The Oceanographic data collected by Antarctic seals (Southern Elephant and Weddell seals mainly) are collected as part of the SO-MEMO (Observing System - Mammals as samplers of the Ocean Environment, PI. C. Guinet, CEBC-CNRS-ULR). Further data oceanographic are collected from sea turtle equipped in the French Guiana by Dr. D. Chevallier of the CNRS-UDS of the Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie of the Pluridisciplinary Institute Hubert Curien (IPHC).
Deployment sites: Kerguelen Islands (C. Guinet), Adelie Land (J.-B. Charrassin, collaboration avec M. Hindell), French Guiana (D. Chevallier)
Supporting institutions: The SO-MEMO is supported by CNRS, CNES, IPEV, and the Total Fondation. Logistic and funding support was also provided by CORIOLIS, SHOM and the program BOUSSOLE to calibrate the CTD tags prior their deployments on seals.
Actors: Christophe Guinet (CEBC, CNRS University of La Rochelle), Gilles Reverdin and Jean-Benoit Charrassin (LOCEAN/MNHN, University La Sorbonne), Damien Chevallier (CNRS-IPHC, University of Strasbourg)
The SO-MEMO is one of the four components Labelled by CNRS INSU with SO Pirata, ARGO and SSS. It is part of the Observing and experimenting system for the long-term environmental research Coriolis Time deferred Oceanic Observation (SOERE-CTDO2) system (PI: G. Reverdin, LOCEAN) contributing to the observation of physical and biogeochemical quantities of the ocean needed for missions of operational oceanography and research on climate (temperature, salinity, currents ...) and air-sea interactions and data related to the "green ocean" (oxygen, chlorophyll ...). Temperature and salinity data have been continuously collected since 2004 within the Kerguelen sector of the Southern Ocean, and within this sector further data are collected by Australian (IMOS) and Chinese collaborators.
The ecological component of SO-MEMO is integrated as part of the SOERE Zone Atelier by INEE-CNRS and ecological data are distributed via the observatory system PELAGIS (UMS 3462 CNRS-ULR).
Christophe Guinet under an elephant seal.
From left to right: Fabien Roquet, Christophe Guinet and Guillaume Girard in 2006 at Pointe Suzanne, Kerguelen Island.