Expedition
Aqaba mission 2022, Day 1 has started
Among the various scientific programs to be conducted over the next days on different sites along the coast of Jordan: Seascape genomics, a study of coral reef population structure, dynamics, and adaptive potential; Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, a novel approach to estimate coral species assemblages; assessing the metabolic response to thermal stress, to increase our knowledge about fundamental cellular metabolism; assessing the impact of plastic and trace-metal pollution on corals, and scalable 3D-mapping of shallow coral reefs with machine learning.
This mission conducted with the support of the Jordanian authorities and the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs represents a key milestone along the road aiming to establish the first ever Red Sea-wide coral ecosystem and biodiversity ‘baseline’.
![The Transnational Red Sea Center team gearing up at the Marine Science Station, Aqaba, 6 August 2022. TRSC mission_Gulf of Aqaba_2022.08.06_6.jpeg](https://trsc-media.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/83/55/8355fcad-d82a-4801-99c2-b3393d178b3b/trsc_mission_gulf_of_aqaba_20220806_6.jpeg__1280.0x915.0_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg)
![The Aqaba mission is conducted in partnership with the Marine Science Station, a research center jointly run by the Jordan University and the University of Yarmouk TRSC mission_Gulf of Aqaba_2022.08.06_2 (2).jpeg](https://trsc-media.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/1b/a9/1ba92e8a-ae31-49be-aeaa-006ba264e61e/trsc_mission_gulf_of_aqaba_20220806_2_2.jpeg__960.0x1280.0_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg)
![Several researchers from Ecole polytechnique fédérale in Lausanne are implementing the various programs TRSC mission_Gulf of Aqaba_2022.08.06_3.jpeg](https://trsc-media.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/48/66/4866d61c-b6b2-4da3-8843-60a23ac2dd97/trsc_mission_gulf_of_aqaba_20220806_3.jpeg__960.0x1280.0_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg)