A Joint Research Activity in AssemblePLUS
This project is setting up a network of Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) in the vicinity of marine stations and Long term Ecological Research sites (LTER) in order to assess status and changes in hard bottom communities of near coast environments with genetic methods. One of the initial scientific goals of the project is to identify newly arrived Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) and track the migration of already known NIS in European continental waters. In addition we deploy ARMS for longer periods to monitor hard-bottom communities with genetic methods.
ARMS are three-dimensional units attached to the sea floor and consisting of a stack of settlement plates. These monitoring systems were originally developed during the Census of Marine Life project and are today frequently used for passive collection of marine fauna. Because of their three-dimensional structure, mimicking the complexity of hard bottom marine substrates, ARMS attract both encrusting species and motile organisms.
The European ARMS program will consist of three annual cycles (2018, 2019, and 2020), with each cycle having a design, deployment, and analysis phase. The project is primarily funded through the Joint Research Activity (JRA1) of the ASSEMBLE+ program, with financial contributions from the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management as well as the Interreg project GEANS. The project is an activity of the Genomic observatories network with relations to the European Marine Biological Resource Center.
The handbook in this repository gives an overview over the state of the activity, the network of sites and scientists, as well as the necessary protocols for ARMS deployment, retrieval and processing. The handboook is continuously updated.
This repository contains the latest version of the handbook, incl
- Project registration sheet (only relevant for new partners)
- Metadata sheet (template)
- Metadata sheet (example)
- Sample overview sheet
- Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)
- Data analysis pipeline P.E.M.A