Section

The research focus of the Marine Geology Division is centered on ecosystems and their initiation, development, and eventually also their decline across the last 20,000 years. This timeframe spans the essential climate regimes, from the full glacial conditions during the last ice age to the warm interglacial conditions of the present. This is a timespan which was characterized by a massive sea-level rise, by strong temperature changes, and furthermore by the increase of the global human population, which alongside with increasing resource shortenings accounts for ongoing global change.
For the marine environment these changes do not only signify a flooding of former terrestrial areas on the continent, but also result in a poleward advance of warm subtropical watermasses in high latitudes. These lead to drastic migrations of benthic ecosystems from low to higher latitudes. In particular, ecosystems which conquered areas in proximity to the poles had to face a pronounced seasonality (resulting from the earth’s inclined axes) and particular physical settings.
The pronounced seasonality in high latitudes invokes enormous shifts in insolation, which comprise a direct influence on water temperatures and nutrient cycling, and thereby do pose a strong selection pressure on the physiological adaptation of the affected organisms. The latter is a particular trait of the northern hemisphere, where, due to the land-sea distribution and due to oceanic circulation patterns, the benthic ecosystem re-establishment after each glacial period literally had to start from scratch. This contrasts with the marine ecosystems in polar latitudes of the southern hemisphere, which thrived in relatively constant cool to cold conditions across glacial to interglacial cycles, since the establishment of the Circum-Antarctic current some thirty-five million years ago.
In front of this backdrop with rapidly changing environmental conditions, we aim to unveil the complex interactions between climatic and oceanographic changes with fossils (>10.000 yrs) and recent biosedimentary systems. These ecosystems have a strong preservation potential and open a wide field for biological, ecological, and sedimentological research approaches which are fully rooted within the longstanding tradition of our institute.
We focus herein on ecosystems, which comprise a predominance of carbonate-shell bearing organisms and have thus a good preservation potential – for instance cold-water coral mounds, coralline algal banks and deep-sea oyster sites. Environments with a lesser fossilization potential, like kelp-forests, are included for their outstanding importance in nutrient cycling. Beyond the ecosystem-level-based research approaches, we further aim to extract environmental records at high resolution from long-lived organisms with incremental banding. Annual bands continuously precipitated across the life-span of a bivalve or in red-algae, for example, bear excellent records of temperatures and other environmental parameters, which are being extracted with refined geochemical methods.
A further expertise of our institute is the investigation of biodegradational processes in carbonates, better known as bioerosion. This destructive process follows either chemical pathways (biological corrosion) or mechanical pathways (biological abrasion), during which the involved bioeroding organisms leave characteristic traces. Over the years we have compiled an extensive experience in this field, including the taxonomic classification of the trace-makers (bacteria, algae, fungi, sponges, molluscs, polychaetes, crustaceans, bryozoans, etc.), and conduct experimental work with experimental panels along bathymetric gradients. These experiments have for example been carried out in Svalbard, in Swedish Kosterfjord, in the Azores and in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Our research projects are contributing to the research SENCKENBERG:

Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Biodiversity and Earth System History

January 16 – February 15, 2025

Wellington – Wellington (Aotearoa New Zealand)

Cold-water corals off Aotearoa New Zealand: biology, geology, and oceanography

Scientific topics

1. Atlantic-Pacific comparison of the capacity of cold-water corals as ecosystem engineers
2. Environmental controls on the distribution of cold-water corals along the continental margins off New Zealand
3. Response of New Zealand cold-water coral communities to past climate changes (glacial-interglacial cycles and Holocene climate changes)

   Expedition leader: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Senckenberg am Meer
   Co-expedition leader: Dr. Lydia Beuck, Senckenberg am Meer

Groups involved:
Senckenberg (Freiwald working group)
MARUM (Hebbeln working group)
Royal NIOZ, Netherlands
NIWA, New Zealand

October 6–31, 2018

As part of the M151 ATHENA expedition, biologists, geologists, and environmental physicists are searching for coral deposits on deep-sea mountains south of the Azores. They want to find out where and under what environmental conditions corals live there today. The researchers are also searching for fossil corals from the last 20,000 years. They want to investigate how these corals reacted to climate change in the past. The expedition team led by Norbert Frank and co-leaders Dierk Hebbeln and André Freiwald are reporting on board for Planet Earth.

