Physical oceanography from CTD during Maria S. Merian cruise MSM20/4 in spring 2012

With an extension of > 40 km**2 the recently discovered Campeche cold-water coral province located at the northeastern rim of the Campeche Bank in the southern Gulf of Mexico belongs to the largest coherent cold-water coral areas discovered so far. The Campeche province consists of numerous 20-40 m-high elongated coral mounds that are developed in intermediate water depths of 500 to 600 m. The mounds are colonized by a vivid cold-water coral ecosystem that covers the upper flanks and summits. The rich coral community is dominated by the framework-building Scleractinia Enallopsammia profunda and Lophelia pertusa, while the associated benthic megafauna shows a rather scarce occurrence. The recent environmental setting is characterized by a high surface water production caused by a local upwelling center and a dynamic bottom-water regime comprising vigorous bottom currents, obvious temporal variability, and strong density contrasts, which all together provide optimal conditions for the growth of cold-water corals. This setting - potentially supported by the diel vertical migration of zooplankton in the Campeche area - controls the delivering of food particles to the corals. The Campeche cold-water coral province is, thus, an excellent example highlighting the importance of the oceanographic setting in securing the food supply for the development of large and vivid cold-water coral ecosystems.

Oceanographic Profiling Observations MOCE-4 Cruise: 26 January to 12 February 1998

This report contains results from the fourth cruise of the MODIS Optical Characterization Experiment (MOCE). Also resented are oceanographic data from two MOBY maintenance cruises L-20 and L-25. The MOCE4 cruise was the first NOAAINESDIS-Ied SeaWiFS Initialization cruise during which a variety ofspectroradiometric observations ofthe upper water column and atmosphere were made by investigators from NOAA, the University of Miami, CHORS and MLML. Data presented in this report were obtained by oceanographic CTD profiler: salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, beam attenuation and chlorophyll-a fluorescence~ and by water samplers: total suspended matter and suspended organic carbon and nitrogen, salinity and dissolved oxygen. (PDF contains 142 pages).