EXAMPLES OF APPLICATION AND RESULTS

Hereafter we present the analysis of the data collected in two summer (U1,U3) and two winter cruises (U2,U4) of R/V Urania ([]), which were carried out in the framework of the PRISMA 2 Biogeochemical Cycles Research Project (from June 1996 to February 1998). With the exception of cruise U4, where only the northern area was investigated, two areas were studied: a northern one, located in the vicinity of the Po River Delta, and a southern one located between Senigallia and Ancona (Fig. 5).

The cruises were performed upon a two-way design:

• a fast survey with SARAGO (and other intrumentation) to investigate the front structure
• few days later, the biogeochemical water and sediment sampling, along with CTD measurements

For every particular data a careful choice of the SARAGO transects was done to guarantee sinopticity and the areas for the surface and volume analys were selected upon the availability of water samples in the inshore and offshore frontal sections. This latter because of the direct utilization of the volume calculations for nutrient and biogeochemical budgets and assessment.

In the following pages we will present the data for each particular cruise, including data sample, T-S diagrams and salinity field produced by the presented procedure (see ).

figure

Figure 5: Investigated Areas. Red boxes encompass the area selected for the volume calculations.