A collaboration with IUP Heidelberg, MARUM, and Senckenberg am Meer.

Participants: André Freiwald, Leon Hoffman, and Ulf Linnemann

To the MARUM logbook

The FS METEOR Expedition M122 focused on investigating cold-water coral (CWC) occurrences in the southeast Atlantic off the coasts of Namibia and Angola, a region characterized by a pronounced oxygen minimum zone. The main focus was on recording the distribution, appearance, fauna association, and condition of these ecosystems under current and past (glacial) conditions. After detailed surveys
(fan echo sounder, PARASOUND, and multichannel seismic), detailed facies and fauna characterizations were carried out in the two study areas off Namibia and Angola during 16 dives with the MARUM ROV SQUID. These were supplemented by investigations into the structure (CTD and
water samples) and variability (lander systems) of the water column and by numerous soil samples and sediment cores, the latter of which will be used to reconstruct the development of the southeastern Atlantic KWK deposits over the last glacial-interglacial cycle and correlate them with climate-driven changes in environmental conditions.

The most striking result of the expedition was the discovery of living CFCs in the oxygen minimum zone off Angola. Neither in nature nor in laboratory experiments have living KWK ever been observed at oxygen concentrations of <1 ml L-1. In contrast, off the coast of Namibia, at even lower oxygen concentrations of <0.5 ml L-1, only fossil KWK were found, which, however, indicate better living conditions for KWK in this region in the past. The vitality of the skeleton-forming KCH, which act as ecosystem engineers, is a decisive factor for biodiversity in the areas studied along the upper continental slopes.

June 10, 2016 – June 29, 2016

Scientists from the Marine Research Department have been on the ARCA expedition to Spitsbergen since June 10, 2016. On board are:
Dr. Max Wisshak (expedition leader), Dr. Achim Wehrmann, Dr. Alexander Bartholomä, Dr. Peter Holler, Dr. Herrmann Neumann, Maik Wilsenack, and Neele Meyer. The MSM55 expedition aims to conduct a multidisciplinary characterization and comparison of two contrasting areas of work: the rhodolith banks of Mosselbukta in the north of the archipelago and the extensive carbonate sediments of the Spitsbergen and Bjornoy banks in the south.

The range of methods includes GIS-based habitat mapping, carbonate facies analysis, macrobenthos inventory, characterization of the dissolved carbonate balance, carbonate budgeting based on a 10-year colonization experiment, acidification and temperature stress experiments with relevant carbonate producers (calcareous red algae), and targeted sampling of long-lived rhodophytes for the geochemical establishment of calibrated marine ice time series. The expected results will deepen our knowledge of the production and recycling of polar carbonate factories under Holocene and projected climate change.

March 14–April 7, 2011 Bridgetown (Barbados) – Freeport (Bahamas)

Led by Prof. Dr. Dierk Hebbeln and Dr. Claudia Wienberg from MARUM, the FS Maria S. Merian research expedition, known by the acronym WACOM, is dedicated to studying West Atlantic cold-water coral reefs. On the voyage from Barbados to the Bahamas, a large number of known and potentially new cold-water reef structures in the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Straits will be examined in detail.

Participants from Senckenberg: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Dr. Lydia Beuck, Nina Joseph, Maik Wilsenack

July 6–12, 2011 Marseille (France) – Marseille

Once again in proven collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dierk Hebbeln from MARUM, the Minibex was chartered by the offshore company COMEX to continue the exploration for cold-water corals in the undersea canyons in the Gulf of Lyon. The main target was the Lacaze Duthiers Canyon, where the REMORA 2000 submersible and an ROV were deployed and, among other things, a carbonate cycle experiment was conducted in the area of living corals – a collaboration with Franck Lartaud and Nadine Le Bris from the Observatoire Océanologique in Banyuls-sur-Mer. The expedition was accompanied by filmmaker Sigurd Tesche.

Senckenberg participants: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Dr. Lydia Beuck, Dr. Max Wisshak

21.10.-20.11.10 Las Palmas (Kanaren) – Mindelo (Kap Verden)

The acronym “PHAETON” stands for Paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic record on the Mauritanian Shelf. Under the leadership of Dr. Hildegard Westphal (MARUM, University of Bremen), three projects are being pursued, including the Senckenberg project on cold-water coral mounds.

