MAR-ECO, a Census of Marine Life Programme

Mar-Eco is an international exploratory study of the macro- and megafauna of the
northern Mid-Atlantic in the waters around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) from Iceland
to the Azores. Scientists from 16 nations around the northern Atlantic Ocean are
participating. Research is focussed on the following questions:
1) Are the MAR communities extensions of the communities inhabiting the North
Atlantic continental slope regions? 2) Is there a difference in species occurrence either
side of the MAR? 3) Do circulation features, such as the Gulf Stream, act as barriers
between the northern and southern fauna? 4) What is the effect of eastward drift and
import of material from the west in the region of the Gulf Stream,? 5) What is the
significance of individual seamounts within the ridge system? 6) Is the trophic structure
of the northern mid-Atlantic ecosystem similar to that on the slope regions of the eastern
and western sides of the Atlantic? 7) What is the life history strategy of key species, and
how vulnerable are they to habitat disturbance and exploitation ?
Organisms from surface waters to the ocean floor will be studied by a number of different
technologies e.g acoustics, ADCP, nets, UVP's, ROV's and observations of birds and
mammals in order to map the species composition and distribution patterns, to identify
trophic interrelationships and modelling of foodweb patterns, and to analyse life history
strategies.