Reefs of the Deep: The Biology and Geology of Cold-Water Coral Ecosystems

Author:

Roberts J. Murray123,Wheeler Andrew J.123,Freiwald André123

Affiliation:

1. Scottish Association for Marine Science, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA, UK.

2. Department of Geology and Environmental Research Institute, Donovan's Road, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.

3. Institute of Paleontology, Erlangen University, Loewenichstrasse 28, D-91054, Erlangen, Germany.

Abstract

Coral reefs are generally associated with shallow tropical seas; however, recent deep-ocean exploration using advanced acoustics and submersibles has revealed unexpectedly widespread and diverse coral ecosystems in deep waters on continental shelves, slopes, seamounts, and ridge systems around the world. Advances reviewed here include the use of corals as paleoclimatic archives and their biogeological functioning, biodiversity, and biogeography. Threats to these fragile, long-lived, and rich ecosystems are mounting: The impacts of deep-water trawling are already widespread, and effects of ocean acidification are potentially devastating.

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Reference48 articles.

1. Cold-Water Coral Reefs 2004

2. J. M. Roberts, C. J. Brown, D. Long, C. R. Bates, Coral Reefs24, 654 (2005).

3. The terms “cold water ” “deep water ” or “deep sea” have all been used to discriminate these corals from shallow warm-water tropical species. Depth-based definitions are inadequate because cold-water corals have wide depth distributions e.g. L. pertusa occurs at depths of 40 m in fjords to over 3000 m in the open ocean. Confusion exists over whether cold-water corals form reefs. Biogenic cold-water coral reefs are frameworks produced by scleractinian corals that alter sediment deposition provide structural habitat and are subject to dynamic processes of growth and (bio)erosion. Cold-water coral carbonate mounds are larger structures formed by successive periods of coral reef development sedimentation and (bio)erosion. They may or may not support contemporary reefs and are referred to as active or retired mounds respectively ( 11 ).

4. D. G. Masson et al., Mar. Geol.194, 159 (2003).

5. A. J. Wheeler, B. J. Bett, D. S. M. Billett, D. G. Masson, D. Mayor, in Benthic Habitats and the Effects of Fishing, P. W. Barnes, J. P. Thomas, Eds. (American Fisheries Society, Maryland, 2005), pp. 807–817.

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