Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems

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.

• Cold-water coral reef
• Habitat
• Ocean
• Oceanography
• biology
• chemistry
• coral reef
• coral reefs
• ecosystem
• environment
• geology
• marine
• paleoenvironmental
• reefs
• species diversity

From the reviews of the first edition:

"This thick volume results from the Second International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals, held in Erlangen in September, 2003, and is a fine summary of our current state of knowledge. … presents a rich archive of data for these fascinating and important ecosystems. The collation of this volume was a substantial undertaking … is well edited, and produced to high standards with the inclusion of many colour photos … . the volume should certainly be placed on every reef enthusiast’s bookshelf." (Rachael Wood, Geological Magazine, Vol. 143, 2006)

• Institute of Paleontology, Erlangen University, Erlangen, Germany

  André Freiwald

• Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll, UK

  J. Murray Roberts

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