Overview of selected Marine Science and Technology (MAST) projects
The European Commission, DG XII, has recently published an ad-hoc overview of projects supported under the Community's specific RTD programme in the field of Marine Science and Technology (MAST). The overview summarizes the objectives and preliminary results of a selected number of projects from the MAST programme. The following projects are presented: - Interdisciplinary studies of regional seas: . MTP-II MATER: Mediterranean Targeted Project phase II; . BASYS: Baltic Sea System Study; . CANIGO: Canary Islands - Azores - Gibraltar Observations; . OMEX: Ocean Margin Exchange; - Basic processes in global change research: . ESOP-II: European sub-polar ocean programme phase II: Thermohaline circulation in the Greenland Sea; . ASGAMAGE: Air/sea gas exchange programme; - Operational oceanography: . PROMISE: Pre-operational modelling in the seas of Europe; - Coastal zone management: . COMWEB: Comparative analysis of food webs based on flow networks: effects of nutrient supply on structure and function of coastal plankton communities; . PROVERBS: Probabilistic design tools for vertical breakwaters; . PACE: Prediction of aggregated-scale coastal evolution; . SAFE: Performance of soft beach systems and nourishment measures for European coasts; . INTRMUD: The morphological development of inter-tidal flats; - Deep-sea and continental slope research: . AMORES: A study in an extreme environment; . ALIPOR: Autonomous lander instrument packages for oceanographic research; . GEOSTAR: Geophysical and oceanographic station for abyssal research; . ENAM: European North Atlantic margin: quantification and modelling of large-scale sedimentary processes and fluxes; - Underwater vehicles and related technologies: . MAUVE: Minituarized and reconfigurable instrumentation for multipurpose survey with a mini autonomous vehicle: development and validation at sea; . AMADEUS II: Advanced manipulation for deep underwater sampling - phase 2; - Marine biotechnology: . Bio-active marine natural products in the field of anti-tumoral, anti-viral and immuno-modulant activity; . Micro-organisms in deep sea vents and marine hot springs as sources of potentially valuable chemicals.