Description: The enactment of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) initiated scientific efforts to develop reliable methods for comparing prevailing lake conditions against reference (or nonimpaired) states, using the state of a set biological elements. Drawing a distinction between impaired and natural conditions can be a challenging exercise. Another important aspect is to ensure that water quality assessment is comparable among the different Member States. In this context, the present paper offers a constructive critique of the practices followed during the WFD implementation in Greece by pinpointing methodological weaknesses and knowledge gaps that undermine our ability to classify the ecological quality of Greek lakes. One of the pillars of WDF is a valid lake typology that sets ecological standards transcending geographic regions and national boundaries. The national typology of Greek lakes has failed to take into account essential components. WFD compliance assessments based on the descriptions of phytoplankton communities are oversimplified and as such should be revisited. Exclusion of most chroococcal species from the analysis of cyanobacteria biovolume in Greek lakes/reservoirs and most reservoirs in Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus is not consistent with the distribution of those taxa in lakes. Similarly, the total biovolume reference values and the indices used in classification schemes reflect misunderstandings of WFD core principles. This hampers the comparability of ecological status across Europe and leads to quality standards that are too relaxed to provide an efficient target for the protection of Greek/transboundary lakes such as the ancient Lake Megali Prespa.

Description: According to classical plume theory, the Tristan da Cunha hotspot is thought to have played a major role in the rifting of the South Atlantic margins and the creation of the aseismic Walvis Ridge by impinging at the base of the continental lithosphere shortly before or during the breakup of the South Atlantic margins. But Tristan da Cunha is enigmatic, as it cannot be clearly identified as a hot-spot but classifies also highly as a more shallow type of anomaly that may actually have been caused by the opening of the South Atlantic. The equivocal character of Tristan is largely due to lack of geophysical data in this region. To understand the tectonic processes of the opening of the South Atlantic, the formation of the Walvis ridge and to understand whether Tristan da Cunha is the cause or the consequence of rifting, it is of central importance to characterize the region around Tristan da Cunha in a more coherent way. Within this research cruise we deployed 26 ocean bottom electromagnetic stations (OEBM) and 24 ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) for a long term acquisition (1 year) of magnetotelluric and seismological data, acquired bathymetry and gravity data and performed geological sampling on Tristan da Cunha. The data will be interpreted in the context of geochemical data and tectonic models developed within the SPP1375‚ South Atlantic Margin Processes and Links with onshore Evolution (SAMPLE).

Description: Seafloor massive sulfide(SMS) deposits which consist of Au, Ag, Cu, and other metal elements, have been a target of commercial mining in recent decades. The demand for established and reliable commercial mining system for SMS deposits is increasing within the marine mining industry. The current status and progress of mining technology and equipment for SMS deposits are introduced. First, the mining technology and other recent developments of SMS deposits are comprehensively explained and analyzed. The seafloor production tools manufactured by Nautilus Minerals and similar mining tools from Japan for SMS deposits are compared and discussed in turn. Second, SMS deposit mining technology research being conducted in China is described, and a new SMS deposits mining tool is designed according to the environmental requirement. Finally, some new trends of mining technology of SMS deposits are summarized and analyzed. All of these conclusions and results have reference value and guiding significance for the research of SMS deposit mining in China.

Description: Reliable data are the base of all scientific analyses, interpretations and conclusions. Evaluating data in a smart way speeds up the process of interpretation and conclusion and highlights where, when and how additionally acquired data in the field will support knowledge gain. An extended SMART monitoring concept is introduced which includes SMART sensors, DataFlows, MetaData and Sampling approaches and tools. In the course of the Digital Earth project, the meaning of SMART monitoring has significantly evolved. It stands for a combination of hard- and software tools enhancing the traditional monitoring approach where a SMART monitoring DataFlow is processed and analyzed sequentially on the way from the sensor to a repository into an integrated analysis approach. The measured values itself, its metadata, and the status of the sensor, and additional auxiliary data can be made available in real time and analyzed to enhance the sensor output concerning accuracy and precision. Although several parts of the four tools are known, technically feasible and sometimes applied in Earth science studies, there is a large discrepancy between knowledge and our derived ambitions and what is feasible and commonly done in the reality and in the field.

Description: September 8 – October 12, 2015, Mindelo (Cape Verde) – Recife (Brazil)

Description: This open access book presents the proceedings volume of the YOUMARES 8 conference, which took place in Kiel, Germany, in September 2017, supported by the German Association for Marine Sciences (DGM). The YOUMARES conference series is entirely bottom-up organized by and for YOUng MARine RESearchers. Qualified early career scientists moderated the scientific sessions during the conference and provided literature reviews on aspects of their research field. These reviews and the presenters’ conference abstracts are compiled here. Thus, this book discusses highly topical fields of marine research and aims to act as a source of knowledge and inspiration for further reading and research.

