The R/V SOCIB has successfully completed the ABRIC 2021 campaign

From January 18 to 21, 2021, the ABRIC 2021 campaign has been successfully carried out on board the Research Vessel (R/V SOCIB) of the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB), even improving the forecasts and ending one day earlier than planned. This campaign is part of the ABRIC project (Assessment of Bottom-trawling Resuspension Impacts in deep benthic Communities, 2019-2021), led by Pere Puig, researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), and has been funded by the National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation (National R+D+I Plan) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, at the request of the Scientific Area of Environmental Sciences and Technologies.

The R/V SOCIB has successfully completed the ABRIC 2021 campaign

The main objective of the project is to study the impacts derived from trawling on the communities that live in relation to the seabed. In particular, the ABRIC 2021 campaign has been focused on the characterization of sediment Transport due to trawling in the Blanes canyon. To that end, among other instruments, the researchers have used the oceanographic rosette of the ICTS SOCIB, composed of 12 Niskin 5-liter bottles and a Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) sensor, sampling along a transect with 15 stations. The bottles are used to take water samples at different depths—they are introduced open into the sea and their closure is programmed from the R/V laboratory—. The CTD is equipped with sensors that allow the measurement of salinity, temperature, fluorescence, turbidity, chlorophyll, photosynthetic activity, and dissolved oxygen. This CTD was acquired by the ICTS SOCIB at the end of 2019 and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the framework of the Operational Programme of the Balearic Islands for the 2014-2020 programming period.

In addition, during the campaign on board the R/V SOCIB, five research anchoring in the Blanes canyon have been recovered within the framework of the ABRIC project. These moorings had turbidity sensors, CTDs, current profilers, and sediment traps attached in order to characterize and extract transport rates of suspended bottom sediment. Of these five anchors, three were located at the Blanes canyon head, at depths between -638 m and -650 m. The other two were in the middle and central part of the canyon, at depths between -713 m and -770 m. The ICM-CSIC's Hidrochange-ICM anchorage, located 40 nm from the Port of Blanes and 1,820 m deep on the eastern flank of the Blanes submarine canyon, has also been maintained.