Plattform Platform	Reise-Nr. Cruise-No.	Zeitraum Period	Projekt Project	Arbeitsgebiet Working area
Elisabeth Mann Borgese	EMB320	16.06.2023 - 03.07.2023	DAM-MGF-OSTSEE	Baltic Sea

Fahrtleiter Chief Scientist	Institut Institute	Auslaufhafen Port of departure	Einlaufhafen Port of return	Stationskarte Station map	Schiffsroute Trackchart
Jurgens Klaus	Leibniz-Institut fur Ostseeforschung, Warnemunde	Rostock	Rostock

Ziel der Reise / Objectives of Cruise:

The cruise served two different research projects: (1) Investigating the impact of mobile bottom-dwelling fisheries in marine protected areas (MPAs) of the Baltic Sea" (DAM Pilot Mission "MGF-Ostsee") in order to understand how the ecosystems of the Natura 2000 areas in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Baltic Sea develop after exclusion of mobile bottom-dwelling fisheries. Target areas are the MPAs Fehmarnbelt, Ronnebank and Oderbank for which all components of the benthic food web, from prokaryotes to macrozoobenthos, sediment properties and biogeochemical processes were assessed in previously defined study areas inside the MPAs, and comparative (reference) areas outside the MPAs. (2) A research project, partly funded by the Czech Science Foundation, aims at studying microbial communities along the salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea. The strong salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea (oligohaline - mesohaline - marine) leads to pronounced shifts in prokaryotic community composition with a stable population of brackish SAR11 and other endemic microbes in the main basins. Using high-throughput dilution-to-extinction cultivation and hybrid metagenomics for phylogenomic analyses of genomes will elucidate specific microbial adaptations to different salinities. For this project water coloumn samples from stations along the natural salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea were obtained, from the Kattegat in the West to the entrance of the Finish Gulf in the Northeast.

Messungen / Measurements