Darwin Mounds is a large field of undersea sand mounds situated off the north west coast of Scotland that were first discovered in May 1998. They provide a unique habitat for ancient deep water coral reefs and were found using remote sensing techniques during surveys funded by the oil industry and steered by the joint industry and United Kingdom government group the Atlantic Frontier Environment Network (AFEN). The mounds were named after the research vessel, itself named for the eminent naturalist and evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin.
Lophelia pertusa, the only species in the genus Lophelia, is a cold-water coral that grows in the deep waters throughout the North Atlantic ocean, as well as parts of the Caribbean Sea and Alboran Sea. Although L. pertusa reefs are home to a diverse community, the species is extremely slow growing and may be harmed by destructive fishing practices, or oil exploration and extraction.
The Anton Dohrn Seamount is a guyot in the Rockall Trough in the northeast Atlantic. It is 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) high and is topped with pinnacles, one of which reaches a depth of 530 metres (1,740 ft). Away from the flat top upon which the pinnacles rest, the slopes fall off steeply into the Rockall Trough and a moat in the sediment that surrounds the seamount.
The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where water temperatures may be as cold as 4 °C (39 °F). Deep-water corals belong to the Phylum Cnidaria and are most often stony corals, but also include black and thorny corals and soft corals including the Gorgonians. Like tropical corals, they provide habitat to other species, but deep-water corals do not require zooxanthellae to survive.
Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas (HERMIONE) is an international multidisciplinary project, started in April 2009, that studies deep-sea ecosystems. HERMIONE scientists study the distribution of hotspot ecosystems, how they function and how they interconnect, partially in the context of how these ecosystems are being affected by climate change and impacted by humans through overfishing, resource extraction, seabed installations and pollution. Major aims of the project are to understand how humans are affecting the deep-sea environment and to provide policy makers with accurate scientific information, enabling effective management strategies to protect deep sea ecosystems. The HERMIONE project is funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, and is the successor to the HERMES project, which concluded in March 2009.
Eumunida picta is a species of squat lobster found in the deep sea. The species is strongly associated with reefs of Lophelia pertusa, a deep-water coral, and with methane seeps. It is abundant in the western Atlantic Ocean, where it is found from Massachusetts to Colombia.
Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone is a system of two parallel fracture zones. It is the most prominent interruption of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the Azores and Iceland, with the longest faults in the North Atlantic, and is ecologically an important biosystems boundary. It can be traced over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi), from north-east of Newfoundland to south-west of Ireland. It took 90 million years for the fault to grow to this length.
Acropora aspera is a species of staghorn coral in the family Acroporidae. It is found on reef flats and in lagoons in very shallow water in the western Indo-Pacific Ocean.
Euphyllia cristata is commonly called grape coral. E. cristata is a kind of stony or hard coral in the family Euphylliidae; it also belongs to the genus Euphyllia in the order of Scleractinia. E. cristata has a wide range of distribution throughout the tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific area with a large presence in Indonesia. However, despite this large range of distribution, E. cristata has a slightly lower abundance compared to other species, making them a little more uncommon to find. They are typically found in shallow waters from 1–35 meters deep.
Acropora abrotanoides is a species of acroporid coral found in Indo-Pacific waters from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden east to the East China Sea, Japan, the central Pacific Ocean and Australia. It is found in shallow coral reefs that are exposed to the action of strong waves, at depths up to 15 m. It is vulnerable to coral bleaching, disease and crown-of-thorns starfish. It is resistant to predation as it has well-developed radial corallite lips.
Acropora hyacinthus is a species of Acropora described from a specimen collected in Fiji by James Dwight Dana in 1846. It is thought to have a range that includes the Indian Ocean, the Indo-Pacific waters, southeast Asia, Japan, the East China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean. It lives on shallow reefs on upper reef slopes, and is found from depths of 1–25 metres (3.3–82.0 ft). Crown-of-thorns starfish preferentially prey upon Acropora corals.
The Rost Reef is a deep-water coral reef off the coast of the Lofoten islands in Nordland county, Norway. The reef was discovered in 2002, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of the island of Røstlandet. It extends over a length of about 43 kilometers (27 mi), and has a width of up to 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi). The reef is generated by the coral Lophelia pertusa, and is the world's largest known Lophelia reef. It is also the world's largest known deep-water coral reef. The authorities have introduced regulations to protect the reef against trawling. The temperature of the waters near the bottom of the Rost coral reef is 2 °C. WWF recognises the Røst Reef as a global natural heritage that merits protection through Marine Protected Area (MPA) status.
Paragorgia arborea is a species of coral in the family Paragorgiidae, commonly known as the bubblegum coral because of its bulbous branch tips. It mainly grows in depths between 200 and 1,300 metres at temperatures between 3 and 8 °C. It is found widespread in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and Northern Pacific Ocean on seamounts and knolls, and was first described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. P. arborea is a foundation species, providing a habitat for other species in deep sea coral ecosystems.
Astrangia poculata, the northern star coral or northern cup coral, is a species of non-reefbuilding stony coral in the family Rhizangiidae. It is native to shallow water in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is also found on the western coast of Africa. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists this coral as being of "least concern". Astrangia poculata is an emerging model organism for corals because it harbors a facultative photosymbiosis, is a calcifying coral, and has a large geographic range. Research on this emerging model system is showcased annually by the Astrangia Research Working Group, collaboratively hosted by Roger Williams University, Boston University, and Southern Connecticut State University
Madracis auretenra, commonly known as the yellow finger coral or yellow pencil coral, is a colonial species of stony coral in the family Pocilloporidae. It is a fairly common species and is found in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean. At one time this species was not recognised, but it was split from Madracis mirabilis on the grounds of morphology and depth range.
Solenosmilia variabilis is a species of colonial coral in the family Caryophylliidae. It is a deep water, azooxanthellate coral with a semi-cosmopolitan distribution.
Ocean acidification threatens the Great Barrier Reef by reducing the viability and strength of coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef, considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world and a biodiversity hotspot, is located in Australia. Similar to other coral reefs, it is experiencing degradation due to ocean acidification. Ocean acidification results from a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is taken up by the ocean. This process can increase sea surface temperature, decrease aragonite, and lower the pH of the ocean. The more humanity consumes fossil fuels, the more the ocean absorbs released CO₂, furthering ocean acidification.
Eunice norvegica is an aquatic polychaete worm found in deep water on the seabed of the northern Atlantic Ocean as well as in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is a tubeworm and is often associated with deep water corals.
Leucia violacea is a species of polychaete worm, commonly known as a "scale worm", in the family Polynoidae. This species occurs in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.
Coral Patch Seamount is a seamount between Madeira and mainland Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is an elongated 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 70 kilometres (43 mi) wide mountain that rises to a depth of about 645 metres (2,116 ft), with nine volcanic cones on its summit. It has steeper southern slopes and a gentle northern slope. To its west lies Ampére Seamount, and together with several neighbouring seamounts it is one of the Horseshoe Seamounts.