Description: Meteor Cruise M121 was dedicated to the investigation of the distribution of dissolved and particulate trace metals and their isotopic compositions (TEIs) in the full water column of the Angola Basin and the northernmost Cape Basin. A key aim was to determine the driving factors for the observed distributions, which includes the main external inputs, as well as internal cycling and ocean circulation. The research program of the cruise is official part of the international GEOTRACES program (www.geotraces.org) and cruise M121 corresponds to GEOTRACES cruise GA11. Subject of the cruise was the trace metal clean and contamination-free sampling of waters and particulates for subsequent analyses of the TEIs in the home laboratories of the national and international participants. Besides a standard rosette for the less contaminant prone metals, trace metal clean sampling was realized by using for the first time a new dedicated, coated trace metal clean rosette equipped with Teflon-coated GO-FLO bottles operated via a plastic coated cable from a mobile winch of GEOMAR Kiel. The particulate samples were collected under trace metal clean conditions using established in-situ pump systems operated from Meteor’s Aramid line. The cruise track led from Walvis Bay northwards along the West African margin until 3°S, then turned west until the Zero Meridian, which was followed southwards until 30°S. Then the cruise track turned east again until the Namibian margin was reached and then completed the near shore track northwards until Walvis Bay. The track crossed areas of major external inputs including dust from the Namib Desert and exchange with the west African continental margin and with the oxygen depleted shelf sediments of the Benguela upwelling, as well as with the plume of the Congo outflow, that was followed from its mouth northwards. Our investigations of internal cycling included the extremely high productivity associated with the Benguela Upwelling and the elevated productivity of the Congo plume contrasting with the extremely oligotrophic waters of the southeastern Atlantic Gyre. The links between TEI biogeochemistry and the nitrogen cycle forms an important aspect of our study. The major water masses contributing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation were sampled in order to investigate if particular TEI signatures are suitable as water mass tracers, in particular near the ocean margin and in the restricted deep Angola Basin. A total of 51 full water column stations were sampled for the different dissolved TEIs, which were in most cases accompanied by sampling for particulates and radium isotopes using the in-situ pumps. In addition, surface waters were continuously sampled under trace metal clean conditions using a towed fish and aerosol and rain samples were continuously collected.

Description: The cruise M133 SACROSS (South Atlantic Crossing) was a multidisciplinary ocean survey of the South Atlantic gyre roughly along 34.5°S. This transect is covered by the international SAMOC moored array and also the path of the internationally agreed AX18 XBT line. Most of the measurements were based on using underway methods including near-surface water sampling for the determination of SST, and SSS as well as shipboard ADCP current observations. Moreover, an underway CTD allowed to sample the upper 300-400 m every hour. Chemical analysis of surface waters as well as atmospheric parameter were of scientific interest to both compare different regions with each other but also to document long term trends. At the western and eastern boundary current regime full water column water mass properties were measured. Upper ocean 10-700m plankton assemblages allow improving the calibration of sediment proxies. Water samples for later lab-based biodiversity analysis were taken. A number of smaller student projects were carried out as part of a global ocean learning and capacity building effort. Finally, continuous swath bathymetry mapping was made, and a number of floats and drifters were launched in support of the global ocean observing system arrays. The cruise was very successful, all objectives were reached, and the measurements were carried out as planned.

Description: Erstmals trägt dieses nationale Assessment den Forschungsstand zum Klimawandel umfassend für alle Themenbereiche und gesellschaftlichen Sektoren zusammen. Womit müssen wir in Deutschland rechnen, welche Auswirkungen werden die Klimaveränderungen auf Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft haben, und wie können wir uns wappnen? 126 Autoren aus ganz Deutschland äußern sich zu Themen wie bereits beobachtete und zukünftige Veränderungen, Wetterkatastrophen und deren Folgen, den Projektionen für die Zukunft, den Risiken sowie möglichen Anpassungsstrategien. Die Autoren stellen in verständlicher Sprache den aktuellen Forschungsstand dar und veranschaulichen die wichtigsten Gedanken in Grafiken und Tabellen. Alle Texte wurden mehrfach wissenschaftlich begutachtet. Klimawandel in Deutschland ist die erste Gesamtschau zu dem Themenkomplex, benennt offene Fragestellungen und liefert eine Grundlage für Entscheidungen im Zusammenhang mit dem Klimawandel. Deutschland reiht sich damit ein in die Liste von Ländern wie die Vereinigten Staaten, Österreich und Großbritannien, in denen derartige Berichte bereits vorliegen. Die Herausgeber: Prof. Dr. Guy Brasseur und Prof. Dr. Daniela Jacob, ehemaliger Direktor und gegenwärtige Direktorin des Climate Center Germany/Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, und Susanne Schuck-Zöller, die auch die Projektleitung übernommen hat, werden bei diesem Buch unterstützt von einem Editorial Board, dem elf herausragende Wissenschaftler aus den wichtigsten Klimaforschungseinrichtungen in Deutschland angehören