HERMES

"The ocean fully satisfies my needs," says Captain Nemo in Jules Verne's classic novel, "20,000 miles under the sea". However, a lot of research work still needs to be done before the rest of humankind can claim the same. EU-funded projects like "Hotspot Ecosystem Research on the Margins of European Seas" (HERMES) and the "European Sea Floor Observatory Network" (ESONET) are contributing to this work. The Helmholtz Research Centre Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven is decisively involved in both projects. Launched in April, HERMES brings together biologists and biochemists, geoscientists and oceanographers from 15 European countries to study the ecosystems in the European waters extending from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Because only very little is presently understood of what resources the deep sea holds.

8,000 miles under the sea
Europe's borders lie under the sea. Perhaps not 20,000 miles, but the outer margins of the European continent do extend out by more than 8,000 nautical miles (around 15,000 kilometres). Around one third of the total area of the EU is covered by seas, for example, by the Arctic Ocean, the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. The continental margins lie between 200 metres and up to four kilometres below the water surface. They form the transition zone to the deep-ocean basins and include the coastal shelf, continental slopes and various deep-sea trenches.

According to international law, most of this area is part of the European Economic Area. But what is hidden below sea level? Are resources deposited there that can be used in a sustainable and environmentally compatible way, for example, to tap energy sources and extract raw materials?

A total of 45 research institutes are involved in HERMES and are investigating these very questions. They are examining what ecosystems actually exist in the expansive, water-covered areas and how these function. The AWI is responsible for the data management of this integrated EU project: it uses the so-called Publishing Network for Geoscientific and Environmental Data (PANGAEA), a geosciences online platform, jointly operated by the AWI and the University of Bremen, to perform this task. In its capacity as a public, digital scientific library, PANGAEA provides researchers around the world with geological or geology-related data, and so promotes the rapid dissemination and exploitation of scientific findings in geology, marine research and environmental research.

Studying scientific "hot spots"
The HERMES researchers have defined six areas of particular scientific interest – one of them located off the Ukrainian peninsula "Crimea", two in the Mediterranean, two in the Atlantic Ocean and one in the Arctic. Various, in some cases still hardly understood and unknown ecosystems exist there. These include, for example, microbes that live in anoxic habitats, such as hot gas chimneys, mud volcanoes or methane discharges. So-called black smokers, where hot water coloured dark by minerals pours out of the Earth's interior, provide a habitat for a large number of living organisms, such as sulphur-eating bacteria. While deep submarine canyons are thought to be the nurseries of deep-sea fish.

The scientists from the AWI plan to concentrate particularly on the ecosystems on the deep-sea continental slopes and on a mud volcano located at a depth of 1,250 metres north-west of Norway. Because the research icebreaker "Polarstern" has already been engaged in intensive work there for several years. This is why excellent background information is available on these regions and was able to flow into the modelling projects carried out within the HERMES project at an early stage. For example, AWI scientists on the research ship "Polarstern" already sonar-surveyed the mud volcano Haakon Mosby in July 2003 and used the acquired data to model a bathymetric chart (bathymetry is the depth measurement of waters). Such charts can be important in the selection of points for extracting soil samples with robot arms or nets and are needed for the underwater navigation of remote-controlled vehicles. At the same time, they can be helpful in interpreting data properly. For example, submarine knolls can lead to changes in local currents, which can in turn have an impact on the deposition of particles.

At the HERMES kick-off meeting held on Rhodes in April, numerous research groups expressed their wish for further surveys and new charts. The Moon is much more fully mapped than the ocean floor. Experts assume that only around 10% of the ocean floor has been surveyed and, consequently, mapped. One of the goals for HERMES is to establish what survey data and maps already exist at the various research institutions for the research area located within Europe's continental margins and how they can be made available for use and exploitation by science and research.

Studies on the continental margins focus on the so-called "open slope ecosystems" which exist there. These habitats are located on the continental slopes and are, at certain depths, populated by a large and pronounced diversity of species. These slopes may prove to be spectacular, because they might be unstable. What might possibly happen if they begin to slide was described last year by German author Frank Schätzing in his popular novel "Der Schwarm" (The Swarm). Such submarine slides could also generate tsunamis and threaten coastal regions.

Networked Marine Research
The HERMES project above all serves to gain new insights in the field of marine research. It is especially the observation of the ocean floors that is served by a Europe-wide research network in which the AWI is again playing its part. The above-mentioned European Sea Floor Observatory Network (ESONET) studies, just like HERMES, submarine areas located within the European continental margins. ESONET's goal is to continuously observe geological, physical and biological developments there. And so, besides the marine component, the network plans to contribute a joint Earth Observation Initiative of the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA) – to be called Global Monitoring of Environment und Security (GMES). GMES is to be operational as from 2008.

200m euros of EU research funding raised so far
The presence of the Helmholtz Research Centres in EU programmes like HERMES and ESONET reflects the success which Helmholtz proposals submitted within the scope of the European Union's 6th Research Framework have already enjoyed. As reported by the Helmholtz Association's Brussels Office, successful project proposals involving Helmholtz Centres managed to raise almost 200m euros of research funding up to the end of 2004. Helmholtz scientists doing research on System Earth and environmental research under the 6th Research Framework Programme coordinate projects of outstanding importance, such as a large biodiversity project in cooperation with more than 50 european partners.

HERMES will certainly also contribute important knowledge and findings on biodiversity. Even if the scientists cannot – like Jules Verne's Captain Nemo – study the underwater world from the comfort of a submarine equipped with a panoramic window. Because that, despite all technological developments, remains, for the time being at least, science fiction.