The basis for this project is the recognized exchange of materials and planktonic biota that take place between the coastal upwelling systems of the eastern boundaries and the adjacent open ocean. For the first time, the transports and fluxes effected by upwelling filaments, ubiquitous in these systems, will be defined on mesoscale throughout an annual cycle and in the context of the surrounding ocean. By comparing two contrasting upwelling filament systems through experiments taking place in a single season, it will be possible to identify and quantify the dominant physical, biological and biogeochemical processes that lead to similarities and differences between the two sites. The results of the work will be relevant both on the regional scale, where they will contribute to better understanding of the Canaries–Iberian Large Marine Ecosystem, and on a global scale because similar processes occur in all the world oceans. Quantification of the exchanges will provide information valuable in the context of the exploitation of renewable resources (with special reference to octopus) and basin scale fluxes associated with climate change.

The basic hypotheses underlying the project are:

1. Coastal upwelling filament systems of the Eastern North Atlantic, ranging from seasonal to permanent, are responsible for significant export of water, its dissolved and particulate organic load, and its planktonic biota into the subducting adjacent ocean waters.

2. Therefore the higher the export, the greater the contribution to the heterotrophy of the open ocean and the lower is the amount of biogenic materials available for transfer to higher trophic levels in the fishing grounds over the continental shelf.

Numerous specific questions to be investigated are listed in the proposal.