TAlPro2022 TAlPro2022: the Tyrrhenian Sea & Algero-Provencal component of the Med-SHIP programme

Citation from PI: I think that the EUROFLEETS+ project, and in particular the ship time it gives through the transnational access activities, is a huge achievement for the European community of marine scientists, and offers the possibility to do high-level research even to those researchers (including early career researchers), that would not have the same possibility otherwise. This cruise will be the second Eurofleets-funded cruise that I participated in. The first one was in 2016, and it gave the possibility to start working with a strong international team, for which I am very grateful to this project. I hope this legacy will continue even after the project’s end.

Abstract & Main objectives: The fieldwork is done in the framework of MedSHIP, the Mediterranean component of the global repeat hydrographic investigation program (GO-SHIP) and will contribute to the sustained observational effort already existing at regional scale by repeating the basin-scale survey of the Tyrrhenian Sea and of the Algero-Provencal basin. TAlPro2022 will increase the number of observations and the data collected during these sections will allow to: 1) measure the changes in the thermohaline properties of Mediterranean water masses at the basin-scale; 2) quantify the inorganic and organic dissolved carbon and dissolved oxygen storage in the WMED; 3) quantify the uptake of anthropogenic carbon in the WMED; 4) quantify changes in the ventilation of the deep and intermediate water masses thanks to the transient tracers (CFCs, SF 6 , 14 C, 129 I, 236 U ); 5) measure the particulate size spectrum in the water column and to identify the zooplankton species. With respect to the same cruise, done in 2016 (TAlPro2016), this time we propose the addition of data collected ARGO floats, by an Underwater Vision Profiler (UVP5 ) integrated on the rosette, as well as data on Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) and a whole suite of radionuclides (14C, 129I, 236U).