Activities
JUNE 2023: HCMR, CRETE
Ocean liming in an oligotrophic sea
In the framework of the facility call "AlkalOcean: Is Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement an option for atmospheric CO2 reduction in the ultra-oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean? A mesocosm experimental approach" (funded by the AQUACOSM- plus Transnational Access (TA) program and by the OACIS initiative of Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco) the Ocean liming in an oligotrophic sea experiments took place.
In the context of OAE research, the OLIGOS (Ocean Liming in an OLIGOtrophic Sea) mesocosm experiment took place at the CRETACOSMOS facilities in Heraklion, on the northern coast of Crete, Greece. The experimental design includes 9 mesocosm tanks of about 3 m3 each, for testing the response of the natural eastern Mediterranean waters to two different treatments of Ca(OH)2 slurry (High and Low concentrations). The research investigates the response of the most relevant components at the basis of the trophic web, playing also a primary role in marine carbonate equilibria: DOM, plankton, with particular interest in calcareous primary producers (coccolithophores) and benthic calcareous primary producers (maerl collected from a local bed).
The OLIGOS experiment is performed by an international team led by Prof. Daniela Basso from the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), and coordinated by Dr. Paraskevi Pitta, HCMR (Greece). The research team is composed of scientists from seven different countries, including three Italian Institutions (University of Milano-Bicocca, Politecnico di Milano and CNR-IBF in Pisa), the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Crete, Greece, the Marine Research Centre at the University of Vigo (CIM-Uvigo, Spain), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - CSIC (Barcelona, Spain), CONICET-CESIMAR (Argentina), the Norwegian University for Science ad Technology - NTNU (Trondheim, Norway), MARBEC (Montpellier, France) and the University of Zagreb (Croatia).
Stay tuned for updates on our AlkalOcean-OLIGOS experiment!
OCTOBER 2022: CIM, VIGO
Impact of ocean liming on calcareous primary producers
In October 2022, an experiment to assess the effect of alkalinisation on the plankton community and calcareous algae (maerl) was conducted in the frame of the AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access (TA) program. This experiment, named OLCAPP, was conducted at the Marine Research Centre at the University of Vigo (CIM-Uvigo). OLCAPP was led by Prof. Daniela Basso, from the University of Milano-Bicocca, in collaboration with three other researchers of her team, including Politecnico di Milano and CNR-IBF in Pisa (all of them funded by the TA program) and another 4 local researchers from the Marine Research Centre at the University of Vigo (CIM-Uvigo).
