Seamounts are often typified by highly rich and diverse communities of predominantly large suspension feeding organisms such as gorgonian and antipatharian corals, which are often the focus of seamount research. By comparison few studies have focused on the more enigmatic but no less important infauna. The study of Senghor Seamount, which is located near to the Cape Verde Archipelago in the NE Atlantic, sought to address this knowledge gap and provides the very first quantitative and systematic analysis of a seamount macrofaunal community. In addition to the investigation of seamount macrobenthic community characteristics, the response of the community to a range of environmental variables was also determined. In particular, the potential effect of topography-flow interactions upon the macrobenthic community was investigated. In order to achieve these objectives a Multicorer (MUC) was used to quantitatively sample four transects on the seamount from summit (~100 m) to base (~3300 m) depths. There were a number of key findings. The hydrodynamic regime was found to be particularly complex and was a result of a number of interacting flow components. This was found to alter sediment characteristics and may have also resulted in an alteration of the downward particulate organic carbon flux. Consequently, inter-transect variation of community characteristics was observed at some depth ranges. Depth, and the environmental variables which covary with this gradient, was also found to dominantly structure the community on Senghor Seamount. However, any explanation for the variation of community characteristics on the seamount may be highly multivariate and further biological and environmental observations would be required to adequately resolve these patterns.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:665358 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Chivers, Adam John |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=227185 |
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