DEEP-IMPACT: A New European Project Begins to Study the Deep Ecosystems of the Corfu–Cephalonia Canyon

DEEP-IMPACT, the project coordinated by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS, has officially begun. The initiative aims to explore and better understand the deep ecosystems of a still little-known area of the Mediterranean: the Corfu–Cephalonia Canyon in the Ionian Sea.

DEEP-IMPACT stems from findings of a recent OGS study showing that dense waters formed in the Northern Adriatic reach the canyon systems of the Ionian Sea after traveling a long path along the margin of the Italian Adriatic coast. The project will investigate how these water masses penetrate the canyon, influencing deep circulation, mixing processes, upwelling, and the possible transport of pollutants into abyssal environments.

The project involves several Italian scientific partners, including the CNR – Institute of Polar Sciences, the University of Salento, the University of Catania, and CoNISMa, the National Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences. International partners include the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Scotland, the University of Barcelona, and the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana.