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Detailed File Information (#1)
Protecting Seamounts - Examples from North America and Hawaii
File Name barr.noaa.conservation.01.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 12.72 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor Brad Barr
Source No source
Description
Seamounts, and similar features on the seabed, possess significant ecological value, generally exhibiting high biodiversity and endemism. In this keynote presentation for the SEAMOUNTS'09 Workshop, Brad Barr describes that while many seamounts are protected to some degree by their remote location, few are so remote as to be unaffected by human activities. Some form of active management may be required to preserve their ecosystem integrity, structure and function. For seamounts within the boundary of exclusive economic zones, there are a number of potential management alternatives that can be used to provide protection, from imposing activity-specific regulations to establishing marine protected areas. The management toolbox for seamounts in the high seas is limited, and these international mechanisms may be considerably less effective than those for waters nearer shore. Beyond having relevant authority to manage and protect seamounts, sustained and not insignificant financial resources must also be available to support enforcement, permitting, monitoring, and other essential management activities in order to achieve effective protection. Examples will be used from the Pacific Coast of North America and Hawaii to demonstrate the relative strengths and weakness of different management strategies that have been and are being used to protect seamounts and similar submerged topographic features in these areas.
Detailed File Information (#2)
How Hydrology and Geochemistry at Seamounts Provide Habitats for Microbes
File Name emerson.hydrogeology.microbiology.01.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 16.23 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor David Emerson
Source No source
Description
In this keynote presentation for the SEAMOUNTS'09 Workshop Dave Emerson explains why seamounts are dynamic refugia in a comparatively static deep ocean that may provide unique habitats that stimulate microbial growth, especially because of the roles seamounts and basaltic outcrops play in guiding seawater circulation through the crust. As seawater circulates through the crust it interacts with the permeable basalt providing a supply of nutrients, and a redox potential suitable for a range of microbial metabolisms. Such seawater circulation systems are driven by a set of distinct hydrodrogeologic classifications (magmatic inputs of heat, lithospheric cooling, and compression) resulting in a range of fluid compositions, from high temperature (400ºC) to cool (2ºC), from acidic (pH 2) to basic (pH 12.5), from reducing to oxygen rich, and from metal rich to metal poor. Despite the potential for these fluids associated with seamounts to host such a wide range of habitats for bacteria and archaea, we know surprisingly little about seamount microbiology. Examples of open questions include, the percentage of seamounts harbor unique microbial communities, or how do hydrothermally-driven microbial communities at seamounts compare to similar communities at mid-ocean ridges? Futhermore, seamounts could make useful natural laboratories for studying such questions as how biogeography may influence microbial diversity. Dave provides the latest data from both Loihi seamount SE of Hawaii.
Detailed File Information (#3)
Seamounts as a Link Between Geochemistry-Geophysics-Tectonics-Geohazards
File Name koppers.seamounts.02.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 38.16 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor Anthony A.P. Koppers
Source No source
Description
Seamounts are prominent geological features found throughout the major ocean basins. There are probably close to 200,000 seamounts of considerable height above the seafloor. Even though only a very small fraction of all these seamounts have been surveyed and studied, seamounts offer a much-used window that has played a major role in defining our views concerning solid Earth geophysics, geochemistry, geodynamics and plate tectonics. However, seamounts remain largely unstudied for their profound interactions on ocean currents, their role in generating geohazards and influencing tsunami wave propagations, the potential substantial geochemical fluxes between seawater and basalt, and the reasons why seamounts attract such a wide range of marine life from microbes to metazoans. In this SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Anthony Koppers is providing an overview of recent seamount research that has led to key advances in our understanding of (i) how seamounts are formed volcanically, structurally and chemically, (ii) changes in the thermal and mechanical properties of oceanic lithosphere on which seamounts are formed, (iii) absolute plate tectonic motions and relationships between plate motion, plume motion, whole-Earth motion and mantle convection, (iv) partial mantle melting in mid-plate tectonic settings, and (v) the chemical development and heterogeneity of the Earth¿s mantle. He finally shows the pivotal role of seamounts in increasing our overall understanding of the geodynamical and biological Earth.
Detailed File Information (#4)
Ocean Circulation - Transport and Mixing at Seamounts and Biological Consequences
File Name mohn.lavelle.physical.oceanography.01.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 4.36 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor Christian Mohn
Source No source
Description
Oceanic seamounts are commonly considered as offshore hotspots of marine life unifying a wide range of biological processes and phenomena at a comparatively small spatial scale. These include aggregations of biomass, locally enhanced biodiversity and increased levels of primary and secondary production. In this SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Christian Mohn explains that the classical view is that bio-physical coupling mechanisms (e.g. Taylor caps, anti-cyclonic circulation cells, upwelling, increased vertical mixing) may promote extended particle residence times to ultimately support aggregation and retention of biological material. However, there is little direct evidence that such an idealized situation really exists and that it can be maintained over a longer period. Previous studies have shown that the existence and stability of local seamount regimes are highly sensitive to changes in the physical environment: Their retention potential strongly depends on the relative importance of a number of parameters such as forcing amplitude, ambient stratification and seamount height. In addition, the definition of seamount effects should not be restricted to local and small-scale implications. It has to embrace a wider spectrum of biological phenomena associated with the potential influence of seamounts on the larger surrounding ocean on a scale of hundreds of kilometers. In this keynote, we review the major characteristics and basic dynamical concepts of the flow at isolated topography. We also present the sensitivity of the flow at seamounts to changing environmental conditions as well as factors influencing particle residence and patchiness development.