During exploration work in 1998, a 200-km-long chain of mounds consisting of cold-water corals and mud accumulations was discovered on the continental slope off Mauritania. This biosedimentary structure is located in a narrow depth interval at a water depth of 450 to 500 m and rises 50 to 100 m above the seafloor.

The Mauritanian mounds are unique in terms of their proximity to the oceanic upwelling cells. The planned expedition therefore aims to clarify the following questions: How is mound formation related to upwelling? How should the ecological status be assessed? How does the trade wind-driven dust input from the Sahara affect mound formation? Further information on the MSM 16/3 expedition and its scientific objectives can be found in the expedition booklet.

Senckenberg participants: Dr. Lydia Beuck, Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Corinna Schollenberger

June 29–July 15, 2010 Vigo (Spain) – Cork (Ireland)

“CORICON” stands for “Cold-water Corals along the Irish continental margin,” specifically in the Belgica Mound Province. Here, two parallel chains of coral mounds have developed at depths of 700–900 m and 900–1050 m, which have been the subject of intensive research for about 15 years. Under the leadership of Dr. Claudia Wienberg (MARUM), we mapped the specific distribution of actively growing and inactive mounds using the Cherokee ROV and took numerous sediment cores to study the temporal development of coral bloom phases over the last 200,000 years.

The following mounds were intensively mapped and sampled: Pollux Mound, Lion’s Head Mound, Poseidon Mound, Little Poseidon Mound, and Secchi Spur. Further background information on the expedition can be found in the expedition report.

Participants: Dr. Lydia Beuck, Prof. Dr. André Freiwald

May 29–June 16, 2009 Faro (Portugal) – Toulon (France)

The expedition aimed to explore little-known cold-water coral habitats and their environmental conditions in the Alboran Sea. The Alboran Sea lies immediately east of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco.

Striking structures such as the El Idrissi Bank, the Alboran Bank, and the Melilla Mounds were documented and sampled using the Cherokee ROV.

During one of these dives, the first living deep-sea oysters in the Mediterranean were discovered. Prof. Dr. Dierk Hebbeln (MARUM) led this HERMIONE expedition.

Further background information can be found in the expedition report.

Participants: Dr. Lydia Beuck, Prof. Dr. André Freiwald

March 13-17, 2009 Marseilles (France)-Marseilles

Together with Prof. Dr. Dierk Hebbeln and Hiske Fink from MARUM, the Minibex was chartered by the offshore company COMEX to conduct a survey of coral occurrences in Cassidaigne Canyon using the REMORA 2000 submersible and the ROV Super Achille.

The canyon is located south of the picturesque fishing village of Cassis, near Marseille. The canyon is known for its aluminum sludge discharges. We found larger living populations of Madrepora oculata exclusively on the western flank of the canyon.

Participants: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald

December 28, 2006–January 15, 2007 Las Palmas (Canary Islands) – Las Palmas

Led by Dr. Hildegard Westphal (MARUM, Bremen), the expedition traveled to the continental slope off Mauritania, where cold-water coral mounds were sampled at two locations using a box corer and gravity corer for the HERMES project.

The mounds are part of a mound chain several hundred kilometers long that appears to stabilize the upper continental slope. Strikingly few living Lophelia stony corals were found.
However, the main focus of the trip was on sampling biogenic carbonates that are formed, deposited, and relocated under upwelling conditions on the shallow Banc d’Arguin. Initial results can be found in the trip report.

Participants: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Dr. Karl Gürs

September 24–October 18, 2006 Valletta (Malta) – Heraklion (Crete)

The expedition’s goal was to search for hidden cold-water coral habitats in the central Mediterranean. Equipped with the deep-sea ROV QUEST from MARUM in Bremen, we discovered the “Hanging Gardens of Linosa” in the Strait of Sicily and other spectacular coral reefs in the Ionian Sea and the southern Adriatic.

Among other things, spectacular HDTV footage was captured of the feeding behavior of the corals at a depth of 600 m. An extensive geological and hydrographic sampling program completed the geo-biological expedition. The deepest living occurrences of the precious coral Corallium rubrum to date were documented on this voyage.

Prof. Dr. André Freiwald led the expedition as part of the EU HERMES project. Further information can be found in the weekly reports and in the Short Cruise Report.

