METEOR M158

The Transatlantic Equatorial Cruise I (TRATLEQ I) is an interdisciplinary cruise focusing on upwelling in the tropical Atlantic, its physical forcing, its importance for bi-ological production and plankton communities, associated chemical cycles, as well as on the current system setting the background conditions for the downward carbon export. This cruise represents the first physical, chemical, biogeochemical and biological measurement programme covering a whole equatorial section from the eastern to the western boundary and from the surface to the bottom. TRATLEQ I is a contribution to the GEOMAR research program OCEANS, to the EU projects TRIATLAS, the „Make Our Planet Great Again“ project and to the BMBF cooperative project BANINO in the frame of the BMBF SPACES programme.
Beside the equatorial Atlantic, another study area is the coastal upwelling off Angola, where the same techniques will be applied to better understand the functioning of this tropical upwelling system. A particular focus is on the export flux of carbon to mesopelagic and bathypelagic depths associated with particle flux and diel vertical zooplankton migration. Physical ocean dynamics are studied by deep current measurements and tracer distributions allowing to quantify ventilation and water mass exchange between the western and the eastern boundary. The measurement program also includes the service of long-term moorings at the equator, 23°W and off Angola, 11°S.