Description
Springer Cold-Water Corals And Ecosystems 2005 Edition by Andre Freiwald J. Murray Roberts
Following the exciting exploration of hot vent and cold seep ecosystems the rediscovery of cold-water coral ecosystems with high-technology instrumentation is currently another hot topic in multidisciplinary marine research. Conventionally coral reefs are regarded as restricted to warm and well-illuminated tropical seas not associated with cold and dark waters of higher latitudes. However ongoing scientific missions have shed light on the global significance of this overlooked ecosystem. Cold-water coral ecosystems are involved in the formation of large seabed structures such as reefs and giant carbonate mounds and they represent unexploited paleo-environmental archives of earth history. Like their tropical cousins cold-water coral ecosystems harbour rich species diversity. Despite the great water depths commercial interests overlap more and more with the coral occurrences. Human activities already impinge directly on cold-water coral reefs causing severe damage to this vulnerable ecosystem.In this volume the current key institutions involved in cold-water coral research have contributed 62 state-of-the-art articles from geology and oceanography to biology and conservation. Table of contents : From the contents: The Palaeoenvironmental Context.- Distribution.- Mapping.- Exogenic and Endogenic Controls.- Coral biology.- Diversity.- Environmental Archives.- Conservation.- Index.