Submarine canyons: hotspots of benthic biomass and productivity in the deep sea

Abstract. Marine biophysical models can be used to explore the displacement of individuals in and between submarine canyons. Mostly, the studies focus on the shallow hydrodynamics in or around a single canyon. In the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, knowledge of the deep-sea circulation and its spatial variability in three contiguous submarine canyons is limited. We used a Lagrangian framework with three-dimensional velocity fields from two versions of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) to study the deep-bottom connectivity between submarine canyons and to compare their influence on the particle transport. From a biological point of view, the particles represented eggs and larvae spawned by the deep-sea commercial shrimp Aristeus antennatus along the continental slope in summer. The passive particles mainly followed a southwest drift along the continental slope and drifted less than 200 km considering a pelagic larval duration (PLD) of 31 d. Two of the submarine canyons were connected by more than 27 % of particles if they were released at sea bottom depths above 600 m. The vertical advection of particles depended on the depth where particles were released and the circulation influenced by the morphology of each submarine canyon. Therefore, the impact of contiguous submarine canyons on particle transport should be studied on a case-by-case basis and not be generalized. Because the flows were strongly influenced by the bottom topography, the hydrodynamic model with finer bathymetric resolution data, a less smoothed bottom topography, and finer sigma-layer resolution near the bottom should give more accurate simulations of near-bottom passive drift. Those results propose that the physical model parameterization and discretization have to be considered for improving connectivity studies of deep-sea species.

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Submarine canyons and deep-sea fans

Earth-Science Reviews ◽

10.1016/0012-8252(77)90101-5 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 104-105

Author(s):

Paul R. Carlson

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Submarine Canyons

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Currents in Submarine Canyons and Their Relation to Deep-Sea Fans: ABSTRACT

AAPG Bulletin ◽

10.1306/c1ea34c4-16c9-11d7-8645000102c1865d ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 60 ◽

Author(s):

F. P. Shepard, N. F. Marshall

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Submarine Canyons

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2016 Deep-sea Lebanon Expedition: Exploring Submarine Canyons

10.31230/osf.io/34cb9 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Oceana ◽

Ricardo Aguilar ◽

Allison L. Perry ◽

Silvia García ◽

Helena Álvarez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Benthic Communities ◽

Critical Element ◽

Submarine Canyons ◽

Legal Obligations ◽

Geological Features ◽

The Face ◽

Community Types ◽

Barcelona Convention

The data obtained from the 2016 Deep-Sea Lebanon Expedition provided a wealth of information about deep-sea benthic communities along the Lebanese coast. This information provides a scientific foundation for the development of a plan to manage and protect vulnerable ecosystems, habitats, and species in Lebanese waters, in the face of current and future threats. This plan should be developed in line with the relevant Action Plans developed by UNEP-MAP RAC/SPA, with measures being developed to protect VMEs within GFCM fisheries, and with Lebanon’s legal obligations to protect species listed on Annex II of the SPA/BD Protocol of the Barcelona Convention. One critical element of this plan will be the declaration of new MPAs under the framework of a Lebanese network of MPAs. These areas may be designated to protect important geological features (e.g., submarine canyons), habitats, or community types, in order to ensure the coherence and connectivity of marine protection in Lebanese waters, and to help safeguard the natural corridor of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.

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Referee comments on "Influence of the summer deep-sea circulations on passive drifts among submarine canyons in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea

10.5194/os-2019-61-rc1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Xavier Durrieu de Madron

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Deep Sea ◽

Submarine Canyons ◽

Northwestern Mediterranean Sea ◽

Northwestern Mediterranean

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Two new tanaidaceans (Crustacea: Peracarida) from Portuguese submarine canyons (NE Atlantic, West Iberian Margin)

European Journal of Taxonomy ◽

10.5852/ejt.2021.740.1281 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 740 ◽

Author(s):

Álvaro García-Herrero ◽

Patricia Esquete ◽

Marina R. Cunha

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Deep Sea ◽

New Genus ◽

The Other ◽

Ne Atlantic ◽

Submarine Canyons ◽

The Family ◽

Two New Species ◽

Water Depths ◽

Iberian Margin

The Tanaidacea are ubiquitous and amongst the most abundant taxa in the deep sea. However, their diversity in submarine canyons remains largely unknown. Here, two new species and a new genus of Paratanaoidea are described. Paranarthrura cousteaui sp. nov. is distinguished by the combination of the following characters: post-cheliped sclerites not fused, presence of one seta in the maxilliped endite, one long midventral seta in cheliped, one penicillate seta in the basis of pereopods 4–6, uropod endopod bi-articulated and uropod exopod shorter than endopod article 1. This species was found at the upper reaches of three Portuguese canyons, Cascais, Setúbal and Nazaré Canyons, and the adjacent open slope, between 897 and 1001 m water depths. Tirana vallis gen. et sp. nov. presents a combination of the characters that define the other two genera of Paranarthrurellidae, Paranarthrurella and Armatognathia, but also unique characters within the family: the antenna, cheliped and uropod are more elongate than the rest of the species; the pereopods 4–6 carpus spines reach at least half of the length of the propodus and the propodus of pereopods 4–6 have ramified subdistal spines. This species was found at the middle reaches of Setúbal Canyon (3214–3219 m water depth).

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