Cruise MNG0310, coordinated by ISMAR-CNR of Bologna, has been dedicated to the EMMA-LIFE project , coordinated by Dr. Mariangela Ravaioli and to the ADRICOSM-STAR project (coordinating Institution CMCC, scientific Coordinator Prof. Nadia Pinardi)
The EMMA project aims at understanding and possibly forecast the anoxic and hypoxic conditions occuring in the Norther Adriatic Sea. This is done by operational physical and biogeochemical modeling, that require both seasonal oceanographical cruises in the Adriatic Basin and the use of Near real Time Meteoceanographical Buoys (among them the ISMAR's E1 and S1 buoys).
The cruise planned to repeat classical and well known transects (Po-Rovinij, Rimini, Senigallia, Pescara, Gargano), as well as investigating structures near the Gargano Promontory and in the area of Bari Canyon, with particular regards to the North Adriatic Dense Water (NaDW) processes BIGNAMI1990-BARI, BIGNAMI1990-DWSAD, RIDENTE2007, TRINCARDI2007SEAFLOOR, CANALS2009.
ADRICOSM-STAR "... aims at the development and partial implementation of an integrated coastal area and river and urban waters management system that considers both observational and modelling components." The research area is the Montenegro and Albanian coastal and marginal zone, inclusive of Kotor Bay (Boka Kotorska). The project involves 19 public and private partners from Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania and has a duration of 3 years starting from March 2007.
This is the fifth cruise in the area of Montenegro-Albania, following cruises ADR08 (R/V Dallaporta, July 2008), ADR02_08 (R/V Urania, October 2008 BIGNAMI2008), MNG01_09 (R/V Urania MNG0109-REP) and MNG02_09 (R/V Maria Grazia, july 2009 MNG0209-REP).
The cruise objectives were:
On the whole, Multibeam and CHIRP data will be used to assess the geological and surficial and subsurficial morphological setting, other than help to update bathymetric maps. Among the settings we may cite sediment transport pathways, such as accumulation and erosion areas, and risk and hazard studies.
This paper reports the shipboard activities during cruise MNG0310, including description of the ship, equipment and their usage, along with details of the general settings, performances and some scientific and technical results.
CHIRP SBP and Multibeam bathymetric data were acquired allover planned routes or during transits, from the SE to N, and the seafloor was sampled by box-corer and gravity corer in predetermined stations in front and to the south of the Bojana River. In particular, the planning of routes were dictated by the aim of obtaining full coverage multibeam images or to investigating geological features like one caused by submarine mass movements, depositional or erosional processes, or by fluid escapes.
Hydrological measurements included CTD vertical profiles (pressure, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, light transmission, fluorimetry). Among the many parameters, T, S, Pressure were used to provide to the MBES the necessary water column speed of sound profile. Data were extracted from the 0.5 or 1 m averaged profiles, and input on the MBES console. A procedure was set up in order to ease the handling of the procedure, in particular for the extension of data to the depth of 12000m, as required by the SIS Kongsberg's software.
The Adriatic Sea (Fig.1) is an epicontinental sea showing two margin configurations, north and south of the Gargano Promontory ([Ridente & Trincardi(2005)] and references therein).
The northern Adriatic (NA) Sea is bounded by the Italian peninsula to the eest and by the Balkans to the east (Fig. 1) and is the northernmost part of the Mediterranean Sea. It is caharacterized by very shallow environment, with an average depth of 
35 m, and regularly and gently slopes toward the south until the 120 m isobath, taken as its southern open boundary, approximately north of 43:20 ARTEGIANI1997-I, RUSSO1996, POULAIN2001-NAS. Other authors consider Ancona or Rimini to be the southern limit of the NA.
The Central area is characterized by the Mid Adriatic Deep (MAD), a remnant basin, 260 m deep, separated in 2 depocenters by the Central Adriatic deformation belt ARGNANI1997, and bordered by the Gallignani and Pelagosa (Palagruza) ridges to the south and by the structural high of the Tremiti Islands. The two depressions of the MAD are likely to be filled by the NadDW.
The southern area ARGNANI2006 is characterized by a sub-circular depression, more than 1200 m deep (Southern Adriatic Deep, SAD), located between the coasts of Puglia, to the west, and Albania, Montenegro and Croatia to the east, considered the current foredeep of the Dinaride and Albanide fold-and-thrust belt DEALTERIIS1995, ARGNANI1996, BERTOTTI2001.
The Montenegrinian and Northern Albanian margins and coastal areas are part of the seismically active W-verging Dinaride/Albanide fold-and-thrust belt along the eastern Adriatic basin boundary (see Fig.1). The margins have relict shelf edge, with sediment stored on the albanian coastline, and evidence of large-scale mass wasting ARGNANI2006, ROURE2004. The continental shelf is very narrow from N in Croatia to C. Patamuni S of the Bay of Kotor, near Budva, where it develops offshore down to C. Rodonit. The seismic activity is present in the study area as moderate to strong intensity events. In particular, it must be cited the M6.9 destructive event of 1979-04-15 and aftershocks in the Bar region CONSOLE1981, BOORE1981, whose epicenter was located offshore 5-10 NM, at the most external thrust. The area south of the mouth of Bojana River to W and SW of Cape Rodonit is also seismically active, being interested by a WNE pure-compression thrust and by ENE trending strikeslip faults ALIAJ2004, ALIAJ2008. According to TIBERTI2008 and therein cited authors, the events have large potential for generating tsunamis.