Participants: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Dr. Lydia Beuck, PD Dr. Ingrid Kröncke, Matthias Lopez Correa, Dr. Michael Türkay

July 31–August 17, 2006 Longyearbyen (Svalbard) – Longyearbyen

The expedition organized by Prof. Dr. André Freiwald circumnavigated Spitsbergen and was the northernmost expedition to date for the new ice edge research vessel. The focus of the expedition was on mapping biosedimentary systems under polar conditions and characterizing their environmental conditions.

Using the manned submersible JAGO from IFM-Geomar in Kiel, the northernmost calcareous algae banks on Earth were found off Nordostland at 80° north latitude. The scientific evaluation of the coralline habitats is currently being carried out in the DFG project POCAL in collaboration with Sebastian Teichert and Dr. Max Wisshak. The research vessel sailed into numerous fjords and sounds in perfect weather, which is another reason why the trip will remain a fond memory for all participants. For further information, please refer to the trip report.

Participants: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Jannik Freiwald, Dr. Sonja Löffler, Sebastian Teichert, Dr. Max Wisshak

April 12–May 19, 2006 Kiel – Cadiz (Spain) – Lisbon (Portugal)

One of the first expeditions of the new research vessel took it to the Gulf of Cadiz, immediately west of the Strait of Gibraltar in Portuguese and Moroccan waters. Numerous mud volcanoes with characteristic chemosynthetic fauna are known to exist in this region. Subfossil cold-water coral thickets were also found on the flanks of some mud volcanoes. We wanted to investigate this interaction between oxic and anoxic communities in a confined space as part of the HERMES project. Further information can be found in the voyage report.

Participants: Prof. Dr. André Freiwald, Sarah Freund, Dr. Karl Gürs, Nina Joseph, Dr. Sonja Löffler

Wienberg C, Hebbeln D, Fink HG, Mienis F, Dorschel B, Vertino A, López Correa M, Freiwald A (2009) Scleractinian cold-water corals in the Gulf of Cádiz—First clues about their spatial and temporal distribution. Deep-Sea Research I 56: 1873-1893.

Funding Source and Period: Norwegian Research Council (2015-2019)

Coordinator: Tina Kutti
(IMR, Bergen, Norway)
Partners: Senckenberg am Meer,
IMR, NINA, NIOZ, GEOMAR

The project FATE was coordinated by Tina Kutti and colleagues at the IMR in Bergen, and comprised a Norwegian-Dutch-German research consortium. Primary focus of the project was the impacts of global change on Norwegian cold-water coral reef ecosystems. In a combination of laboratory and field experiments, a wealth of environmental parameters was logged, ecophysiological characters were determined, and settlement experiments were carried out. Seasonal patterns and impacts of simulated ocean acidification, ocean warming, and changes in the nutrient regime on different model organisms (corals, bivalves, sponges, bioeroders) were assessed. The resulting data will be compiled in an elaborate ecosystem model for fostering our knowledge of energy fluxes and interactions in cold-water coral reefs, and for facilitating better predictions concerning the FATE of these ecosystems.

Project leaders: Ulf Riebesell (GEOMAR, Kiel), Hans-Otto Pörtner (AWI, Bremerhaven)

SGN project staff: Dr. Max Wisshak, Dr. Lydia Beuck, Prof. Dr. André Freiwald

Project partners: GEOMAR, AWI, MARUM, and many more

Project website: http://www.bioacid.de/

Duration: 2012-2015

As an associated partner in the second round of the large-scale German Ocean Acidification Research Consortium BIOACID, Max Wisshak participated in two research expeditions with the FS POSEIDON (POS 455 and 473) to cold-water reefs in Norway’s Trondheimsfjord and the neighboring Norwegian Shelf. The diving vessel JAGO was also involved. Together with colleagues from GEOMAR, a colonization experiment developed at the Senckenberg Institute was carried out, among other things. Furthermore, a combination of laboratory and field experiments was used to quantify the calcium carbonate degradation of the coral skeleton by bio-eroders.

BiK-F, Project A3.10

Cold-water coral ecosystems

Kei Matsuyama, Prof. Dr. André Freiwald

The occurrence of azooxanthellate corals in deeper waters and lower latitudes has been known since the 18th century. However, these were only studied in detail with the advent of sophisticated hydroacoustic systems and diving robots in the 1970s. The study of the accompanying fauna is also subject to this research trend. The first reports of bryozoans from this habitat appeared around the turn of the last century. In recent years, research into cold-water coral-associated bryozoans has increased, but they have been studied far less intensively than other groups of accompanying fauna.

