Project Description
AMT20
The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) is a multidisciplinary programme which undertakes biological, chemical and physical oceanographic research during an annual voyage between the UK and destinations in the South Atlantic – previously the Falkland Islands, South Africa and Chile, a distance of up to 13,500km. This transect crosses a range of ecosystems from sub-polar to tropical and from euphotic shelf seas and upwelling systems to oligotrophic mid-ocean gyres.
The programme was established in 1995 and since then has included 19 research cruises involving over 180 scientists from 11 countries. AMT has proved to be a long-term multidisciplinary ocean observation programme, which is a platform for national and international scientific collaboration, a training arena for the next generation of oceanographers and an ideal facility for validation of novel technology.
The twentieth AMT cruise set sail from the UK on 12 October 2010 and arrived in Chile on 25 November. The scientists onboard are focusing on microbial diversity and activity, physical oceanography, optics, analytical flow cytometry and primary production and coloured dissolved organic matter.