BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

PUMP Cruise (29HE20140831) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2014, Study of the Vertical Oceanic Pump in mesoscale eddies (PUMP). This project will study the dynamics/kinematics of the ageostrophic secondary circulation (ASC) and mixing in surface mesoscale anticyclonic eddies and how they modulate plankton activity, plankton community structure, and accumulation and downward transport of organic matter (the Vertical Oceanic Pump, VOP). For this purpose we will conduct a novel interdisciplinary sampling strategy to survey an anticyclonic eddy from a Lagrangian perspective with a resolution down to the submesoscale range using cutting-edge instrumentation and methodologies. We will pay particular attention to the control of the ASC by eddy/wind interaction, by mixing, and by current/wind interaction and frontogenesis/frontolysis at its periphery. ASC will be diagnosed from trajectories of drifters drogued at the Ekman layer and at the eddy´s interior and using an omega-type equation that will include direct measurements of mixing/turbulence. Mixing regime, dynamic stability and vertical diffusion of tracers will be observed and derived from direct measurement of mixing/turbulence. Near-inertial waves trapping and its role in driving shear mixing will be studied from drifter trajectories and from the vertical variability of the horizontal velocity field. To establish the dynamics that forces the VOP we will also develop processes-oriented models and implement regional physical and physical-biogeochemical models for the Canary Region. We will also take advantage of the exceptional source of tracer provided by the El Hierro Island submarine volcanic eruption for the study of eddy submesoscale spatial-temporal variability, combining satellite images and modeling. Finally the physical and biogeochemical observations and processes will be combined and correlated to derive a conceptual model of the dynamics of the marine system linked to the VOP in mesoscale eddies

TRANSPEGASO Cruise (29HE20141020) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2014, Study of atmosferic and ocean interchanges.Trans-PEGASO cruise: Take advantage of the transit from Cartagena to Punta Arenas prior to the Antarctic campaign. A small group of researchers will embark together with the instruments already installed for the subsequent PEGASO cruise and, during the southern transit, they will carry out continuous measurements aimed at: (1) setting up the equipment for the PEGASO cruise and solving the problems of operability that may arise; and (2) obtain complementary data to the PEGASO cruise, of great interest because it is a transect across a wide range of latitudes

TIC-MOC Cruise (29HE20150305) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2015, TIC-MOC Tipping Corners in the Meridional Overturning Circulation. The principal objective of the cruise is to characterize the dynamics of the encountering of the Brazil and Malvinas Currents in the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence region. Specific objectives include the characterization of the water masses arriving to the confluence region, the description of the transformations experienced by these water masses , the definition of the frontal systems, the computation of water and property balances, and a description of the principal biogeochemical processes. During the TIC-MOC cruise we will make several stops at specific points (hydrographic stations) to collect data that will allow us to characterize this frontal system. In the hydrographic stations, measurements of physicochemical parameters (speed, temperature, salinity, and turbidity, all depending on the pressure) and biogeochemical (fluorescence, nutrients and dissolved oxygen) will be made. To do this, a rosette will be lowered to the bottom for taking samples of water at 24 depths, together with a CTD (measurements with high vertical resolution of salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and turbidity) and LADCP (measurements of the velocity of the Water). The samples of water that we will collect will be used for the determination of inorganic nutrients, microbial respiration, carbon and particulate and dissolved organic nitrogen, particulate and total organic phosphorus

MAFIA Cruise (29HE20150403) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2015, Migrants and Active Flux In the Atlantic Ocean-MAFIA. In the ocean there is a set of organisms that perform vertical migrations, with daily periodicity. These are organisms of zooplankton and micronecton (mainly small fish and crustaceans), which during the hours of light occupy the dark region of the ocean and at night migrate to the layers closest to the surface. These animals play a very important role in marine trophic chains, since they are the food of large migrating fish, birds and marine mammals. Its role in the oceanic carbon flux is just what we have been studying in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.The main objective of the Project is to estimate the active flux in warm waters with a global perspective. We propose two cruises during winter-spring and autumn covering the subtropical, tropical and equatorial zones of the Atlantic Ocean . Fifteen oceanographic stations will be performed along a transect from the Canary Islands to the equivalent latitude in the South Atlantic Ocean. Oceanographic features will be studied thought CTD-rosette casts perfomed in all the stations, and plankton and micronekton abundances and distribution patterns will be analyzed through samples taken from the neuston to the bathypelagic zone in selected stations (upwelling and oligotrophic regions)

PHARMADEEP Cruise (29HE20151213) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2015, PharmaDEEP ("New pharmaceuticals from the deep Antarctic"). The specific aims of PharmaDeep are to: (a) Collect marine organisms from deep-and-cold-water habitats that may be unique sources of natural products for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. (b) Perform the first marine biological survey of the unique habitat, the South Shetland Trough. (c) Compare and contrast the SST fauna and drivers of distribution with other trench ecosystems. (d) Investigate the recent geological environment including sea-bed geomorphology and composition as well as glacial and interglacial cycles

GALILEO-IHM-2016 Cruise (29HE20160103) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2016, This cruise includes two projects: 1. Measurements of position and signal quality of the european Galileo GNSS Open Service. This is within a Galileo Pilot Project funded by the the MoD of Spain and executed by the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy. 2. Hydrographic (Cartographic) works for Navigation Chart production by Hydrographic Institute of the Navy. This includes bathymetric works in the areas of Southern Livingston Island and Deception Island

DISTANTCOM Cruise (29HE20160204) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2016, The main objective of the project is to understand the diversity and structure of Antarctic marine benthic communities. The ecological activity of marine natural products from Benthic organisms will be studied using chemical ecology experiments in situ. We will collect various marine invertebrates (stars, worms, snails, etc.) and we will study its behavior in the laboratory. We will try find out what chemical defenses they use to repel their predators or to keep clean, preventing organisms from adhering to their surface. These chemicals can also have an activity potentially useful biological in the form of medicines. For putting a example, the compound that prevents the cells of your enemy from spreading it could serve to prevent the development of cancer cells. We will try to learn more about how the animals of the Antarctic fund live: what trophic relationships do they have (who eats whom), what relationships symbiotics present (who lives with whom) or what pollutants accumulate (that they feel bad). We intend to know also their relations of kinship, trying to unveil the family tree of some species, and what factors have conditioned its current distribution. This is important also in relation to climate change. Sampling has been done with beam trawls and with divers

MIXTO Cruise (29HE20160306) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2016, The main objectives of this survey are: 1) Mapping sedimentary features resulting from the interaction of water bodies with gravitational features ( valleys and landslides ) from the upper slope 2) seismic analysis for the establishment of a model facies sedimentary 3) Determine the recent sedimentary processes. During the cruise, which in its data collection stage in the south of Buenos Aires completed 990 miles of navigation between 39 and 42 ° Lat. S, geomorphological and morphosedimentary features of the outer platform and slope at depths between 90 and 4000 meters were analyzed, sedimentary structures of the shallow subsoil (up to 100 m below the bottom) were analyzed, and recent processes related to the interaction between geological factors (transport of sediments, erosion-deposition processes on terraces and gravitational on slopes and underwater canyons) and oceanographic (interfaces between water masses, longitudinal currents to the margin and turbidity). The instruments used were: multi-beam echo sounder of shallow and deep water, parametric profiler TOPAS, 12 KHz echo sounder, biological echo sounder, XBT-XSV and Doppler ADCP

INCRISIS Cruise (29HE20160523) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2016, On January 25, 2016 there was an earthquake of magnitude Mw = 6.3 with epicenter in the Alboran Sea (35.6ºN, 3.81ºW), which caused material damage in Melilla and Moroccan cities; It was also felt in the southeast of Iberia. It is the main earthquake of the seismic crisis that continues today. Its focal mechanism and the distribution of replicas suggest the activity of an unknown fault of direction NNE-SSO of about 25 km in length, in the western part of the Dorsal de Alboran. This seismic activity seems to be in continuity with the earthquakes of Alhucemas of 1994 and 2004, and associated with the prolongation of a fault zone in the rifeña mountain range. The realization of this marine geology cruise is a unique opportunity to know the effects that the seismicity of these characteristics causes in the bottom and sub-fund of the Alboran Sea, such as displacements of the seabed, triggering of landslides and other risks associated with them ( eg, tsunamis) that would affect both Moroccan and Spanish coastal areas. The results of this campaign will be analyzed in detail during the development of a new research project (DAMAGE) requested to the MINECO call and will contribute to characterize the geological hazard of active faults in the Alboran Sea. The specific objectives of this cruise include: 1) Cartography and characterization of sedimentary and tectonic features and comparison with the previous data 2) Stratigraphic analysis, simian facies and deformation structures 3) Determination of sedimentary and tectonic processes triggered by the earthquake and the seismic crisis

ZEE-2016 Cruise (29HE20160527) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2016, ZEE-2016 cruise : Bathimetry, magnetic field, gravimeter field of Balear Sea. The main objectives will be: - Systematic recognition of study areas with 100% coating, with multi-beam probe, using also single-beam probe, EA-600 and EK60, gravimetry, geomagnetism, sediment penetrator, and oceanographic parameters. The Multi-beam, single-beam and Bathymetry works will be priority, performing simultaneously geomagnetic, gravimetric and high resolution seismic and oceanographic works. Systematic data collection of: - XBT / XSV - Weather Station - Termosalynograph - Doppler