Back from the Sørfjord

We’re just back from the Sørfjord, Norway, where we collected a series of samples to monitor the contamination status, and to carry out acidification experiments.

Our teams have been working in the Sørfjord since 1995. The fjord is located in South-West Norway and has two ore smelters at its head. The location is an exceptionally contaminated area, where discharges (Cd, Zn, Cu, Hg, Pb) from metallurgical industry have occurred for more than 80 years. During the mission, we collected sediments, starfish and sea urchins at sites close to each smelter (sites Sl and S2), further downstream (site S3) and outside of the contaminated fjord (site S4). We are now processing the samples to determine the levels of metals in various grain-size fractions from the sediments and different body compartments of the echinoderms.

The sea urchin we sampled in the fjord

The sea urchin we sampled in the fjord

In parallel, we have carried out a series of tests with our ROV, to ground-truth its usage in the field for habitat mapping and characterisation of benthic communities. This allows us to be ready for field work in harsh conditions in Antarctica, in the framework of the vERSO project.

A seastar (Asterias rubens), in the typical spawning posiiton, captured on the ROV's screen.

A seastar (Asterias rubens), in the typical spawning posiiton, captured on the ROV’s screen.

We also brought back some organisms to the lab to test the influence of different pH on the loss kinetics of contaminants in starfish and on the acid-base physiology and energetics of sea urchins. Work in progress now…

Gathering the samples by scuba diving

Gathering the samples by scuba diving

Our Diving team: Antonio, Philippe and Bruno

Our Diving team: Antonio, Philippe and Bruno

Untangling the 225m tether before a deep dive wit the ROV

Untangling the 225m tether before a deep dive wit the ROV

Helped by a local, as our van was stuck by the fjord. We paid with Belgian beer.

Helped by a local, as our van was stuck by the fjord. We paid with Belgian beer.

Portman- ROV Sampling Gallery

Image

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This gallery contains the pictures we extracted from the video transects that  we operated in Portman (Spain, 2013).  Each picture is a support for a Bay’ species cartography work.

Please Do not hesitate to contact me for any question/doubt about our identifications or to notice any specie you could identify on the pictures


From 17/10/2013 to the 24/10/2013 we captured some video transects of shallow benthic habitats encountered within or close to the bay of Portmàn (Murcia, Spain), which is subject to a strong pollution by metallic compounds due to an old mining activity. The following pictures, extracted from these video transects were used to fill species’ distribution files that sould be available for the whole scientific community through an online portail (Link).  Thus this post aims to provide a visual support relative to this occurrence file, but is also open for suggestions about identifications that are not already tagged on the pictures and that would increase our data about species distribution.   You might see some identifications relative to the class, family or genus. It is relative to individuals that we could not identify to the specie level ( we limit our identifications to the lowest taxonomic rank that we are undoubted about).

Anemonia viridis

Anemonia viridis

 

Anemonia viridis

Anemonia viridis

echinussite1-1

Anemonia viridis – Echinoidea

 

lividusnosite

Paracentrotus lividus – Echinoidea

lividusnosite1

Paracentrotus lividus

padinapavonicasite1-1

Echinoidea – Paracentrotus lividus – Padina povonica

padinapavonicasite3-1

Padina pavonica

Paracentrothuslividussite1

Paracentrotus lividus – Echinoidea

Pina nobilis

Pinna nobilis

Posidonia Oceanica

Posidonia oceanica

Echinaster sepositus

Echinaster sepositus

echinastersepositussite3-2

Ophidiaster ophidianus

corallinasp,echinoide

Corallina sp – Echinoidea

Pinnanobilis,dictyotasp(epiphyte)

Pinna nobilis – dictyota sp.

echnoidessite3

Echinoidea

echinoidesite3.2

Echinoidea

echinoidessite3-3

Echinoidea

echinoidessites3=4

Echinoidea

echinastersepositussite3

Paracentrotus lividus

Maxillopoda,paracentrothussite3

Maxillopoda – Paracentrotus lividus

Asteroidaesite3

Asteroidea

echinoidessite3-4

Echinoidea

echinoide,anemoniaviridissite3

Anemonia viridis – Echinoidea

Echinoidesite3-jesaispluscombien

Echinoidea

echinoidessite4

Echinoidea

echinoidessite4-2

Echinoidea

paracentrothuslividussite4

Paracentrotus lividus

codiumbursasite4

Codium bursa

caulerparacemosa,echinastersitersite5

Caulerpa racemosa – Echinaster sepositus

Spongiaofficinalissite4

Spongia officilanis

Echinastersepositus,halimedatunasite4

Halimeda tuna – Echinaster sepositus

Arbacialixulasite4

Arbacia lixula

Echinastersepositus,halimedatuna,padinapavonicadsite4

Echinaster sepositus – Halimeda tuna – Padina pavonica

Paracentrothuslividussite4-2

Paracentrotus lividus

echinoidessite4-3

Echinoidea

Paracentrothuslividussite4-4

Paracentrotus lividus

holothuridaesite4

Holothuria sanctori

echinoidessite4-4

Echinoidea

paracentrothuslividusorallinasite5

Corallinna sp. – Paracentrotus lividus

eunicellaspsiteb5

Eunicella sp.

 

Echinastersepositus,halimedatuna,padinapavonicadsite4

Echinaster sepositus – Halimeda tuna – Padina pavonica

 

Paracentrothuslividussite4-3

Paracentrotus lividus – Corallina sp.

anemoniaviridissitesecours

Anemonia viridis

echinoidesitesecours

Echinoidea

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Mission Portman: a short report…

Remediation poster

Poster explaining the ongoing remediation programs in the Bay Portman

A small team from the BIOMAR Lab set a research mission to the Bay of Portman, Spain. The team was composed of Philippe Pernet (technician), three master students (Valérie Rossez, Andrea Garvetto and Maxime Coupremanne) under the supervision of Bruno Danis. The team reached the Bay on October 16th, 2013 for a 10-day stay.

The Bay of Portman was chosen for its exceptional environmental characteristics, from a contamination standpoint. A conference was recently held on the subject, involving our colleagues Drs Maria Jose Martinez and Carmen Perez, both from the Research Group of Soil Pollution in the University of Murcia.

A series of sampling and measurement were carried out in the framework of the master students respective projects:

Valérie Rossez worked on  comparative acid-base physiology  in two species of sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula), investigating the relationship between this physiological parameters and the uptake of contaminants but the sea urchins

Paracentrotus lividus (image from Encyclopedia of life, www.eol.org)

 

Arbacia lixula

Arbacia lixula (picture from Encyclopedia of Life, www.eol.org)

Andrea Garvetto worked on microbial diversity, and took samples to investigate the link between the levels of contamination and microbial community structure in digestive pellets of two species of sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula), in various algae as well as in the seawater and sediments (various granulometries).

Maxime Coupremanne carried out a fine-scale mapping of the biodiversity and habitats of the Bay and its surroundings using underwater video transects using the lab’s ROV as well as videos shot by SCUBA divers.

Wally

Our ROV, Wally, in station S3, ready for deployment

Also, samples were taken for heavy metal levels analyses for each corresponding stations. The team was able to work in a total of 16 stations in the Bay, organised in a set of transects (from inside to outside the Bay as well as along the coast, following the main currents), and has come back to the Lab to process the samples. This pool of samples and video transects constitutes a unique benchmark to address potential future changes, for example in the mining activities of the Bay of Portman.

sampling

Sampling station in the Bay of Portman