Four members of the AMEX team (group n°3) are boarding the BICOSE 2 cruise, from January 27th to March 11th 2018 : Julia MACHON, Louis AMAND, Magali ZBINDEN, Bruce SHILLITO.
During this cruise on board the oceanographic ship "Pourquoi Pas ?", the Nautile submersible will allow to undertake multi-disciplinary studies on the TAG and Snake Pit hydrothermal vent sites, on the mid-Atlantic ridge, at a depth of 3600 m. Rarely visited over the past 15 years, these sites are however situated on a key position, on both sides of a fracture zone along the ridge, so that studies there will allow to address important biology and geology questions. In the near future, deep-sea vents may become a major target for exploitation of mineral resources, while fundamental knowledge on their functioning, their role in bio-geochemical cycles, and their biodiversity remains scarce (ESCO CNRS 2014 report).
The AMEX group plays an important role in the BICOSE cruise, and their research topics are among the priorities of the cruise :
1) Studies of the vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata and its epibiosis, in collaboration with the LMEE Ifremer group.
2) Studies of sensorial adaptations in deep-sea vent shrimp
3) Studies of the vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus and its symbiosis
These studies will strongly depend on experimental work with live fauna recovered maintained at pressure, using several instruments designed in the lab (IPOCAMP and BALIST incubators, PERISCOP pressure-recovery device). These equipments will also be available to other scientists on board.
Project contact:
Julia MACHON, julia.machon@live.fr
Louis AMAND, Louis.Amand@upmc.fr
Magali ZBINDEN, Magali.Zbinden@upmc.fr
Bruce SHILLITO, Bruce.Shillito@upmc.fr
Partners:
Laboratoires EP et LMEE d'Ifremer (leader de la campagne), laboratoire MCAM MNHN
To follow the position of the ship "Pourquoi Pas ?": http://www.ifremer.fr/posnav/PosnavWeb/WFAccueil.aspx
