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Working Group Updates
In other related news the US National Science
Foundation officially closed down the
RIDGE2000 program, which had focused
research efforts to study mid-ocean ridge
processes including hydrothermal systems and
their mineral resources. Future research
funding in these areas is expected to be
directed through the core science budget of
the various sections of the Ocean Sciences
(OCE) division. To close out the program, the
RIDGE2000 office organized a special issue
of Oceanography magazine on oceanic
spreading center processes (http://tos.org
/oceanography/archive/25-1.html) that
compiles results of several major RIDGE2000
efforts.
Finally, a special session at Ocean Sciences in
Salt Lake City (Feb 19-24, 2012) was convened
on “Deep-Sea Conservation Imperatives in
the 21 st Century” chaired by Lisa Levin, Cindy
Van Dover, Jeff Ardron and Craig Smith.
Regularly spaced Rimicaris hybisi shrimp swarming over massive polymetallic sulphide
deposits, Beebe Woods mound, Piccard Hydrothermal Field, Mid Cayman Rise.
Photo courtesy of C.R. German, copyright WHOI.
South Mid-Atlantic Ridge Targeted Exploration (SMART)
Chair - Colin Devey (IFM-GEOMAR, Germany)
The Long-Range Exploration WG report (see
http://www.interridge.org/files/interridge/LREWG_Report_Final
_web_0.pdf) identified several regions of the world's oceans that,
for many ridge-related scientific disciplines, it would be important to
explore thoroughly and on a large scale. One of the key regions is
the Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (SMAR) including its Equatorial
Fracture Zones (Devey et al., IR News, 2010). The science drivers
for SMAR exploration range from those of biodiversity and the links
in terms of gene flow between the Southern Ocean and the Arctic,
questions of the interplay between magmatism and tectonics during
slow spreading and the physical oceanography of ocean mixing
above the rough slowspreading bathymetry. The SMART WG aims
are:
1. To collate and combine information already available from recent
and older cruises to establish a thorough "State of the art" of
Southern MAR studies. For this work active participation of
scientists from many countries working toward this common goal is
essential - a core strength of InterRidge.
2. To provide focus for the international coordination of further
South Atlantic exploration, specifically aiming to identify and then
fill gaps in our knowledge of this relatively unexplored region. We
will convene a workshop to produce a project plan of how to
explore the SMAR thoroughly in the next 5-10 years, defining and
prioritizing goals, and identifying cruises needed.
3. In a larger framework, the South Atlantic Basin as a whole is an
important yet relatively little-explored ocean region. We expect the
SMART WG to provide a seed to establish basin-scale studies within
the framework of bodies such as SCOR. This could spearhead
international efforts to use the Atlantic Basin as a test-bed for
collection and synthesis of, for example, the phlyogeographic history
of chemosynthetic faunas (vent and seep) from the Arctic to the
Antarctic and to study gene flow. These efforts, in collaboration with
mapping, physical oceanographic studies, studies of reproductive
biology & larval distributions, and modelling efforts would make
important contributions to science and to the management of
resources associated with chemosynthetic ecosystems.
A workshop will be held to formulate project plans for the
continued exploration of the SMAR. This will likely include
discussing how we intensify the exploration at high southern
latitudes (as far south as the Bouvet Triple Junction at 55°S). This
may require pooling of several national polar capabilities and a
review of the state of autonomous underwater vehicle capability to
explore these particularly extreme regions, a further area prioritized
INTERRIDGE NEWS 54 VOL.21, 2012