1. Proposed German RV Meteor cruise to the Central Atlantic Ocean Barbados – Las Palmas currently scheduled for April 9 – May 9, 2009

2. Initally proposed cruise track starting in Recife (25 days, incuding 8 days of transit)

3. Goals: Linked with some non-GEOTRACES activities: German SOLAS (SOPRAN) Exchange of sediment trap moorings for RCOM Bremen Amazon river plume Sahara dust plume Equatorial upwelling (Weathering contributions from Canaries/Cape Verde islands)

4. Preliminary participating groups and planned work Balzer (U. Bremen): Dissolved and particulate trace elements (speciation and size distribution) and related scavenging processes. Rutgers van der Loeff (AWI): Interaction of natural radionuclides ( 234 Th) and trace metals with organic carrier materials Croot (IFM-GEOMAR): Dust dissolution and trace metal speciation Pohl (IOW): Trace metals (focus on mercury) in surface waters (bioavailability) Staubwasser (U. Cologne): Dissolved stable Fe and Cr isotopes Scholten (IAEA/U. Kiel): Trace metal and radionuclide ( 234 Th, 231 Pa) scavenging processes in the water column (speciation) Frank (IFM-GEOMAR): Nd, Hf, Si (Be) isotopes for source provence tracing of dust and river inputs + well as Si utilisation Fischer (RCOM Bremen): Particle dynamics off Cap Blanc (sediment trap exchange)

5. Tools available Trace metal sampling with GoFlos on CTD rosette (on plastic coated cable) and towed fish for surface waters Gerards for large volume sampling (250 l) Aerosol samplers ROV for exchange of sediment traps and particle sampling In situ pumps 2 clean lab containers Complete GEOTRACES section including all ancillary parameters + a lot of additional TEIs