TY - CHAP

T1 - Mapping Condor Seamount Seafloor Environment and Associated Biological Assemblages (Azores, Ne Atlantic)

AU - Tempera, Fernando

AU - Giacomello, Eva

AU - Mitchell, Neil C.

AU - Campos, Aldino S.

AU - Braga Henriques, Andreia

AU - Bashmachnikov, Igor

AU - Martins, Ana

AU - Mendonça, Ana

AU - Morato, Telmo

AU - Colaço, Ana

AU - Porteiro, Filipe M.

AU - Catarino, Diana

AU - Gonçalves, João T.

AU - Pinho, Mário A.R.

AU - Isidro, Eduardo J.

AU - Santos, Ricardo S.

AU - Menezes, Gui

PY - 2012/12/1

Y1 - 2012/12/1

N2 - Seamounts are among the most common topographic features in the world ocean. Depending on their particular morphological traits, they can also be referred to as banks, knolls, guyots, mounds, or hills. Condor seamount is a linear volcano located in the Azores (northeast Atlantic), 35 km in length, 2-6 km wide, and of varied seafloor morphology. A scientific observatory devoted to research on seamount ecosystem structure and functioning has been established on Condor, secured by a temporary fishing closure. Multiple projects have contributed to this observatory by targeting the seamount with snapshots and long-term deployments of moored, satellite-based, and shipborne technologies. This chapter presents a brief characterization of the seamount's seafloor environment by focusing on the multibeam bathymetry data and a series of video, oceanographic, and fishery surveys. A classification based upon the bathymetric position index is presented to characterize the landscape composition of the seamount. Habitats of conservation importance, such as coral gardens and deep-sea sponge aggregations, are documented. A qualitative zonation of the benthic assemblages based on the video surveys is presented along with dominant fish and crustacean catch data for comparable depth strata. Understanding how deep-sea habitat-building species like corals and sponges distribute at fine scales over the complex topography of individual seamounts is therefore critical information to design usage zonation schemes.

AB - Seamounts are among the most common topographic features in the world ocean. Depending on their particular morphological traits, they can also be referred to as banks, knolls, guyots, mounds, or hills. Condor seamount is a linear volcano located in the Azores (northeast Atlantic), 35 km in length, 2-6 km wide, and of varied seafloor morphology. A scientific observatory devoted to research on seamount ecosystem structure and functioning has been established on Condor, secured by a temporary fishing closure. Multiple projects have contributed to this observatory by targeting the seamount with snapshots and long-term deployments of moored, satellite-based, and shipborne technologies. This chapter presents a brief characterization of the seamount's seafloor environment by focusing on the multibeam bathymetry data and a series of video, oceanographic, and fishery surveys. A classification based upon the bathymetric position index is presented to characterize the landscape composition of the seamount. Habitats of conservation importance, such as coral gardens and deep-sea sponge aggregations, are documented. A qualitative zonation of the benthic assemblages based on the video surveys is presented along with dominant fish and crustacean catch data for comparable depth strata. Understanding how deep-sea habitat-building species like corals and sponges distribute at fine scales over the complex topography of individual seamounts is therefore critical information to design usage zonation schemes.

KW - Azores

KW - Benthic zonation

KW - Condor seamount

KW - Habitat mapping

KW - Landscape classification

KW - Scientific observatory

KW - Seamount geomorphology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871200782&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-12-385140-6.00059-1

DO - 10.1016/B978-0-12-385140-6.00059-1

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780123851406

SP - 807

EP - 818

BT - Seafloor Geomorphology as Benthic Habitat

PB - Elsevier

ER -