BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

BIOFUN-1 Cruise (29SG20090529) carried out on the Research Vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa in 2009, Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in contrasting southern European deep-sea environments: from viruses to megafauna . The aim of BIOFUN is to characterise, under an ecosystem approach, two deep-sea habitats – the mid-slope and abyssal plain – including for the first time the analysis from viruses to megafauna, to understand the linkages between biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning in relation to environmental conditions along a gradient of increased oligotrophy from West to East. The BIOFUN team proposes a multidisciplinary coordinated research programme to investigate the Algerian-Balearic Basin (1000-3000 m), the Ionian Sea including the Messina Abyssal Plain (1000-4100 m depth) and the Levantine Basin (1000-3100 m depth) in the Mediterranean and the Galicia Bank in the Atlantic

NERIT-I Cruise (29GD19990928) carried out on the Research Vessel García del Cid in 1999, Performing day-night trawls for detection of lobster activity rhythms and underwater photography transects

PROMETEO-5_BIOFUN-2 Cruise (29GD20091024) carried out on the Research Vessel García del Cid in 2009, BIOdiversity and ecosystem FUNctioning in contrasting southern European deep-sea environments: from viruses to megafauna).The BIOFUN programme was multidisciplinary at its essence. The study of the deep sea under an ecosystem approach needs information from the geophysical parameters of the habitat, through taxonomy and community structure data and to processes. BIOFUN has sampled both the abiotic (CTDs, sediment analyses, currents) and biological (from viruses to megafauna) compartments and has studied the ecosystem using a wide range of methodologies that includes stable isotopes and biomarker analyses, morphological and molecular taxonomy, community structure and biodiversity indices, reproduction, chemical contamination in megafauna and litter accumulation in the habitat.During the BIOFUN cruise a combination of 2 samplers was used to collect the widest range of benthic megafauna: an otter-trawl Maireta system (OTMS) and an Agassiz dredge,They have been sampled at depths of 1200 m, 2000 m and 2700 m. Scanmar sensors were used down to 1200 m depth to estimate net geometry and times of arrival and departure from the bottom