By studying the (re)colonization patterns of cold-water corals, it is possible to reconstruct past climate and productivity fluctuations in the northeast Atlantic.

As these corals are active scaffold builders, they attract a diverse fauna with over 4000 associated species. Cold-water corals are an important habitat in an environment otherwise characterized by soft bottoms, especially for species that need a hard substrate to colonize, including bryozoans. This habitat is also of great economic importance, as it is a nursery for many fish species.

Funding Source and Period: DFG (2013-2016)

Coordinator: Max Wisshak (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)
Employee: Claudia Färber (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)
Partners: Richard Bromley (Bornholm, Denmark), Nikoleta Bellou (HCMR, Athens,
Greece), Christine Schönberg (AIMS, Perth, Australia), Jürgen Titschack (MARUM,
Bremen, Germany)

Qualification of Students: Ines Pyko (Diploma Thesis, Erlangen University, Erlangen,
Germany)

Biologically driven corrosion and abrasion of hard substrates, subsumed under the term ‘bioerosion’, is a key process during the (re)cycling of carbonate and the formation of calcareous sediments. Quantitative and qualitative assessments of bioerosion are particularly relevant for carbonate budget calculations and palaeoenvironmental evaluations, respectively. Previous bioerosion experiments were largely limited to two years of exposure, thereby mainly recording microbial microbioerosion (cyanobacteria, chlorophytes, fungi). However, the succession of macroboring communities (sponges, molluscs, polychaetes), takes years to reach equilibrium.

Centrepiece of the project was thus the integration of micro- and macrobioerosion processes on the one hand, as well as short- and long-term bioerosion rates on the other hand. This was based on the scanning electron microscopic and micro-computer tomographic analysis of material provided by two previous experiments that were carried out in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, specifically a ½ to 1-year carbonate cycling experiment in 15 to 250 m water depth off the southern Peloponnese, and a 1 to 14-year deployment of marble blocks in 3 to 17 m water depth around the island of Rhodes. An add-on experiment was carried out in the intertidal and supratidal zones at the same sites.

The results foster our knowledge of the temporal variability of bioerosion communities as well as bioerosion rates and were interpreted in respect to bathymetrical, latitudinal, and longitudinal gradients.

Project Publications:
Färber C, Titschack J, Schönberg CHL, Ehrig K, Boos K, Baum D, Illerhaus B, Asgaard U, Bromley RG, Freiwald A & Wisshak M (2016) Long-term macrobioerosion in the Mediterranean Sea assessed by micro-computed tomography. Biogeosciences 13:3461 – 3474.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3461-2016

Färber C, Wisshak M , Titschack J, Schönberg CHL &Freiwald A (2016) Spatio-temporal variability of bioerosion in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Rapport Commission International Mer Mediterranee 41:349.
​
Färber C, Wisshak M, Pyko I, Bellou N & Freiwald A (2015) Effects of water depth, seasonal exposure, and substrate orientation on microbial bioerosion in the Ionian Sea (Eastern Mediterranean). PLOS ONE, 10(4), e0126495.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0126495

Funding Source and Period: DFG (2009-2012)

Coordinator: André Freiwald (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)
Employee: Max Wisshak (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)
Partners: Christine Schönberg (AIMS, Perth, Australia), Armin Form (GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany)

Qualification of Students: Eleni Alexandrakis (Master’s Thesis, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany), Nilay Sasa (Master’s Thesis, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany ), Neele Meyer (Bachelor’s Thesis, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany)

Synopsis:
Coral reefs are under threat exerted by a number of interacting effects inherent to the present climate change, including rapid ocean acidification and global warming. Bioerosion drives reef degradation by recycling carbonate skeletal material and is an important but understudied factor in this context. Unlike skeletal growth, we expect bioerosion by chemical means to be facilitated in a high-CO2 world. This project focused on two of the most detrimental bioeroders, the zooxanthellate sponge Cliona orientalis, which attacks and kills live corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and its azooxanthellate relative Cliona celata, a dominant and widely distributed species in higher latitudes.

