skeletal organisms on the shelf and in coastal waters of the Arctic Svalbard Archipelago supports the northernmost coldwater carbonate factories known to date. However, their genesis and biosed imentary dynamics, and their sensitivity to environmental change are still poorly known.
The cruise MSM 55 sets out for a multidisciplinary characterisation and comparison of two contrasting working areas, the rhodolith beds in Mosselbukta in the far north of the archipelago, and the extensive biogenic carbonate sediments accumulating on the Spitsbergen- and Bjørnøy-Banken in the South. The applied suite of methods comprises GIS-based habitat mapping, carbonate facies analyses, macrobenthos inventory, characterisation of the aqueous carbonate system, carbonate budget assessment via recovery of a 10 year settlement experiment, on board acidification and temperature stress experiments with key calcifiers (calcareous red algae), and sampling of long-lived rhodophytes for geochemical establishment of calibrated sea-ice proxy time series. Results are expected to foster our knowledge on carbonate production and recycling in polar carbonate factories under Holocene and projected environmental change.
As one of the main work equipments for the ocean bed, the submersible Jago of the Geomar is on the expedition.