HABISS · Eco-hydrodynamics of cold water coral habitats across integrated spatial scales

Eco-hydrodynamics of cold water coral habitats across integrated spatial scales

The growth of deep-sea exploration in the last decades has unveiled the existence of cold water coral (CWC) reefs in deep, nutrient-rich waters off the coasts of almost 50 countries to date. CWC reefs have a strong societal relevance, as they maintain high biodiversity in the ocean, with a biological richness comparable to that of shallow-water tropical reefs. Sadly, these environments are recognized by governments and policy makers as vulnerable marine ecosystems severely endangered by human activity. The EU-funded HABISS project wanted to decipher the still not clear interactions between calcifying corals and the surrounding environment on CWC reefs, to better understand how to monitor and protect these unique ecosystems. Inputs from marine geology, oceanography and benthic ecology have been integrated across different spatial scales through the usage of standard and state-of-the-art equipment, like marine robotics and cabled/moored seafloor observatories. HABISS focused on three different key study area: 1) the unique pristine Cabliers CWC reefs, in the Alboran Sea, SW Mediterranean; 2) the CWC fields of the walls of Blanes submarine canyon, in the NW Mediterranean, subject to the impact of bottom trawling; 3) the CWC fields of the walls of Barkley submarine canyon, in the NE Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone. Whereas the study of a thriving near-pristine reef such Cabliers has a strong societal implication for marine conservation activities, HABISS also focused on evaluate if and how CWC ecosystems can cope and maintain their state of health under human-induced disturbance (trawling activities in Blanes Canyon) and natural disturbance (hypoxic waters in Barkley Canyon). The main findings of HABISS can be resumed in the following points: 1) Increase the knowledge of ecologic characters and physical environment of probably the most extended and well preserved CWC reefs in the Mediterranean, the Cabliers reefs. 2) Advances in environmental advocacy towards the protection of Cabliers reefs through the institution of a Fisheries Restricted Area, managed by the UN General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. 3) Define the crucial role of seafloor complexity vs hydrodynamics in forcing food paths to CWC reefs across interactive spatial scales. 4) Advances in understanding the role of physical processes in increasing CWC resilience to human-induced and natural extreme environments, beyond the known thresholds of their living conditions.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз