Field Programe
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For the field programme, a limited number of target sites were selected, based upon current knowledge on the geological, physical and chemical aspects of deep-water ecosystems and the known distribution and ecology of species from chemosynthetic systems. The target locations were grouped in two categories:
Category I included target areas are of particular concern to ChEss because their successful investigation required the highest degree of international collaboration and co-ordination of effort. Each region enclosed large areas where different chemosynthetic systems and a number of ecological, geological, evolutionary and topographic parameters are combined. The main purpose to studying these areas was to assess faunal relationships amongst different systems and the processes that drive their distribution. Category II includes a number of specific locations where there was already interest at the national and/or international level. Each of these sites was also important in our bid to elucidate the biogeographic puzzle of chemosynthetic systems.
Category I, combined areas:
Area A: Equatorial Atlantic Belt region - comprising cold seeps off Costa Rica and the Gulf of Mexico, the Cayman Trough spreading centre, the Barbados accretionary prism, the continental margin off north east Brazil including the Amazon outflow, the MAR north and south of the equatorial Fracture Zones and the West African continental margin; Area B: the SE Pacific region - comprising the East Chile Rise; the Peru-Chile trench; the OMZ region of the Chilean continental margin, and coincident whale migration and wood-fall areas;
Area C: the New Zealand region – comprising hydrothermal vents (north of NZ extending toward the Lau Basin), cold seeps (immediately north and south of NZ), high concentrations of whale populations in Kaikoro Canyon and extensive sunken wood and fjords (west coast, South Island). Area D: Arctic and Antarctic regions where research projects were being developed within the International Polar Year Initiative.
Category II, specific areas:
Category II, specific areas (yellow): 1 – the ice-covered Gakkel Ridge, 2 – the (ultra)-slow ridges of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, 3- the northern MAR between the Iceland and Azores hot-spots; 4 – the Brazilian continental margin, 5 – the East Scotia Ridge and Bransfield Strait, 6 – the SW Indian Ridge, 7 – the Central Indian Ridge.
