CORALCAL-2
Type | Oceanographic cruise |
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Set | This cruise is part of the set CORALCAL |
Ship | Alis |
Ship owner | IRD |
Dates | 30/06/2008 - 24/07/2008 |
Chief scientist(s) | PAYRI Claude |
UMR ENTROPIE IRD Centre de Nouméa BP A5 98848 NOUMEA Cedex |
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DOI | 10.17600/8100050 |
Objective | Analyzing the diversity of marine algae and hermatypical corals in reefs and lagoons of the Bellona-Chesterfield shelf located 450 nautical miles west of Grande-Terre in New Caledonia. This region extends over nearly 3000 km² and is distinguished by its isolation and its entirely carbonated, atoll-type system under oceanic influence. The region is classified in the Ecoregional analysis carried out by WWF and CRISP, amongst remarkable areas of New Caledonia which should be studied. These inventories will complement those undertaken in other regions of New Caledonia, particularly in the South-west lagoon, reefs and lagoons in the north east and north-west in 2004, in the Loyalty Islands, Ile des Pins (BIODIP)in 2005 and the "forgotten coast" (CORALCAL-1) done in 2007. Some groups were investigated in phylogenetic and phylogeographical studies. In the long term, all these approaches will provide an analysis of the biodiversity on the scale of New Caledonia on the whole and highlight the characteristics of marine flora and coral reef fauna as well as biogeographical affinities on western Pacific and Indo-Pacific scales. In addition to these objectives, the CORALCAL-2 mission provided the opportunity to both collect gastropod molluscs of the Conus genus in the framework of the EU CONCO which IRD is associated with and to survey and install ONSET sensors in the Chesterfield islands (Chesterfield long island) and install an SBE16 probe at Koumac (north-western coast of Grande Terre) for UR 065. Finally special collections were taken analyze the diversity of foraminifera associated with algae, which will by done by Dr JP Debenay, hosted at UR055 'Paleotropics'. |