Because of karst environment in the Dinaric range, especially in N Montenegro, coastal aquifers may also develop at sea with submarine syphons, springs and resurgences, within a geological and hydrogeological setting strongly related to tectonics and to past (and future) climate and sea level fluctuations FLEURY2007
The following notes are from RUSSO2009.
Being an epicontinental basin, the hydrology and dynamics of the NA are primarily influenced by meteorological forcing, thermal variations and river runoff. Climatological studies (see CUSHMAN-ROISIN2001 and citations therein) indicate that prominent weather situations in the NA include unperturbed weather or airflow from the northwestern, northeastern and south-eastern quadrants (respectively Etesian, Bora and Sirocco winds; these two last are the most frequent winds in the area and often trigger severe wind-storms). The NA receives approximately 20 % of the total Mediterranean river runoff RUSSO1996, mainly from the Po River, average flow rate approximately 1500 m
/y ARTEGIANI1981, RAICICH1994. This leads to a net gain of fresh water.
In autumn, intense cooling and evaporation processes, usually associated with Bora wind events over the NA, create conditions for dense water formation during the winter VIBILIC2005.
Due to runoff and heating in the late spring and summer and to autumn-winter cooling, gradient currents are established within a cyclonic circulation system ZORE-ARMANDA1956, BULJAN1976, FRANCO1982, ORLIC1992, ARTEGIANI1997-I, ARTEGIANI1997-II, RUSSO1996, HOPKINS1999, POULAIN2001-CI consisting of an entering NW-ward current (the Eastern Adriatic Current, EAC), and an exiting SE-ward current (the Western Adriatic Current, WAC), that introduce warmer and saltier water into the sub-basin, while pushing fresher water towards the southern regions. The general circulation pattern in the NA is also largely affected by wind. Bora episodes can generate a transient double gyre circulation consisting of a cyclone north of Po delta and an anticyclone to the south, driving the upwind extension river plume filaments JEFFRIES2007; an anticyclonic circulation also develops along the southern Istrian coast POULAIN2001-BOOK, POULAIN2001-CI, while Bora enforce flow in the WAC BOOK2007, URSELLA2007.
The NA Sea is one of the most biologically productive regions of the whole Mediterranean. The rate of oxygen consumption due to biogeochemical processes is the largest of the entire Adriatic basin, with a maximum occurring around the Po River delta area ARTEGIANI1997-II. This region can thus be regarded as a favourable environment for the development of hypoxic conditions. The formation of a hypoxic bottom layer in wide areas of the basin DEGOBBIS1993, DEGOBBIS2000 can cause major ecological problems such as the mass mortality of marine animals, defaunation of benthic populations and a decline in fisheries production.
The dynamics of the SAD is dominated by the presence of a quasi-permanent cyclonic gyre that in the winter season creates the conditions for the open-ocean convection and the production of dense and oxygenated waters. Studies show that two types of dense water formation processes occur during winter within the Adriatic Sea: the major portion of the Adriatic Deep Water (ADW) is formed through open ocean convection inside the Southern Adriatic Deep (SAD) within the cyclonic gyre, while the remaining dense water is formed on the continental shelf of the Northern and Middle Adriatic that moves southward and ultimately sinks to the bottom of the SAD OVCHINNIKOV1985,BIGNAMI1990-BARI, BIGNAMI1990-DWSAD, MRIZZOLI1991. The eastern margin is characterized by the influence of the incoming waters of Ionian origin which flow northward being restricted mainly to the continental slope. This area is interested by the Levantine Intermediate water (LIW) that occupies the layer between 150 and 600m.
The coastal zone of Albanian and Montenegro in the eastern margin consists of a narrow shelf area North of the Strait of Otranto, with smooth bathymetry and with circulation features presumably determinate by inflowing Ionian waters, by local winds, and by relatively large amounts of the Buna-Bojana river. The latest provide a strong contribution to the Adriatic freshwater budget, in a way that their influence in feeding the freshwater coastal zone is sometimes felt far downstream along the Croatian coast.
The current state of knowledge of oceanographic characteristics of the Albanian shelf is limited. Numerical simulations and satellite infrared images indicates that the circulation on the Albanian shelf responds strongly to the local wind forcing BERGAMASCO1996. More specifically, the northeasterly wind generates very intense coastal upwelling along the Albanian shoreline due to the sudden change of the coastline orientation in that area. Bora wind induces an undercurrent at intermediate depths near the Albanian shelf break, which is directed in the opposite direction of the Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) inflow from the Ionian. Therefore, in addition to coastal upwelling, Bora in the Strait of Otranto weakens and occasionally blocks completely the LIW inflow.
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