“Professor Vodyanitsky” went on the 126th expedition
On March 15, the first expedition to the NIS “Professor Vodyanitsky” in 2023 started in Sevastopol. Within 24 days, scientists from 5 leading scientific institutions of the country will conduct comprehensive research on board the vessel: the A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the South Seas of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Sevastopol), the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Sevastopol), the Institute of Natural and Technical Systems (Sevastopol), the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS (Moscow) and the Azov-Black Sea branch of the VNIRO Federal State Budgetary Research University (Rostov-on-Don).
On behalf of the IPTS team, the leading engineer of the Marine Climate Research Laboratory, L.A. Eremeev, takes part in the expedition.
“Research teams plan to continue joint oceanographic, hydrobiological, hydrochemical studies of the Crimean shelf zone in the early spring period of the year. Specialists will have to study the modern relief and geological structure of the seabed using the AP-5 high-resolution acoustic profilograph and the Pyramid submersible video complex (IO RAS), conduct climate monitoring of the active layer of the Black Sea, investigate the transformation of the waters of the cold intermediate layer, hydro-hydrochemical and biogeochemical properties of sea waters in the spring of 2023. In addition, colleagues from the Moscow State University are planning to study the vertical distribution of the velocity of currents and spatial features of the formation of hydro-optical fields within the economic zone of the Russian Federation,” says the head of the expedition, senior researcher of the plankton Department FITZ InBUM, PhD Daria Litvinyuk.
In turn, the staff of the A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the South Seas of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the 126th expedition flight will solve a whole range of tasks to assess the state of marine biota of productive areas of the sea at the beginning of the growing season of the year:
They will continue to study the vertical zonality of the plankton community (virio-, bacterio-, picophyto-, phyto- and mesoplankton) in the layer from the surface to the lower boundary of the sub-oxygen zone, its relationship with the hydrological and hydrochemical structure of waters, as well as the search for adaptive mechanisms that allow the Black Sea phytoplankton to function successfully in the spring;
The spatial and temporal variability of the bioluminescent potential, hydro-optical and hydrophysical parameters of the photic zone, as well as the nature of the vertical structure of the bioluminescence field and its seasonal variability will be evaluated;
Identify the most productive layers of concentration of the main biomass of phytoplankton;
They will study the species diversity, abundance and survival of ichthyoplankton in the Crimean waters in order to assess the effectiveness of spawning of temperate fish species in the winter of 2022-2023.
We sincerely wish the entire scientific team and the crew of the NIS “Professor Vodyanitsky” successful completion of all tasks and seven feet under the keel!
Background information:
– The expedition is carried out within the framework of the National Project “Science and Universities” with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation;
– NIS “Professor Vodyanitsky” is the only specialized scientific vessel in the Crimea capable of performing the full range of oceanographic, geological exploration, hydrochemical and hydrobiological studies in the Azov-Black Sea basin. There are more than ten scientific laboratories with modern equipment on board, including seismic equipment, an echo sounder, a weather station, an underwater camera, a satellite communication and navigation station, etc.
