CHEMECOLIs were deployed during the year 2006 in European waters exploring three distinct reducing habitats of various depth and locations (Fig. 3). Two sets of CHEMECOLIs were deployed at the cold seep site ‘Central Zone 2A’ in Pockmark area in the Nile Deep-Sea Fan in eastern Mediterranean (Table 1; Fig. 3) (Dupré et al., 2007 and Foucher et al., 2009). The first set was left on the bottom for 2 weeks during November 2006, and was then replaced with a second set that
Betrixaban was deployed at the exact same location for 1 year by ROV Quest 4000 (MARUM, Bremen, Germany) (November 2006–November 2007; see Table 1). Recovery after 1 year was done using the ROV Victor 6000 (Ifremer, France). Devices were deployed on outcropping authigenic carbonate crusts which are generally considered to limit the inflow of methane and sulphide from underlying sediments. However, small siboglinid tubeworms Lamellibrachia sp. nov., were observed within a crack close to the devices, meaning that direct influence of seepage, at least for the fraction of methane that is not oxidized in the sediment, could not be completely ruled out. Surrounding
sediment epifauna included lucinid clams Lucinoma aff. kazani and Myrtea sp., mussels Idas sp., thyasirid and vesicomyid bivalves, and echinoids. Site 2A is dominated by emission of methane and heavier hydrocarbons, and there is co-occurrence of soft sedimentary and hard carbonate substrates ( Dupré et al., 2007 and Foucher et al., 2009).
