MARIA S. MERIAN MSM126

The focus of MSM126 lies on the pelagic deep sea, which belongs to the least explored ecosystem on earth. We will work in the area off Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean. Research aims include the documentation of biodiversity, food web relations, and the role of pelagic fauna in transferring carbon to the seafloor.

A particular knowledge gap concerns the biodiversity and functional role of gelatinous macrozooplankton (the “jelly web”) in pelagic oceanic food webs. Our work aims to address the current knowledge gaps via biodiversity exploration and dedicated sapling of representatives of all trophic levels of the food web for food web tracer (bulk and compound-specific stable isotope) analyses.

The cruise will be embedded in ongoing work to unravel the biodiversity and food webs in the Macaronesian Island region, with a focus on gelatinous macrozooplankton. We will use a wide range of established and novel in-situ observation and sampling technology, coupled to state-of-the-art analyses, including metagenomics approaches, focusing on Madeira as the least explored of the Macaronesian Islands.

The intense measurements and observations as well as sampling efforts (and subsequent laboratory analyses) focusing on a small area have the potential to lead to major advances in the functional understanding of the deep-sea systems, including the role of the jelly web, of Madeira.