Seafloor observatories from experiments and projects to the european permanent underwater network EMSO

The establishment of a global network of seafloor observatories will help to provide the means to understand the ocean, and the complex physical, biological, chemical, and geological systems operating within it. This is a challenge for the opening decades of the 21st century. The EC experience on seafloor monitoring is outlined since the early stage (beginning of ‘90s). In particular, the attention is focused on the GEOSTAR experience, describing the technical characteristics and the sensors used in experiments. Some recent projects are detailed. Finally, the European effort towards permanent underwater network EMSO, one of the large-scale research infrastructures included in the ESFRI Roadmap, is also discussed. All the previous activities are framed in this context.Peer Reviewe

European Multidisciplinary and Water-Column Observatory - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EMSO ERIC): Challenges and opportunities for Strategic European Marine Sciences

EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory, www.emso-eu.org) is a large-scale European Research Infrastructure I. It is a distributed infrastructure of strategically placed, deep-sea seafloor and water column observatory nodes with the essential scientific objective of real-time, long-term observation of environmental processes related to the interaction between the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. The geographic locations of the EMSO observatory nodes represent key sites in European waters, from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and Mediterranean, to the Black Sea (Figure 1), as defined through previous studies performed in FP6 and FP7 EC projects such as ESONET-CA, ESONET-NoE, EMSO-PP (Person et al., 2015).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Seismic location improvements from an OBS/H temporary network in Southern Tyrrhenian Sea

We present the first investigation performed on the seismicity of Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, off-shore Sicily with the contribution of data from broad-band ocean bottom seismometers and hydrophones (OBS/H). Offshore data were recorded during the TYrrhenian Deep sea Experiment (TYDE) from December 2000 to May 2001 in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea. Hypocenter locations of a cluster of 53 seismic events occurred in March 2001 in north-eastern Sicily were estimated by the integration of land (permanent network) and offshore (temporary network) data and compared with locations estimated from land data only. The scatter of the cluster was evaluated by dispersion parameters. The off-shore data significantly reduced the scatter of the swarm hypocenters also restricting the depth range of the cluster. Moreover, space trends of the event distribution originally shown by the land data were only partially confirmed by the land-sea joint data. In order to assess the efficiency in terms of hypocenter mislocations in the subject area, of a land-sea integrated network with respect to a land-based network, we performed simulations by assuming a grid distribution of earthquakes and a recent local 3D velocity model, computing synthetic arrival times of body waves to the stations of both network configurations (integrated and land-based) perturbing the computed times and relocating earthquakes by inversion. The results of the synthetic tests demonstrated that the presence of sea bottom stations in the Tyrrhenian basin can reduce the mislocations of large magnitude and/or superficial earthquakes in the southernmost Calabria and Messina Strait and of low magnitude and/or deep earthquakes in north-eastern Sicily. The major accuracy of synthetic earthquake locations obtained including OBS/H data provides an additional support to the interpretation of the cluster occurred in March 2001 and to the opportunity of long-term installation of an off-shore network like TYDE in the study region

European Multidisciplinary and Water-Column Observatory - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EMSO ERIC): challenges and opportunities for strategic European marine sciences

EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory, www.emso-eu.org) is a large‐scale European Research Infrastructure I. It is a distributed infrastructure of strategically placed, deep‐sea seafloor and water column observatory nodes with the essential scientific objective of real‐time, longterm observation of environmental processes related to the interaction between the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. The geographic locations of the EMSO observatory nodes represent key sites in European waters, from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and Mediterranean, to the Black Sea (Figure 1), as defined through previous studies performed in FP6 and FP7 EC projects such as ESONET‐CA, ESONET‐NoE, EMSO-PP (Person et al., 2015)Peer Reviewe

New marine infrastructures and technology development, application to Tsunami Early Warning System: EU Research Infrastructure EMSO European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water-Column Observatory

Presentación para la Jornada Técnica sobre el riesgo de maremotos: Proyecto de la Directriz básica de protección civil ante el riesgo de maremotos, 29 y 30 de septiembre de 2014, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Madrid.-- 29 pagesPeer Reviewe

A first insight into the Marsili volcanic seamount (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy): results from ORION-GEOSTAR3 experiment

The Marsili Seamount is the largest European underwater volcano. It is Plio-Pleistocenic in age, rising up to more than 3000m from the seafloor in the SE Tyrrhenian basin (Central Mediterranean), a back arc basin which began progressively opening 10 Ma ago (Kastens et al., 1988). The seamount lies in a key area for understanding the evolution of the Tyrrhenian region, characterized by high values of heat flow (Della Vedova et al., 2001) and low values of Moho isobaths (Locardi and Nicolich, 1988). In spite of the large dimensions of the Marsili seamount, we still have limited knowledge of its present activity. Ocean exploration is dependent on available technology and infrastructure, which started to develop strongly only after the 1980s. In fact, from its discovery in the 1920s, very little was known of the Marsili Seamount until the late 1990s when new techniques such as multibeam acoustic bathymetry were developed allowed to reveal at least the morphology. Some dedicated expeditions then obtained the first morpho-bathimetric map of the entire Tyrrhenian seafloor, based on multibeam swath-mapping together with seismic, gravimetric and magnetometric data (e.g. Marani and Gamberi, 2004). Although these data have greatly contributed to our understanding, the necessarily short measurement time limits the extent to which they reflect short- to medium-term geophysical processes in the Tyrrhenian basin. New technologies, such as multiparameter seafloor observatories, provide long-term continuous time-series in deep ocean waters, which are the basis for an original approach in ocean exploration. The observation of phenomena variability over time is key to understanding many Earth processes, among which we recall hydrothermal activity, active tectonics, and ecosystem life cycles. The development in Europe of multidisciplinary seafloor observatories has been pioneered under the EC Framework Programmes, specifically in the GEOSTAR projects (Beranzoli et al., 1988, 2000). From 2003 to 2005, long-term geophysical and oceanographic monitoring was conducted within the EC ORION-GEOSTAR3 project with two multiparameter observatories deployed on the seafloor 3320m below sea level (b.s.l.) in the vicinity of the Marsili Seamount. The two observatories were equipped with a set of sensors providing long-term continuous time-series of various physical measurements. The acquired time series are the longest continuous data record of the Marsili Basin available so far. This chaper intends to provide the main information on this experiment and present some results of the processing of the corresponding time-series, adding new valuable information on the still poorly explored activity of the volcano seamount. This chapter is organized as follows: The next section will provide the geological setting to understanding the importance of the Marsili Seamount and its basin; the ORION-GEOSTAR3 experiment is described in Section 24.3; some results from this unprecedented seismic, magnetic and gravimetric data analyses are shown in Section 24.4; and finally, in the last section we present our discussion with the main conclusions.Published623-6413A. Geofisica marina e osservazioni multiparametriche a fondo mar

Assessing the Potential of Intra-specific Biodiversity towards Adaptation of Irrigated and Rain-fed Italian Production Systems to Future Climate

AbstractThe study addresses the biophysical dimension of adaptation. It illustrates and applies a framework to evaluate options for adaptation by identifying cultivars optimally adapted to expected climate conditions, building on existing crops intra-specific biodiversity. The aim is to reduce the vulnerability of current production systems without altering the pattern of current species and cultivation systems.Adaptability is assessed through a three-step approach that involves: 1) evaluation of indicators of expected thermal and hydrological conditions within the specific landscape and production system; 2) determination, for a set of cultivars, of cultivar- specific thermal and hydrological requirements to attain the desirable yield; 3) identification, as options for adaptation, of the cultivars for which expected climate conditions match the climatic requirements. The approach relies on a process-based simulation model of water flow in the soil-plant-atmosphere system for the calculation of hydrological indicators. Thermal indicators are derived by means of phenological models. Empirical functions of cultivars yield response to water availability are used to determine cultivar-specific hydrological requirements, whereas cultivars thermal requirements are estimated through phenological observations.In a future climate case (2021-2050) three case-studies are analyzed: 1) a system dominated by rain-fed crops (olive, winegrapes, durum wheat) in a hilly area of southern Italy; 2) irrigated fruit crops (peach, pear) in the Po Valley; 3) maize and tomato crop in an irrigated plain of southern Italy.Cultivars adapted to the future climate have been identified for rain-fed crops (e.g. 5 olive cvs). For irrigated crops we have evaluated adaptability for optimal and deficit irrigation schedules, accounting for site-specific soils hydrological properties. Options for adaptations have been identified as a combination of cultivars, soils and irrigation schedules (e.g 2 tomato cvs and 3 maize hybrids have been identified as options for adaptation at scarce water availability). Moreover, in the case of fruit crops, accounting for phenological changes highlighted the impact on irrigation water requirements of the interaction between phenology and the intra-annual distribution of precipitation

Prevalence of Chromosomally Integrated Human Herpesvirus 6 in Patients with Human Herpesvirus 6–Central Nervous System Dysfunction

AbstractWe identified 37 hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients with human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) central nervous system dysfunction and tested donor-recipient pairs for chromosomally integrated HHV-6 (ciHHV-6). One patient had ciHHV-6A with possible HHV-6A reactivation and encephalitis. There was no ciHHV-6 enrichment in this group, but larger studies are needed to determine if patients with ciHHV-6 are at increased risk for HHV-6–associated diseases or other complications