Lead institution:
Senckenberg am Meer, German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research – Germany
By sampling Northwest and Northeast Atlantic deep-sea basins, IceDivA aims to extend the previous Northeast Atlantic deep-sea program, IceAGE, also linking with the South Atlantic deep-sea programme DIVA (Latitudinal Gradients in BioDIVersity in the deep Atlantic) and those in the Southern Ocean.
This will provide pan-Atlantic deep-sea samples to investigate topics regarding species richness and evolution. To map the species diversity, and answer questions on the connectivity of deep-sea fauna along latitudinal gradients in the pan-Atlantic Ocean, we will sample in 3,000 m to 5,500 m water depths bridging the Atlantic knowledge gap between prior expeditions. The faunal analysis will follow an integrative approach, combining modern genomic methods with traditional, morphological taxonomy. Via cooperative data/sample sharing we will support the BMBF project PLASTISEA as well as the EU projects iAtlantic and HOTMIC.
Start Date: 08/01/2021
End Date: 31/12/2025
Lead Contact: Saskia Brix (Sbrix@senckenberg.de)