Complementing experiments were carried out at Orpheus Island Research Station (GBR) and the Helgoland Alfred Wegener Institute (North Sea). Exposure to lowered and elevated levels of pCO2 and temperature resulted in a significant enforcement of the sponges’ chemical bioerosion capacity with increasing pCO2 and under more acidic conditions, confirming our initial hypothesis that sponge bioerosion will be accelerated by ocean acidification – across species and latitudes, affecting corals and molluscs alike. Temperature, in contrast, yielded inconclusive results and did not markedly influence bioerosion rates, which were slightly reduced at both colder as well as warmer temperatures than ambient. Considering that bioeroding sponges often contribute the lion share of internal carbonate bioerosion on coral reefs, our findings imply that tropical reef ecosystems are facing the combined effects of weakened coral calcification and accelerated bioerosion, resulting in critical pressure on the dynamic balance between biogenic carbonate build-up and degradation.

Project Publications:
Schönberg CHL, Gleason FH, Meyer N, Wisshak M (2019) Close encounters in the substrate: when macroborers meet microborers. Facies 65: article 22, 9 p. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-019-0567-2

Meyer N, Wisshak M , Schönberg CHL (2019) Sponge bioerosion versus aqueouspCO2: morphometric assessment of chips and etching fissures. Facies 65: article 27, 20 p. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-019-0558-3

Schönberg CHL, Tribollet A, Fang JKH, Carreiro-Silva M & Wisshak M (2017) Viewpoints in bioerosion research—are we really disagreeing? A reply to the comment by Silbiger and DeCarlo (2017). ICES Journal of Marine Science 74:2494-2500.
http://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsx167

Schönberg CHL, Fang JKH, Carreiro-Silva M, Tribollet A & Wisshak M (2017) Bioerosion: the other ocean acidification problem. ICES Journal of Marine Science 74:895-925. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsw254

Wisshak M, Schönberg CHL, Form A & Freiwald A (2014) Sponge bioerosion accelerated by ocean acidification across species and latitudes? Helgoland Marine Research 68:253- 262 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10152-014-0385-4

Dataset at PANGAEA:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.831657

Wisshak M, Schönberg CHL, Form A & Freiwald A (2013) Effects of ocean acidification and global warming on reef bioerosion – lessons from a clionaid sponge. Aquatic Biology 19:111-127 http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/ab00527
Dataset at PANGAEA:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.831660

Kennedy E, Perry CT, Halloran PR, Iglesias-Prieto R, Schönberg CHL, Wisshak M, Form AU, Carricart-Ganivet JP, Fine M, Eakin CM, Mumby PJ (2013) Avoiding coral reef functional collapse requires local and global action. Current Biology 23:912-918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.020

Wisshak M, Schönberg CHL, Form A & Freiwald A (2012) Ocean acidification accelerates reef bioerosion. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45124
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045124
Dataset at PANGAEA:

Schönberg CHL and Wisshak M (2012) The perks of being endolithic. Aquatic Biology 17:1-5
http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/ab00473

DFG Project: FR 1134/18

Funding period: 2009-2012

Sebastian Teichert, André Freiwald

In 2006, during the MSM 02/03 expedition, the northernmost occurrences of coralline red algae were discovered at 80°30′ north latitude off Nordaustlandet. This area, as well as various others around Spitsbergen, were intensively documented and sampled using the manned submersible Jago. Coralline algae appear to be much more widespread in polar waters than previously assumed and thus represent a unique polar carbonate factory. The aim is to analyze the species composition and functionality of these polar corallinaceae as well as their suitability as historical climate recorders. Furthermore, carbonate production rates will be quantified and compared with those of other boreal occurrences.

Complete Sequences from cold water coral carbonate mounds in the N.E. Atlantic DFG-Projekt: FR 1134/17

Funding period: 2007-2011

Nina Joseph, Matthias Lopez Correa, André Freiwald

In this ESF EuroCORES network project, sediment cores containing complete sedimentary sequences through a postglacial cold-water coral reef body in Stjernsund, northern Norway, are being analyzed micropaleontologically and specifically dated. The Stjernsund reef complex was mapped and geologically sampled in 2005 during the Poseidon Expedition P325. CARBONATE is coordinated by Andy Wheeler, Cork, Ireland.

