The PERSMED cruise (PERSEUS Work package 2 – Pressures and impacts at coastal level) started on 1 April 2014 on R/V Antéa. It is a joint cruise between IFREMER and IOF. This research action focuses on the assessment of contaminants bioaccumulation and trophic biomagnification in short coastal and pelagic food webs in various selected working areas in Western and Central Mediterranean, namely: Western Mediterranean /Gulf of Lion, Tyrrhenian Sea /Naples, Ionian reference, Southern Adriatic /Split (southern and middle Adriatic).

The goal of the oceanographic cruise PERSMED II is to carry out sampling in different working areas of PERSEUS project in the Mediterranean Sea during the spring development and planktonic bloom. All components of the pelagic food web that can influence the transfer of contaminants and energy towards small pelagic fish will be studied using an end-to-end sampling approach. Physical and chemical parameters of the water column and the size and biomass of planktonic components, ranging from pico- to mesoplankton, will be analyzed to describe the structure of the food web and infer potential contaminants transfer pathways.

The planktonic populations play a key role in the trophic food webs in marine ecosystems by mobilization and transfer of organic matter towards higher trophic levels. However, the role of plankton in the transfer of contaminants is not yet well documented. Furthermore, the small pelagic fish represent an exploited resource in the Mediterranean and an essential trophic chain between plankton and the higher predators. The contamination of small pelagic fish is thus a pertinent vector for the transfer of contaminants to the open seas, and especially towards higher predators. Accordingly, our approach embraces the ecological and biogeochemical dimensions of the food web and contaminants.

                                       PERSMED II cruise study areas R/V Antéa 1-27 April 2014