ADSR - Azores Deep-Sea Research

CRUISES / Terceira 2021

RV Pelagia cruise 64PE488: Terceira Island 2021

Summary Show more ↓

The continuation of the long-lasting collaboration with scientists from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). This was the fourth time deep-sea scientists from IMAR Instituto do Mar and Okeanos University of the Azores joined Fleur Visser cruises. The RV Pelagia cruise 64PE488 aimed to continue exploring the deep-sea areas of the Azores EEZ, namely in the southern Terceira island slopes and deep ridges, to (i) characterize benthic communities inhabiting seamounts in the Azores, such as São Jorge de Fora seamount, (ii) identify new areas that fit the FAO Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem criteria; and (iii) to contribute with additional data to address patterns and drivers of the distribution of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores region.

Statistics

Transits

0 km

Multibeam Bathymetry

0 km²

Filmed Seabed

0 km

Visited Areas

Stations

Dives

Video Footage Recorded

7 hours

Used Storage

2.8 Tb

Samples

No samples were collected for our group

Highlights

Video transects enabled documentation of the deep bottom communities inhabiting flat sedimentary areas covered with mud and sand, characterised by the presence of burrowing organisms (“Lebensspuren”) and sparse mobile and sessile deep-sea fauna.
The small ridges around Serreta, in Terceira Island, revealed highly diverse and dense coral garden composed of long-lived antipatharian such as Leiopathes expansa, Antipathes spp. and Bathypathes sp.