2011 Research Programmes of the HCMR - Hellenic Centre for ...

Brief Description of the Study: The aim of the study is the study of the effects of the accident of
“SEA DIAMOND” in Caldera of Santorini and the leakage of petroleum and other pollutants in the
marine environment.
European Seas Observatory Network (ESONET-NoE/ 691)
Contract Number:
Scientific Coordinator:
GOCE-036851
Dr V. Lykoussis
Funding: EU (50%) & GSRT (50%)
Starting Year: 2007
Duration: 48 months (01/03/07-28/02/11)
Total Budget:
Study Area:
200.000 € (which 30.000 € will go to Univ. of Pireus)
Mediterranean, Black, North, NE Atlantic and Nordic seas.
Scientific Team (ΗCMR): Dr V. Lykoussis, Prof. G.Th. Chronis (till 13/04/09), Dr K. Nittis, Dr I.
Papoulia, Dr D. Sakellariou, N. Lambadariou, Dr S. Alexandri (till 21/06/11)
Other Participants: IFREMER (Coordinator) and 42 European partners.
Brief Description of the Program: Observatories networked at seafloor level will offer Earth and
ocean scientists new opportunities to study multiple, interrelated processes over time scales ranging
from seconds to decades. These include: a) episodic processes; b) processes with periods from
months to several years; c) global and long-term processes. Episodic processes include, fro
instance, eruptions at mid-ocen ridges and volcanic seamounts, deep-ocean convection at high
latitudes, earthquakes, and biologiclak, chemical and physical impacts of storm events. Category
“b” includes processes like hydrothermal activity and biomass variability in vent communities. The
establishment of an observatory network will be essential to investigate global processes, such as
the dynamics of the oceanic lithosphere and the thermohaline circulation in the Ocean.
Knowledge of deep water circulation close to the seafloor (i.e. Water currents at the Benthic
Boundary Layer) is a fundamental objective of ESONET. More generally, understanding the
interactions between ocean, biosphere and geosphere (lithosphere, and solid earth below), leading
to natural hazards (e.g. tsunami, seismicity, submarine landslides) or environmental changes (e.g.,
sea-level, ecosystem changes, greenhouse gas budget) is one of the main scientific challenges for
the next few decades.
ESONET will facilitate the introduction and adoption of standards in the realm of scientific
investigations to enable interoperability on the system and component level. Furthermore the
project will enhance capacity building in the context of long term operation of observatory systems.
This will result in an improved efficiency regarding scientific cooperation on the European level
for instance in shared use of instrument and sensors on different platform-types.
The integration of leading European companies and SMEs into the anticipated Network of
Excellence will be beneficial to both the industrial and the academic side. The scientific user will
be able to adjust the requirement on the observatory system with respect to a technical and develop
new innovative methods for the prospective ocean observatory system. In this way, ESONET will
stay abreast of future changes in the technological field.
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