Publication Date:
2024-04-24
Description:
The expedition AL570 with the RV Alkor was carried out within the framework of the
interdisciplinary DAM MGF-OSTSEE Project “Potential effects of closure for bottom fishing in
the marine protected areas (MPAs) of the western Baltic Sea – baseline observations” funded by
the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Within MGF-OSTSEE a consortium of
scientists from various institutions investigates how benthic ecosystems in Natura 2000 areas
within the German exclusive economic zone develop after the exclusion of bottom trawling.
Major goals of the project are i. the initial assessment of the environmental state and its
variability in- and outside the three Natura 2000 areas Fehmarnbelt, Oder- and Rönnebank under
the ongoing pressure of bottom trawling and ii. the general assessment of the effect of bottom
trawling on benthic communities and benthic biogeochemical functioning as well as their
development after fishery exclusion. The cruise AL570 concludes a series of three previous
expeditions EMB238 (2020) and EMB267/268 (2021) and aimed to survey all components of the
benthic food web including prokaryotes, protozoans, meiofauna and macrofauna, as well as
sediment properties and biogeochemical processes in selected working areas in- and outside of
the MPA. The working program comprised 156 station activities of various gears for biological
and biogeochemical sampling of sediments. Solute exchange between the sediment and the water
column was investigated using Landers and a novel underwater vehicle the Deep-Sea Rover
(DSR) Panta Rhei. Investigations in the water column, seafloor observation and deployments of
a dredge supplemented the station work. Due to stormy weather in situ solute fluxe
measurements were not performed at the Rönnebank.
Type:
Report
,
NonPeerReviewed
Format:
text