AT07-26

Diffuse flow macrofaunal communities, CTD tow-yos; from Chuck Fisher's website: This was the second cruise of our NSF award to study the productivity and biomass of the EPR vent communities with Jim Childress' group from UC Santa Barbara. Again, this was a two-ship expedition, and Dr. Fisher was chief scientist on the R/V Atlantis and oversaw the in situ work while Dr. Childress was the chief scientist on the R/V New Horizon. Our group’s main goals were to collect temperature recorders that had been deployed in the mussel and tubeworm habitats for one year and to make quantitative collections of the different community types. We also worked with chemist, Nadine Le Bris from Ifremer (France) to measure sulfide, iron, and pH of the hydrothermal fluids in the different community types. Five countries were represented by the members of the scientific party aboard the R/V Atlantis (USA, France, Canada, Austria, and Germany). Also from PSU were graduate students, Breea Govenar, Erik Cordes, and Jason Flores, an undergraduate lab member, Julie Barsic, a post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Stephane Hourdez, and a visiting student from Germany, Peter Dienes. In addition to our group and Dr. Childress's group, this expedition included scientists from Ifremer (France), The Field Museum, Harvard University, University of California at San Diego, University of Vienna (Austria), and University of Victoria (Canada).