Magma chamber to micro-habitats : dynamics of deep sea hydrothermal ecosystems – LuckyScales

LuckyScales aims to acquire, process and model time-series data to better understand ecosystem dynamics at mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vents. Fluid fluxes that feed these ecosystems are controlled both by km-scale hydrothermal systems powered by magmatic heat, and by smaller-scale near-surface fluid circulations and mixing between seawater and hydrothermal fluids. Currents in the water column near the seafloor also affect these fluxes. Our plan is to apply a multidisciplinary approach (from geophysics and physical oceanography to ecology and microbiology) to better understand these abiotic factors, and how they interact to control the biodiversity of deep sea vents. This fundamental knowledge is a prerequisite to assess faunal response to other potential sources of perturbation (e.g. deep sea mining activities).

We propose to base our study on data from an innovative instrumental array that will complement the existing near real time Lucky Strike Mid-Atlantic Ridge observatory (a node of the European Multidisciplinary Subsea and water column Observatory–EMSO). This will be a prototype for multidisciplinary environmental monitoring in the deep seafloor, allowing us to test approaches that may be transferred to implement management strategies for Marine Protected Areas, for prospective or actual deep-sea mining, or for oil and gas exploitation projects.

An important component of the project will be to work on data validation and dissemination procedures adapted to this prototype: identify those data that best qualify environmental changes and faunal response at deep sea hydrothermal vents, validate these data, define the type of metadata that is required for each user (other researchers, schools and universities, interested governmental agencies and industrial partners), the conditions of data accessibility (open or conditionnal, immediate or delayed), and appropriate data visualisation tools. These products will be delivered to the EMSO portal and used for the visibility of the project for the media and general public.

The project will last for four years with yearly workshops and participation to the observatory maintenance cruises. We will have six workpackages: WPs 1 to 4 are scientific WPs, targeted at specific components of the hydrothermal ecosystem (focused end-member fluids, small scale sub-seafloor circulations, water column dynamics, and faunal and microbial response). WP5 is tasked with engineering the new seafloor instruments, defining procedures for their deployment at sea, and for the management of their data. WP6 is tasked with workshop organisation and will coordinate the valorisation of the project’s results. The team is comprised of 19 permanent staff from the 4 partner institutes (IPGP, Ifremer, GET and LPO), 19 collaborators from 15 institutions in Europe, Switzerland, Canada and the USA, six (possibly seven) already funded PhD students, and one post-doc also funded by another source. We request funding for three additional participants: two post-doctoral fellows and one engineer.