1. Changing Oceans RRS James Cook 073
What is the Changing Oceans Activities at Sea
Expedition? • Cold-water coral, sponge, invertebrate and
microbial sampling.
On the 17th May 2012, the RRS James Cook
• Benthic time-series sampling by box core
will set sail from Glasgow headed to the
shallow cold-water coral reefs of Mingulay, a • Sediment profile imaging of adjacent
deeper coral carbonate mound province, and communities
a series of coral reefs on Rockall Bank. The • Examine temporal variation in O2 exchange
international scientific crew aim to develop using eddy correlation system
their understanding of the functional ecology • Feeding experiments with Lophelia pertusa
of cold-water coral ecosystems, now, in the • Carbonate flux measurements of water
past, and into the future. column using stand-alone pumps
• Acoustic survey, CTD profiles and
moving-vessel profiler transects to collect
3D profile data of the water column
• Multibeam echosounder to characterise
benthic habitats and small-scale habitat
variability
• Gravity core samples from Lophelia reef
and coral carbonate mound sites
Ship-board experiments
Ship-board experiments Outreach Activities
We will conduct short-term ocean acidification The Changing Oceans cruise will be featured
experiments on corals (L. pertusa & on the new BBC Scotland ‘Hebrides’ series and
Desmophyllum dianthus), sponges, sediment the ‘One Show’, with a team of journalists
and other invertebrates. The synergistic effect visiting the ship at Mingulay. At the same
of warming and food availability on corals will time, schoolchildren from the isle of Benbecula
also be examined. will see the Mingulay coral reefs with their
Responses measured include: own eyes, and become ambassadors for their
• Respiration environment to children across Scotland, via
• Growth and calcification Our Dynamic Earth (ODE) in Edinburgh.
• Proteins expressed
• Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMS/P) UK institutions involved: Heriot-Watt University, University of Aberdeen, University of
Glasgow, Plymouth Marine Lab., CEFAS, University of Hull, National Oceanography Centre
emission (Southampton).
• Microbial communities International collaborators: University of Southern Denmark, USFWS, IFM Geomar,
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Irish Marine Institute.
For further information, contact PI, Murray Roberts, J.M.Roberts@hw.ac.uk, and see
www.changingoceans2012.blogspot.com
UK Ocean Acidification
Research Programme