Established by the European Commission in 1993 through the Marine Science and Technology (MAST) program, the Mediterranean Targeted Project I (MTP I, 1993-1996) and the MTP II (1996-1999) represent a major effort in the understanding of the Mediterranean Sea today (both Western and Eastern basins).The objective of the MTP II - MATER (MAss Transfer and Ecosystem Response) is to study and to quantify the triggering and controlling mechanisms of mass and energy transfer between the different compartments (land - sea, sea-atmosphere, water - sediment, living - no living, pelagos - benthos), in contrasting trophic environments (from eutrophic to oligotrophic) of the Mediterranean Sea and to investigate the ecosystem response to such a transfer.This program is designed to assess the processes at various time and space scales, from the entire basin down to the local scale, and from inter-annual variations to daily processes .The project gathers 58 research groups from 10 EU Member States and 3 non-EU States.From 1996 to 1999, 108 cruises (representing more than 1000 days of ship time) have been carried out, 130 long time series collected and 254 main scientific equipments have been used to collect in situ data. These data have been processed in the scientific laboratories and in the archiving centers, according to international methods and standards. As a result, a wealth of new multidisciplinary data are released. In addition, information on cruises, moorings and instruments have been compiled and disseminated, all along the project implementation.The corresponding important data management task has been performed by a dedicated data management structure according to the requirements of the European MAST Code on Data Management. |
