BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

MESOPELAGIC Cruise (29GD20000311) carried out on the Research Vessel García del Cid in 2000, Migration and structure of oceanic pelagic systems in the waters of the Canary Islands

PELAGIC Cruise (29GD20010219) carried out on the Research Vessel García del Cid in 2001, The objective of the campaign is to study the drift of zooplankton and ichthyoplankton in the filaments that occur in the African outcrop, and to study the distribution of the zooplankton and ictioplankton around Gran Canaria and in the eddy system

CONAFRICA Cruise (29HE20060322) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2006, "The African connection in the waters of the Canary Current" CONAFRICA. The objective of this project is to study the drift of zooplankton and ichthyoplankton in the filaments that occur in the African upwelling . To do this, samples of the upwelling will be taken and it will be verified that the species of larvae of fish transported coincide with the presence of larvae of the same species in the Great Canary platform . The work area will be swept continuously to obtain acoustic density maps. The zooplankton and ichthyoplankton will be analyzed from the vessel, obtaining synoptic maps of the hydrological conditions, fluorescence, abundance and metabolic activity of the plankton and the distribution of pelagic fish

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)

BATHYPELAGIC Cruise (29SG20180524) carried out on the Research Vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa in 2018, The main objective of the Project is to estimate the active flux towards bathypelagic waters (carbon sequestration) with a global perspective. We propose a cruise during summer 2018 covering the subtropical and temperate zones of the Atlantic Ocean . Nine 48 h oceanographic stations will be performed along a transect from the Canary Islands to Reykjavik in Iceland. 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. Exported at the mesopelagic and sequestered carbon at the bathypelagic zone by active flux will be assessed in zooplankton and micronekton. Knowledge of the sequestration due to the pelagic fauna is a gap in the study of the biological pump in the ocean. Carbon reaching the base of the permanent pycnocline will remain at depth during a long period (>100 years) and the role of zooplankton and micronekton in sequestering carbon has not been evaluated yet. This project will be the first estimation of these fluxes. Acoustic data will be recorded along the transect and in all the oceanographic stations, which combined with the information obtained from the Acoustic Zooplankton Fish Profiler (AZFP) and video cameras attached to the rosette sampler will allow a complete acoustic and visual picture of plankton and micronekton layers . The use of different nets (Mocnees and Mesopelagos or MOHT) to obtain the ground truth will give an insight into the overall biomass of these communities. Calibration of echosounders will be performed leeward of Gran Canaria Island, a suitable place (calm and deep) for this work