EU FP7

Funding period: 2009-2012

André Freiwald, Lydia Beuck, Jürgen Titschack, Matthias Lopez Correa, Petra Wenninger

Biodiversity hotspots along the edges of the European continent are being mapped, sampled, and analyzed using state-of-the-art methods. These hotspot ecosystems include cold-water coral habitats, deep-sea canyons, seamounts, and chemosynthetic communities. Our group coordinates the subproject on cold-water corals and carbonate mounds. HERMIONE is coordinated by Phil Weaver (National Oceanography Centre Southampton).

EU FP7

Funding period: 2008-2012

André Freiwald, Lydia Beuck

The aim of the project is to develop scientifically based management methods for sustainable deep-sea fishing. Cold-water coral habitats in particular are considered to be very rich in fish and therefore very often show damage caused by bottom trawling. CoralFISH brings together biologists, ecosystem modelers, and economists with representatives from the deep-sea fishing industry in 10 EU accession countries. Lydia Beuck is leading the EU-wide standardization of protocols for evaluating underwater video sequences recorded by manned submersibles or diving robots.

Funding Source and Period: DFG (2017-2020)

Coordinator: Max Wisshak (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)

Employee: Neele Meyer (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)

Partners: Evan Edinger (Memorial University, St. John’s, Canada), Jochen Halfar (University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada), Marco Taviani (ISMAR, Bologna, Italy), Dianne Tracey (NIWA, Wellington, New Zealand)

In the understanding of biosedimentary processes, research on bioerosion is gaining momentum, acknowledging the important role of this process in carbonate (re)cycling, and the significant impact of the present global change (ocean acidification, ocean warming, eutrophication) on this process. In the marine realm, investigations in bioerosion of tropical coral reefs are far advanced, and research on temperate settings has caught up to some degree. Studies about bioerosion of polar carbonates, in contrast, are anecdotal and merely descriptive – despite prominent centres of cold-water carbonate production being situated in the polar biogeographic realm. This very gap in research is the subject of this project.

The project comprises a set of five closely interlinked objectives that are ultimately directed towards a better understanding of the qualitative and quantitative role of bioerosion in polar carbonate factories and depositional environments. These objectives are (i) to elucidate the ichnodiversity of polar microbioerosion, macrobioerosion, grazing, and attachment etching, as reflected in the various bioerosion traces found in polar skeletal carbonates, (ii) to study the bathymetrical distribution pattern of these bioerosion traces as a function of the photic zonation, (iii) to study the ecophysiological tolerance limits of key bioeroders in respect to seasonality and temperature by studying
the latitudinal limits in the occurrence of their bioerosion traces, (iv) to draw a comparison of the above aspects, both between polar bioerosion in different sites in the Arctic, as well as between the Arctic and Antarctica, and (v) to calculate rates of polar bioerosion for concluding a latitudinal transect of carbonate cycling experiments from our previous projects, spanning the tropics, warm-temperate, cold-temperate, and now also polar waters.

The study is primarily based on experimental substrates from settlement platforms that were deployed in the Svalbard Archipelago and recovered after 10 years of exposure during M. S. MERIAN cruises MSM 2 and 55, respectively, and on samples of marine epibenthic calcifiers that were sampled during these cruises. For a more comprehensive picture on polar bioerosion, the project extends the analysis from the Svalbard settings to comparable material from the Canadian Arctic, and to carbonates sampled in the polar Southern Ocean around Antarctica. This will, for the first time, allow a characterisation and direct comparison of bioerosion traces and trace assemblages between the polar regions of both hemispheres, and help us to gain a better understanding of the role of bioerosion in the dynamics of carbonate (re)cycling in polar carbonate factories.

 
Project Publications:
Wisshak M, Meyer N, Radtke G & Golubic S (2018) Saccomorpha guttulata – a new
marine fungal microbioerosion trace fossil from cool- to cold-water settings. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 92:525-533.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-018-0407-7

Funding Source and Period: DFG (2016)  

Coordinator and Cruise Leader: Max Wisshak (Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany)

Cruise Participants: Alexander Bartholomä, Peter Holler, Neele Meyer, Hermann Neumann, Achim Wehrmann, Maik Wilsenack (all Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, Germany), Janina Büscher, Armin Form, Steffen Hetzinger, Karen Hissmann, Jürgen Schauer, Peter Striewsky (all GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany), Jochen Halfar (Jochen Halfar (University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada), Bart Van Heugten (Naturalis, Leiden, Netherlands), Jacek Raddatz (Frankfurt University, Frankfurt, Germany), Sebastian Teichert (GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Erlangen, Germany), Andres Rüggeberg (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)  

