The Russian-German deep-sea expedition SoJaBio (Sea of Japan Biodiversity Studies) - Cruise Report

Cruise report of the Russian-German deep-sea expedition SoJaBio (Sea of Japan Biodiversity Studies) to the Sea of Japan onboard of the R/V Akademik M. A. Lavrentyev, started in Vladivostok on August 11th and terminated in Vladivostok on September 5th 2010. 

The scientific team of the SoJaBio expedition included 11 Russian biologists from the A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology (IMB), PIBOC FEB RAS, Vladivostok; P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS, Moscow, and 11 biologists from Germany, mainly from the ZIM, SAM, Berlin, Műnchen, Frankfurt am Mein, and also from Geneva, Switzerland. Moreover, 7 Russian oceanologists from the V.I. Il'ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute (PIO) FEB RAS participated in the expedition.

The goals of the SoJaBio expedition were:

- to study the composition, biodiversity of the benthic organisms of all size classes in the deep-sea Basin of the Sea of Japan isolated from the adjacent deep-sea areas of the Pacific Ocean;

- to compare the colonization processes, pathways and rates of colonization of the comparatively young deep-sea Basin of the Sea of Japan with the open oceanic abyssal zones;

- to study the deep-sea biogeography of the Sea of Japan, the adjacent deep-sea areas;

- to study the trophic characteristics and relations of the key species in the Sea of Japan on the background of the isolation and eutrophication of the area.

- to measure physical, chemical and biological parameters of the near-bottom deep-water layer including temperature, salinity, and oxygen saturation as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and methane gas concentrations which are considered to be indicators for global warming.