Ozeanography, marine micropaleontology and genetics of benthic and planktonic foraminifera in the Artic environment of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay (MSM 9/2)

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The Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay are oceanographically unique regions. The Labrador Sea is one of the few sites of the world ocean were open deep convection occurs, whilst extensive seasonal sea-ice cover and strong salinity stratification in the summer make the Baffin Bay potentially the best analog for glacial high-latitude oceans. Despite this potential, our knowledge of the physical oceanography and marine biological system, especially in terms of their coupling, remains patchy. The biological and paleoceanographical programme of cruise MSM09/2 will be focused on collection of data and material to investigate the behaviour of the main proxy carriers, planktonic foraminifera, in the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, and to characterise the links between hydrographic conditions and the distribution of living plankton and benthos. Water-column sampling by CTD casts, optical determination of phytoplankton pigments, plankton sampling, filtering, molecular genetics and retrieval of surface sediments will serve as a basis for development of ecological models and new proxies of surface-ocean hydrography in polar waters. Sediment cores will be raised at selected stations mainly in the Baffin Bay as a basis for testing the new proxies on climatic variations in the region during the last glacial cycle.