During the cruise ENVADRI2011 several aspects have been investigated with a multi-disciplinary effort. One of the major focus has been on the biodiversity levels in different hetero and autotrophic compartments starting from picoplanktonic forms to mesozooplankton and jellyfish organisms.
A dedicated survey has been organized during the cruise regarding the latter organisms and their growing role in the trophic web. A massive swarm of Aurelia aurita has been spotted during the first days of the campaign (Fig.20). Some experiments and analysis were organized on board to reveal the causes of the phenomena. The planktonic organisms have been observed directly on board (Fig.21) in order to keep the best observation quality achievable with the observation of fresh material and the evaluation of their physiological response to environmental conditions trough incubation experiments.
A comprehensive set of environmental variables have been measured and samples stored for successive analysis collected regarding the main forcing factors conditioning biodiversity in the basin such as pigments, nutrients, organic carbon and particulate matter. A data-set of radiometric measurements and inherent optical properties was collected for testing a trans-domain (coastal/inland waters) cal/val activity of remotely sensing images. A preliminary analysis of radiometric data has highlighted the wide spatial variability of the water optical behaviour related to Po river plume and phytoplankton bloom (Fig. 19).
At the same time a huge effort has been posed on the study of bathymetric and geophysical asset of the basin that has a direct influence on water proprieties and circulation with the aid of state of the art equipment such as multibeam, chirp and sparker. Some benthological sampling have been performed to investigate benthos communities and stratigraphic sets.
The chance to have direct access to state of the art hydrological models allowed the team on board to spot some of the areas where sampling could have been more interesting or fruitful (fronts, plume spatial distribution) so optimizing sampling effort. Moreover the comparison between the collected data and the forecast made in near real time provides useful information about a future improvement of the model itself and helps to put /data assimilation/ tecniques into perspective.
The interaction among different teams on board have been really successful giving the chance to continue the comparisons among different compartments and to start new speculations. Technical and logistic support onboard of R/V Urania has been of the usual very high level going beyond a simple support and allowing scientists to focus on their job in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Analysis of the data collected during the expedition is under process, and will continue during the forthcoming several months. No problems were encountered regarding neither the people nor the environment during the cruise.
