Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography: Editorial Note: ECOMAR: Ecosystems of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the Sub-Polar Front and Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone

The start of the ECOMAR project coincided with commissioning of the new UK Royal Research Ship James Cook officially named by, Anne the Princess Royal on 6 February 2007. The first ECOMAR cruise departed from Southampton on 13 July 2007. Working with this new class of ship and its advanced systems was a novel experience and it was with great satisfaction that mapping, mooring deployment, trawling, trapping, coring and other activities were successfully achieved on this voyage. Subsequent voyages involved rescue of a lone transatlantic rower (2009) and operation of the R.O.V. Isis (2010). In acknowledgement of the importance of this particular ship to the ECOMAR project we place a picture of her on the cover of this volume. We thank the masters Tony Gatti and Peter Serjeant and all personnel on board for their support.

This volume contains an account of research conducted during these three cruises by the R.R.S. James Cook as well as the R.R.S. Discovery (2008) and NOAA FSV Henry B. Bigelow (2009) that also visited the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone area of the Mid Atlantic Ridge as part of the ECOMAR project. As editors were are grateful to the authors for their input and to numerous anonymous reviewers who have helped us with our task. Thank you to all involved.