Partenaires

Ifremer, IPGP and GET are currently involved in research at the Lucky Strike EMSO observatory and have access to all the data needed for the project. Ifremer and IPGP are coordinating the observatory maintenance cruises. LPO (wwz.ifremer.fr/lpo) is a joint CNRS-UBO-Ifremer lab based at the Institut Européen des Sciences de la Mer (IUEM-Brest). It will bring a presently missing expertise to model the dynamics of the water column above the Lucky Strike hydrothermal field.

In building the consortium, we seek adequate interdisciplinarity of the principal investigators and partner institutions: solid expertise and access to the necessary facilities in geology-geophysics (IPGP); fluid chemistry (GET and Ifremer); ecology and biology (Ifremer); microbiology (Ifremer and IPGP); physical oceanography (LPO); and engineering (Ifremer, IPGP and GET). Below, we outline the qualifications of the members of the team. A selection of their publications can be found at the end of the project.

Geology-geophysics

Mathilde Cannat (CNRS-IPGP) will coordinate the project. A senior geologist-geophysicist, she has a good experience in team and project management and presently coordinates geophysical monitoring at the Lucky Strike observatory.

Wayne Crawford (CNRS-IPGP) is a senior marine geophysicist in charge of seismological aspects at the Lucky Strike observatory.

Javier Escartin (CNRS-IPGP) is a senior marine geophysicist. He coordinates the deployment of temperature probes in vents at the Lucky Strike observatory.

Fabrice Fontaine (CNRS-IPGP) is a geophysicist specialized in numerical models of hydrothermal circulations at mid-ocean ridges and terrestrial volcanos.

 

Fluid chemistry

Philippe Besson (UPS-GET) is a technician and is running the ICP-AES instrument for fluid chemical analyses.

Christophe Brandily (Ifremer) is an engineer responsible of the fluid sampling and chemical analysis.

Cécile Cathalot (Ifremer) is a biogeochemist specialized in modeling the processes controlling the mixing zone in deep-sea ecosystems.

Valérie Chavagnac (CNRS-GET), is a geochemist and coordinates the fluid chemistry component of the Lucky Strike observatory. She will be the local coordinator for GET.

Manuel Henry (CNRS-GET) is an assistant engineer working in at the state of the art clean room. He is assisting our group for Li purification procedure and isotope analyses.

Pierre Marie Sarradin (Ifremer) is a senior marine chemist responsible of the research Unit «  Etude des Ecosystèmes Profonds  » and a co-PI of the EMSO-Azores observatory. He will be the local coordinator for Ifremer.

 

Ecology

Marjolaine Matabos (Ifremer) is a marine biologist with extensive experience in the processing of video time series. She served as Research Theme Integrator for Neptune Canada in 2010-2013.

Florence Pradillon (Ifremer) is a marine biologist specializing on larval biology for deep-sea species.

Jozée Sarrazin (Ifremer) is a senior benthic ecologist and current head of the Laboratory «  Environnement Profond  ». She coordinates ecological studies at the Lucky Strike observatory.

 

Microbiology

Anne Godfroy (Ifremer) is a senior microbiologist, co-PI for the operation of the CISICS instruments at Tour Eiffel.

Françoise Lesongeur (Ifremer) is a technician in microbiology.

Céline Rommevaux-Jestin (CNRS-IPGP) is a specialist of rock-microbe interactions at ridge hydrothermal settings. She coordinates the microbial colonization experiment at the Lucky Strike observatory.

 

Physical Oceanography

Patrice Klein (LPO) is a senior physical oceanographer, specialist of turbulence processes at small and meso-scales.

Guillaume Roullet (LPO) is a physical oceanographer, specialist of turbulence processes at small and meso-scales. He will be the local coordinator for LPO.

Aurélien Ponte (LPO) is a physical oceanographer, specialist of turbulence processes at small and meso-scales.

Nicolas Grima (LPO) a CNRS engineer, expert in HR modeling with ROMS.

 

Engineering

Jerome Blandin (Ifremer) is a senior engineer and co-PI of the EMSO-Azores observatory. He coordinates the design, the construction and the deployment of the observatory infrastructure.

Thierry Carval (Ifremer) is a senior engineer, co-PI of EMSO data management, in charge of coordinating data management for the EMSO-Azores observatory.

Alain Castillo (CNRS-GET) is an Assistant Engineer with a strong expertise in chemistry and sampling of deep sea vent fluids.

Romuald Daniel (CNRS-IPGP) is a senior engineer who has coordinated the construction of geophysical instruments currently connected to the Lucky Strike observatory. He is also the chief engineer in charge of Ocean Bottom Seismometers at IPGP.

Agathe Laes-Huon (Ifremer) is a chemical engineer. She is responsible for the in situ chemical analysers at Lucky Strike.

Julien Legrand (Ifremer) is a senior electronic engineer and is responsible for the data flow transmission at the EMSO-Azores observatory, from the sensors to the data center.

Three PhD theses have recently started based on data from the Lucky Strike observatory and the students will be active members of the LuckyScales team: Thomas Leleu (GET) for fluid chemistry, Pauline Henry (IPGP) for geomicrobiology and Bérangère Husson (Ifremer) for the functioning and dynamics of hydrothermal ecosystems. Three other PhDs will start in the fall and will contribute to the project. The first one will work on numerical modelling (Cécile Mezon, UPMC) with one of us (F. Fontaine, IPGP) as a co-advisor; the second one will study the chemical speciation of metals within the mixing zone (Ifremer – LEMAR IUEM); and the third one (Y. Lelièvre; Univ. de Montréal- Ifremer) will work on temporal community dynamics with J. Sarrazin, M. Matabos and P. Legendre as co-advisors. A post-doctoral fellowship funded by the MIDAS European project will also start shortly on chemical modelling of the mixing zone (based at Ifremer). We are also currently seeking candidates for a PhD project in the field of seismology, to apply for a grant at the IPGP Ecole Doctorale.

To complement the team, we request ANR funding for two post doc positions: one in geophysics and fluid dynamics (1 year based at Ifremer) to work in WP2 (small scale sub-seafloor circulations), and one in physical oceanography (1 year based at LPO) to work in WP3 (water column dynamics). In parallel, we are applying to Ifremer and to the pôle MER Bretagne for an additional 9 months funding for each post doc. We also request 6 months of engineering time (based at IPGP) necessary to help prepare the instrumental array for a first deployment during the 2015 observatory maintenance cruise (WP5), and support for a master 2 internship (based at IPGP) to assist with numerical modelling of hydrothermal circulations (WP2).

In addition to the researchers and engineers listed above, we have gathered a group of nineteen collaborators from France, Europe, Switzerland, Canada and the USA who will contribute instruments, expertise or data to the project : Valérie Ballu (geodesy, UMR 7266-LIENSs, La Rochelle); Gilles Reverdin (physical oceanography, UMR 7159-LOCEAN, Paris); Ana Colaco (a biologist at the University of the Azores, Portugal); Miguel Miranda (geophysicist at Instituto Portugues do Mare da Atmosfera, Lisbon); Luis Matias (geophysicist at Lisbon University); Heinrich Villinger (geophysicist at Bremen University, Germany); Marvin Lilley (chemist at Washington State University, USA); Thibaut Barreyre (geophysicist, post-doc at WHOI, USA); Eric Mittelstaedt (geophysicist at the University of Idaho, USA); Ray Lee (benthic ecologist, Washington State University); Pierre Legendre (numerical ecology at Université de Montréal, Canada); Michel Aron (video image analysis, researcher at ISEN, Brest); Jeroen Molemaker and Jonathan Gula (UCLA, USA) for physical oceanography ; Pierre Adler (CNRS-UPMC) for modelling of hydrothermal flow in complex fractured media ; Philipp Weis (ETH-Zurich) a specialist of models of two-phase (NaCl-H₂O) hydrothermal flow; Jeroen Sonke (CNRS-GET) for fluid chemistry and Ricardo Riso, Matthieu Waeles, Benoit Pernet Coudrier (metal speciation, LEMAR IUEM UMR 6539).