Detailed File Information (#5)
Are Seamount Fisheries On Their Way to Sustainability?
File Name pitcher.fisheries.01.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 8.64 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor Tony Pitcher
Source No source
Description
We have only sparse knowledge of the fisheries ecology of seamounts partly because of the difficulty of field research and partly because fishing occurs in remote high seas areas. In this SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Tony Pitcher reviews what we know of the extent, status and prospects for seamount fisheries. For example, in the 1970s, new technology enabled trawling of small, steep, rough seamount flanks. Since then, serial depletion has been the norm world-wide. A global spatial algorithm estimates annual catches peaking at 1.2 million tonnes in the mid 1990s, while catches of secondary seamount fish, currently 3 million tonnes per year, are still increasing. Catch reconstructions from 29 seamount regions reveal massive historical exploitation by large-scale distant water fleets from the Soviets and Japan. Almost no large-scale seamount fisheries have proven sustainable. The exceptions are a few low volume, high value seamount fisheries in developed countries. Moreover, many fishing operations have serious physical impacts on slow-growing, long-lived organisms forming biogenic habitat, so that recovery from fishing impacts is slow. Desirable sustainability features can be found in small-scale fisheries on seamounts from local is-land nations, often accompanied by bans on bottom trawls, which can catch about 0.25 million tonnes/year.
Detailed File Information (#6)
Scientific Research and Conservation of Seamounts in the Azores and the NE Atlantic
File Name santos.azores.01.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 14.71 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor Ricardo Serrao Santos
Source No source
Description
The Azores are located at a plateau in the north-east Mid Atlantic Ridge. They are formed by 9 islands, a set of small islets and numerous submerged seamounts, all from volcanic origin back to around 8 million years and active to date. The Azores are also part to the OSPAR Region V or wider Atlantic. In this SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Ricardo Santos gives an overview of the human activities with actual or potential impact in seamounts, mainly fisheries, their actual status and the existing legal framework and special regulations put in place for the management and conservation of seamount habitats and seamount living resources. Reference is made to the OSPAR network of MAPs and their high-seas component. The EC is now leading a strategic paper "The Deepsea Frontier" which is having consequence on the research funding of the 7th Frame Work Program. Following important steps initiated by research projects like OASIS and HERMES a new set of new integrated research projects are now in place, following the calls made by EC-DGR, tackling the exploration of seamounts of the wider Atlantic and the Mediterranean (e.g. MADE, CoralFish, HERMIONE, DEECON). The Azores are also leading national and bi-lateral research projects (e.g. CORAZÓN and CONDOR). This last one is a plan for the installation of a seafloor and water column observatory at the Condor Seamount.
Detailed File Information (#7)
Seamount Laboratories - Understanding of Connectivity and Evolution and Endemism
File Name shank.macrobiology.connectivity.02.ppt
Data Type presentation
Computer Program Not specified
File Size 58.60 MB - 1 file
Expert Level Graduate School
Contributor Timothy Mitchell Shank
Source No source
Description
Seamounts around the world are currently threatened by destructive fishery practices (e.g. trawling and long-lining), placing a premium on understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring the resiliency and connectivity of seamount species. In his SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Tim Shank explains that using seamounts as natural laboratories can increasingly enable scientists to study the impacts of geographic and hydrographic separation, depth zonation, habitat availability, species-specific physiological limitations and life histories, and ocean circulation patterns on the: 1) connectivity of commercially important species; 2) historical migration of marine fauna in response to climate change and the 3) design of conservation strategies informed by modern rates of genetic connectivity. As part of understanding this approach, the ecological and evolutionary processes that structure and maintain the diversity and evolution of seamount fauna will be discussed in light of established yet young paradigms relating seamounts as: a) islands of endemic fauna, and b) centers of isolation or of decreased connectivity (leading to genetic divergence, speciation, and relict faunas). Recent observations and genetic data are challenging these paradigms and providing new insights and perspectives that will inform the next paradigm to be integrated into future conservation efforts. These results, including ongoing work comparing the co-evolution and co-dispersal of coral invertebrate associates and their coral hosts, whose life histories are directly intertwined, underscore the importance of future decisions by managers concerned with the protection of oceanic biodiversity.
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