A scientific article by Professor Miquel Canals receives the Prize La Recherche 2014
A scientific paper published in the journal PLOS ONE,signed by Miquel Canals, professor in Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences of the University of Barcelona (UB), among other experts, has received the Prize La Recherche 2014 in the category Coup de coeur. The award ceremony took place on 21 October at the headquarters of the Quai Branly Museum, in Paris.
A scientific paper published in the journal PLOS ONE,signed by Miquel Canals, professor in Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences of the University of Barcelona (UB), among other experts, has received the Prize La Recherche 2014 in the category Coup de coeur. The award ceremony took place on 21 October at the headquarters of the Quai Branly Museum, in Paris.
This is the eleventh edition of these prizes given by the scientific journal La Recherche. They honour the most innovative scientific studies carried out in different fields of knowledge: archaeology, astrophysics, biology, environment and medicine, among others. This year, the jury conferred the prize Coup de coeur on the study “Deep-Sea Bioluminescence Blooms after Dense Water Formation at the Ocean Surface”, published in the journal PLOS ONE in July 2013. The study was coordinated by Professor Miquel Canals, experts Christian Tamburini and Stéphanie Escoffier, from Aix-Marseille University, and Xavier Durrieu de Madron, from the University of Perpignan.
The award-winning study, in which an international research team composed by more than 150 experts collaborated, relates marine bioluminescence with dense water formation in the Mediterranean. It is based on an inter-disciplinary research developed with the telescope Antares, the first underwater equipment to detect high energy neutrinos.
According to the study, in Mediterranean floors, biogenic light blooms, a phenomenon so-called ʻdeep-sea bioluminescenceʼ, produced by the ability of numerous marine organisms to emit light by chemical processes, is related to dense water formation. Professor Miquel Canals, head of the Consolidated Research Group on Marine Geosciences of the UB, explains that “the research proves quick connections among the atmosphere, the ocean —even in deep waters— and marine biological communities. Data show a quick response of deep water pelagic ecosystem to external stimuli. In short, all these processes are correlated”.
Finally, it is important to remember that Professor Miquel Canals is the first author of an article, published in the journal Nature (2006), which first described the phenomenon of dense water cascading in North-Western Mediterranean Sea.