A painting by naval artist José Cardero of Malaspina's 1789 global scientific expedition.
Credit: Navy Museum of Madrid
The objectives of the journey, known as the Malaspina expedition, are twofold: to assess how oceans are coping with human-induced changes to the environment and to create an inventory of deep-sea biodiversity in the world's largest ecosystem.
Researchers will collect thousands of samples of air, water and organisms to measure a host of factors ranging from plankton populations and temperature to salt and pollutant concentrations and the ocean-atmosphere energy exchange.
Some of the samples will be analysed and processed; others will be stored in a time capsule for three decades. "It will allow a new generation of scientists to pose questions that we cannot even dream of today," says marine biologist and expedition coordinator Carlos Duarte.
The Spaniard
In 1789, Spanish navigator Alejandro Malaspina set sail, leading two corvettes on a journey around the world. While mapping colonial holdings and searching for the Northwest Passage, Malaspina and his colleagues also studied the natural history of the places they visited, observing the people and fauna, gathering plant specimens and preparing detailed drawings. Returning to Spain in 1794, Malaspina was imprisoned as a traitor for his liberal views on colonial administration. Later, drawings from his expedition revealed the scientific value of his journey.
A new era
"We are entering a new era in the history of humankind," says Duarte. As the population is expected to soar to more than nine billion people by 2050, the ocean will increasingly be called upon to provide food, clean water and energy to humans. As only 5% of the world's oceans have been explored in detail, Duarte says it's important to delve further so that these resources can be tapped in an intelligent and sustainable way. Among other things, this includes harnessing ocean energy from waves and tides, controlling the production of food from marine agriculture and managing depleted fish stocks.
Time capsule
While data from the expedition will be made publicly available as it is processed, some of the thousands of samples of water, air and organisms, as well as information and images from the voyage, will be sealed and stored in a time capsule for several decades.
Deep-sea life
Only one in every thousand ocean species is known and has been named, says Duarte, and at the current rate it may take 600 to 800 years to complete a comprehensive inventory of ocean life. However, new developments in the field of genomics provide a shortcut, allowing researchers to create inventories of species based on the functions they perform in their environment, without the need to actually name them individually. New life in the ocean's deepest, sunless regions, and the genes they harbour, could have applications in future biotechnology research
Plankton profile
Hespérides towed a torpedo-shaped apparatus from Perth to Sydney, creating the first continuous record of phytoplankton and zooplankton in Australian surface waters. Marine biologist Anthony Richardson from Australia's national science organisation, CSIRO, says the data will help researchers understand how the boundaries between warm and cold-water plankton communities are shifting as a result of climate change. Plankton generate 50% of the Earth's oxygen, are a source of food for marine organisms and can help trap carbon dioxide in the ocean, he says.
More to come
While much of the research has yet to be turned into concrete data, there have been some interesting early finds.
-Insects resembling water striders live abundantly in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, despite rough conditions. This goes against the tenet that insects are virtually absent from ocean habitats, Duarte says.
-Photosynthetic algae have been found living at 4,000 m depths.
-The Indian Ocean may absorb three times more nitrogen than the Atlantic Ocean - an important find because nitrogen helps plankton grow and capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
