The Atlantic Data Base for Exchange Processes at the Deep Sea Floor (ADEPD) was a marine research project funded by the EU from 1998 to 2000 as part of MAST III (Marine Science and Technology Programme). The project was coordinated by Prof. Dr. Karin Lochte at the

Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research The Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (german: Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde, abbreviated IOW) is a research institution located in Warnemünde (Rostock), Germany. It is part of the Leibniz-Association, cooperates wit ...

, Warnemünde with contributions of ten European partners and one institute from the US. The aim of the ADEPD project was to build up a joint data base for

deep sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...

biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

and

geochemical Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the ...

data from a variety of sources and to conduct a preliminary geographical analysis of these data. Emphasis was on the North Atlantic, since from this area most data are available and it is the most perturbed deep sea region due to human activities. 1775 published and unpublished data sets were collected in two years. This was the first project which has compiled a data base from existing deep sea data, long-term archived and accessible to the scientific community. Evaluation of the data collection showed that data are clustered in some well investigated areas of the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, but large regions are devoid of data like the Mid Atlantic Ridge, parts of the South Atlantic and

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-smal ...

. In particular biological data from the deep sea are much more scarce than geochemical ones, since many biological data from past investigations are not accessible in a suitable form at present. Most deep sea research projects did not carry out geochemical and biological studies at the same locations. Therefore, statistical comparisons between biological and geochemical data are still difficult despite the high total amount of data gathered. Different methods employed for the determination of one variable further complicate the matter. One of the major achievements of ADEP was to convert different measurements to common units. This allowed to investigate relationships between different chemical measurements, groups of organisms and turnover rates. Two very different approaches to estimate the total turnover of organic carbon or oxygen (respiration) at the deep sea floor gave very similar results. Regional differences in both assessments point to methodological shortcomings by one or the other method and to gaps in data coverage. While estimates agreed well in central Atlantic regions, fairly large discrepancies were found at the continental margins. This indicated that there was still insufficient knowledge about transport processes and biological turnover of

organic carbon Total organic carbon (TOC) is the amount of carbon found in an organic compound and is often used as a non-specific indicator of water quality or cleanliness of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment. TOC may also refer to the amount of organic c ...

along

continental margin A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental marg ...

s. The following recommendations for future research were given on the basis of the ADEPD results: * It is most important to secure deep sea biological data from so far inaccessible sources and to collate them in a data information system which guarantees long-term stewardship and public access. * Biological and geochemical studies were mostly carried out separately which seems to be a systematic, scientific pattern and poses a problem in deep sea research. Interdisciplinary studies are essential to better understand of deep sea processes. * The largest differences in estimates of oxygen fluxes at the sea floor are found at continental margins which export large amounts of organic carbon to the deep sea. The knowledge of transport and biological utilization at the continental margins need further attention.

External links

ADEPD data
as archived in the data library

PANGAEA Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 millio ...

Project report and web pages
(archived as pdf, 4 MB)

Participating institutes

Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Warnemünde, Germany

Alfred Wegenr Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
* Centre des Faibles Radioactivites Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory Oban, United Kingdom

Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Germany

Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel, Germany

IFREMER Centre de Brest, France

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany

Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The Netherlands

P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Moscow, Russia

Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, USA
Marine biology