Project Leader: Professor Francisco Sardà Amills, ICM-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
Partners: Elena Manini (ISMAR-CNR, IT), Ann Vanreusel (UGent, BE), Carlo Heip (NIOO, NL), Grard Duineveld (NIOZ, NL), John Patching (NUIG, IE), Serge Heussner (CEFREM, FR), Roberto Danovaro (UNIVPM, IT), Nikolaos Lampadariou (HCMR, GR), Michael Türkay (SNG, DE)

CRP description

What little we know of deep-sea ecosystems indicates that they host one of the highest biodiversities on the planet as well as important mineral and biological resources, which are increasingly being exploited. Understanding deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, from viruses to megafauna, is essential to assess the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors and provide management options. The Mediterranean, in particular, is a unique system for such studies, characterised by homeothermia and a steep gradient of increasing oligotrophy towards the East. The aim of BIOFUN is to characterise, under an ecosystem approach, two deep-sea habitats – the mid-slope and abyssal plain – including for the first time the analysis from viruses to megafauna, to understand the linkages between biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning in relation to environmental conditions along a gradient of increased oligotrophy from West to East. The BIOFUN team, composed of 10 partners, proposes a multidisciplinary coordinated research programme to investigate the Algerian-Balearic Basin (1200 & 3000 m) and the Ionian Sea (1200 & 3000 m) in the Mediterranean, and the Galicia Bank in the Atlantic (1200 & 3000 m). Supplementary areas will be sampled by different partners, including the Catalan slope (NW Mediterranean), the Messina Abyssal Plain (4100 m) and the Levantine Basin. The sampling programme is based on several multidisciplinary cruises to be conducted in 2008 and 2009: two trans-Mediterranean cruises using the new Spanish RV Sarmiento de Gamboa and the Italian RV Urania, two cruises to the Galicia Bank on board the Belgian RV Belgica and the Dutch RV Pelagia and several smaller cruises in the NW Mediterranean.

 BIOFUN main study sites: Galicia Bank and the Mediterranean (Algerian-Balearic Basin & Ionian Sea)

Work Plan

BIOFUN is organised in 5 work packages:

WP0 (Coordination) will ensure collaboration between partners, optimisation of infrastructures and samples, coordination of cruise plans and sampling methodologies, as well as the creation and maintenance of the BIOFUN web site, which are essential to the integrity of the project. WP0 will ensure coordination within the CRP to achieve the proposed milestones and deliverables. WP leader: CSIC.

WP1 (Physicochemical characteristics of the habitats) aims at describing key environmental factors -water column, organic matter input, sediment geochemistry- and their variability in space and time. WP leader: CEFREM.

WP 2 (Community structure: census of biodiversity and biogeography) aims at describing the diversity, distribution and abundance, of prokaryotes, meio, macro and megafauna. Taxonomy is fundamental to any study of deep-sea ecosystems where exploration is still a major activity. The biodiversity data will be interpreted in the geographical and bathymetrical context and related to environmental factors and geological barriers. WP leader: ISMAR-CNR.

WP3 (Ecosystem functioning: food web processes and life-history patterns) aims at increasing our knowledge of deep-sea trophic pathways from microbes to megafauna, as well as describing patterns of reproduction and dispersal. Describing an ecotrophic model and the life cycle of key species are essential to understand the functioning and maintenance of deep-sea communities and their vulnerability to change. WP leader: NIOO/NIOZ

WP4 (Linkages between ecosystem functioning and biodiversity: tools for disturbance evaluation) proposes to integrate, for the first time, ecosystem functioning, deep-sea biodiversity, reproductive biology, microbiology and physical oceanography, to provide the most relevant, consistent and innovative dataset on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of two essential habitats - open slope and abyssal- from the Mediterranean Sea and a contrasting Atlantic site. The results will 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 benthic fauna. WP leader: UGent