EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) -- Seamount Communities and Pelagic Interfaces: A Tale of Two Seamounts

Description
What happens when a strong pelagic chemical interface intersects a seamount? How do responses of zooplankton and benthos differ and what unique interactions are created by the seamount situation? We have opportunistically explored two examples of this phenomenon and in this keynote presentation from Karen Wishner during the First SBN Workshop two seamounts are discussed as examples, one in the eastern tropical Paficif (Volcano 7) and one in the Caribbean Sea near Grenada (Kick'em Jenny). The first deals with a seamount penetrating into the oxygen minimum zone; the second deals with hydrothermal vent effluent in a volcanic crater. In both cases, the chemical gradient seems to be spatially (horizontally) extensive, although varying in depth over time, and delineates a zone physiologically hostile to many animal taxa. This has created some unusual biological distributions.

Project -- Meetings and Workshops -- SBN Workshops
The goal of the Seamount Biogeosciences Network (SBN) is to bring together all the diverse science disciplines involved in seamount research, to communicate about and discuss seamount science, and to explore innovative ways to network amongst the diverse communities working on seamounts.