Qualification of Students: Neele Meyer (Master’s Thesis, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany)  

Synopsis:
Expedition 55 of RV MARIA S. MERIAN, referred to by the acronym ARCA, targeted on two contrasting sites of intense biogenic carbonate production in the coastal waters of the arctic Svalbard Archipelago. These are the rhodolith beds in Mosselbukta in the far North of the archipelago’s main island Spitsbergen, and the extensive biogenic carbonate sediments accumulating in the strong hydrodynamic regime of the Spitsbergen- and Bjørnøy-Banken in the South. The habitat characteristics and biosedimentary dynamics of these cold-water carbonate factories was studies along bathymetrical gradients from the intertidal to aphotic depths, following a holistic approach.

The scientific disciplines and methodological tool-kit comprised hydroacoustic habitat mapping (multibeam-echosounder and sidescan-sonar surveys), visual habitat mapping (research submersible and drop-camera surveys), hydrographic investigations including assessment of the aqueous carbonate system (CTD and water samples), epibenthos inventory (beam-trawls and excursions to shore), recording of short-term environmental fluctuations and benthic community dynamics (camera- lander), classical carbonate facies analysis of source and export areas (Shipek-grabs and excursions to shore), and an evaluation of carbonate (re)cycling, including budgeting calcification versus bioerosion (recovery of a 10-year settlement experiment).

The vulnerability to past and future climate change, i.e. ocean acidification and warming, is studied by means of applying and developing geochemical proxies encoded in the skeletons of calcifiers (e.g., coralline algae, balanids, bivalves), and via on-board acidification and temperature-stress experiments with a key calcifier, the habitat forming coralline alga Lithothamnion glaciale.  

Project Publications: ​

Bajnai D, Fiebig J, Tomašových A, Milner SG, Rollion-Bard C, Raddatz J, Löffler N, Primo- Ramos C & Brand W (2018). Assessing kinetic fractionation in brachiopod calcite using clumped isotopes. Scientific Reports 8: article 533.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17353-7  

Hetzinger S, Halfar J, Zajacz Z, Wisshak M (2019) Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea- ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae. Geology 47:963-967. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G46507.1  

Hofmann LC & Heesch S (2018) Latitudinal trends in stable isotope signatures and carbon-concentrating mechanisms of northeast Atlantic rhodoliths. Biogeosciences 15:6139-6149.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6139-2018  

Kiel V (2017) Tauchfahrt ins Archiv der Arktis. GEO 10/2017:116-129. Meyer N (2019).

Bohrende Organismen und bohrende Fragen. Natur–Forschung– Museum 149:30-32.

Wisshak M, Meyer N, Radtke G & Golubic S (2018)   Saccomorpha guttulata – a new marine fungal microbioerosion trace fossil from cool- to cold-water settings. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 92:525-533.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12542-018-0407-7  

Wisshak M (2019). Karbonatfabriken im Polarmeer. Natur–Forschung–Museum 149:6-11.  

Wisshak M, Neumann C (2020) Dead urchin walking: resilience of an arctic Strongylocentrotus to severe skeletal damage. Polar Biology 43:391-396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02634-1  

Wisshak M, Neumann H, Rüggeberg A,Büscher JV, Linke P, Raddatz J (2019) Epibenthos dynamics and environmental fluctuations in two contrasting polar carbonate factories (Mosselbukta and Bjørnøy-Banken, Svalbard). Frontiers in Marine Science 6: article 667.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00667  

Wisshak M, Bartholomä A, Beuck L, Büscher J, Form A, Freiwald A, Halfar J, Hetzinger S, Heugten B van, Hissmann K, Holler P, Meyer N, Neumann N, Raddatz J, Rüggeberg A, Teichert S, Wehrmann A (2017) Habitat characteristics and carbonate cycling of macrophyte-supported polar carbonate factories (Svalbard) – Cruise No. MSM55 – June 11 – June 29, 2016 – Reykjavik (Iceland) – Longyearbyen (Norway). MARIA S. MERIAN- Berichte, MSM55, 58 pp., DFG-Senatskommission für Ozeanographie. http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/cr_msm55