IFREMER will lead the activities of the workpackages 1, 3, 4, 7 and 10, participate in WP 2 and 5, and will also be responsible for co-ordination of the project.

The IFREMER group will be in charge of very-high-resolution seismic profiling, side-scan sonar imagery, and multibeam and coring operations.

Work at sea will include seafloor imagery (EM 300 and DF1000 sonar), very-high-resolution seismic profiling (Chirp sonar, sparker and mud-penetrator) and coring operations. Sediment sampling (piston and vibro-coring) will be followed by shipboard sample preparation and laboratory analyses.

IFREMER will be responsible for the execution of the cruise with the R/V Le Suroît.

Origin of pollen (via air and fluvial transport).

Reconstruction of the climate during the last climatic cycle.

Cause of clay-sapropel alternations (WP 8).

The participation of UCBL in WP 5 and 8 will involve research work ranging from the Danube delta, the area of the main fluvial source of pollen, to the Black Sea deep basin. Within this participation, reliable relationships between pollen records and vegetation, and pollen records and sediment will be established.

Dr. François Guichard and Dr. Michel Fontugne will lead WP 6 and do measurements on stable and radiogenic elements.

In addition, they will determine 14C dates using an AMS.

They will permit a reconstruction of the dynamics of the last inrush of Mediterranean waters and establishment of the anoxic regime.

Other work planned include analyses of the sediment organic mater (WP 8), C and O isotopic measurements, and determination of the carbon and nitrogen contents of about 900 samples at facies transitions and transitions in magnetic mineralogy (in collaboration with IPGP).

The University of Hamburg via its Institute of Biogeochemistry and Marine Chemistry (IfBM) has primary responsibility within WP 3, 4 and 7.

Research group led by Prof. How Kin Wong will do seismic processing and interpretation, facies analyses, seismic and sequence stratigraphy, and reconstruction of the paleo-depositional environment using data from swath bathymetry and bottom backscattering. This group will provide seismic processing facilities and will participate in the cruises planned.

UniHH (UHAM.IBM) will also lead WP 8 and participate in WP 1, 2, 5, and 6. Core analyses within this context will be led by Prof. Walter Michaelis who will study the sedimentary organic matter using biomarkers and stable isotope distributions among other methods.

Participation of Hamburg University in WP 1 and 10 is planned.

The GeoEcoMar Institute is responsible for partial co-ordination of field activities.

This Institute will be the leader of WP 2.

GeoEcoMar will be responsible for carrying out the cruise with their R/V Oceanos and will provide logistics support for studies within Romanian waters. Their Chirp sonar will provide seismic profiles of a very-high-resolution.

GeoEcoMar will play the leading role especially in WP 5, participate in the interpretation of geophysical data, take part in primary core analyses, and be responsible for the determination of the faunal and microfaunal assemblages.

Other work planned includes participation in imagery and seismic processing in France and Germany, interpretation of the regional sediment facies, and synthesis of results from WP 2 to 9.

The team of the University of Bucharest led by Prof. Corneliu Dinu will participate in workpackage 2 in support of GeoEcoMar in the collection and evaluation of existing data, as well as in the construction and maintenance of the project database and in data syntheses (WP 10).

It will also take part in the interpretation of swath bathymetric and backscattering data in co-operation with IFREMER, UniHH and GeoEcoMar (WP 4 and 7).

Support to GeoEcoMar in cruise planning and cruise execution during the ASSEMBLAGE cruise aboard the R/V Oceanos. In addition, the group from UB will also participate in WP 5 and 6, in particular in the preparation of samples for sedimentological, geochemical, and sediment-physical analyses, as well as age dating. The analysis of certain core parameters is also planned.

The group of the Institute of Oceanology in Varna of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences led by Prof. Petko Dimitrov will collect and assess relevant existing data from Bulgaria within WP 2.

It will provide logistic support for field activities within Bulgarian territorial waters.

Its participation in WP 3, 4 and 7 will involve the interpretation of geophysical data based on its experience from the Bulgarian continental shelf as well as collaboration in seismic processing in France and Germany.

The work of this group within workpackage 5 and 6 will consist of core analyses (including fauna determination), study of the texture and composition of the sediments, and analyses of alternative raw materials (e.g., hydrogen sulfide, methane and gas hydrates, and sapropel ooze).

The modelling of sapropel formation and other sedimentary processes will be the responsibility of the ICBM group under Prof. Emil Stanev from the University of Oldenburg.

It will, using its own computer facilities to:

The research group led by Joanna Staneva will participate in the modelling of WP 9.

This group will prepare the paleometeorological and hydrological data including: inventory of data, inter_comparisons between different data sources, regional analyses and preparation of forcing functions for modelling. In order to calibrate the parameterisations in the Black Sea model, gravity currents in the Bosphorus exit area will be studied.

This will include outflow under the present conditions and simulation of the out-flow during the time of re-establishment of the connection between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. This partner will (together with Partner N°8) carry out part of the simulations in WP 9 and analyse the results.

The Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences, IACT, perform sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical analyses under the responsibility of Dr. Francisca Martinez-Ruiz. This analyses will provide relevant paleo-environmental information that will be focused on paleoproductivity, paleoredox proxies, terrigenous-detrital supply and the sedimentary regime post-depositional alteration, element redistribution and preservation of geochemical and mineralogical proxies.

All these data will be of special interest to workpackages 5, 6 and 8.

University of Ancona will participate in core sample analyses in WP 5, 6 and 8.

The micropaleontological content of selected core samples will be studied at the UNIAN facilities to establish a high-resolution biostratigraphy and to investigate the paleoceanographic evolution of the Black Sea during the Late Quaternary.

In particular, benthic and planktic foraminiferal successions will be studied in detail.

Age control will be provided by AMS 14C dating (WP 6) and the biostratigraphy will be correlated with the oxygen isotope record for a number of selected cores.