The Eugen Seibold coral mounds offshore western Morocco: oceanographic and bathymetric boundary conditions of a newly discovered cold-water coral province
The Eugen Seibold coral mounds offshore western Morocco: oceanographic and bathymetric boundary conditions of a newly discovered cold-water coral province
This study reports a new cold-water coral (CWC) province covering ~410 km2 off western Morocco (ca. 31°N) ~40 nautical miles north of the Agadir Canyon system between 678 and 863 m water depth, here named the Eugen Seibold coral mounds. Individual mounds are up to 12 m high with slope angles varying between 3° and 12°. Hydroacoustic data revealed mound axes lengths of 80 to 240 m. Slope angle, mound height, and density of mounds decrease with increasing water depth. The deepest mounds are composed of dead and fragmented Lophelia pertusa branches. Living CWCs, mainly L. pertusa, were sampled with box cores between 678 and 719 m water depth. Conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) measurements revealed living CWC colonies to occur within the deeper part of the North Atlantic Central Water (NACW; conservative temperature ? of 9.78–9.94 °C, absolute salinity SA of ca. 35.632 g/kg, and seawater density ?? of 27.31–27.33 kg/m3). Comparable CWC reefs off Mauritania (17°N–18°N) and on the Renard Ridge (35°N) in the Gulf of Cadiz, the latter consisting only of a dead CWC fabric, are also located in the deeper layer of the NACW slightly above the Mediterranean Outflow Water. The new CWC province, with its thin cover of living corals and much larger accumulations of dead thickets and fragmented coral rubble, was successfully discovered by CTD reconnaissance applying seawater density as a potential indicator of CWC occurrences, followed by hydroacoustic mapping. U-Th isotope systematics for macroscopically altered buried Lophelia material (25 cm sediment depth) yielded absolute ages dating back to the late Holocene at least.
257-269
Glogowski, Silke
576dda48-494e-4219-8ca3-98a4bbc35351
Dullo, Wolf-Christian
dba58b7c-4e4c-4df3-b6bb-2d108cdb53d3
Feldens, Peter
ed867c86-da0b-478e-a889-300ce39f6453
Liebetrau, Volker
a90ba6b9-ed7e-436a-a343-eb915c79302a
von Reumont, Jonas
4d18eb31-7f6e-499d-af60-b82dec6052ad
Hühnerbach, Veit
561ed5da-ec90-4a96-986a-f391c6c37d4c
Krastel, Sebastian
4d9bf243-610a-4875-8c03-cd975c9f8542
Wynn, Russell B.
72ccd765-9240-45f8-9951-4552b497475a
Flögel, Sascha
ce84bcba-1916-419b-a9c2-8f8d91800dcd
August 2015
Glogowski, Silke
576dda48-494e-4219-8ca3-98a4bbc35351
Dullo, Wolf-Christian
dba58b7c-4e4c-4df3-b6bb-2d108cdb53d3
Feldens, Peter
ed867c86-da0b-478e-a889-300ce39f6453
Liebetrau, Volker
a90ba6b9-ed7e-436a-a343-eb915c79302a
von Reumont, Jonas
4d18eb31-7f6e-499d-af60-b82dec6052ad
Hühnerbach, Veit
561ed5da-ec90-4a96-986a-f391c6c37d4c
Krastel, Sebastian
4d9bf243-610a-4875-8c03-cd975c9f8542
Wynn, Russell B.
72ccd765-9240-45f8-9951-4552b497475a
Flögel, Sascha
ce84bcba-1916-419b-a9c2-8f8d91800dcd
Glogowski, Silke, Dullo, Wolf-Christian, Feldens, Peter, Liebetrau, Volker, von Reumont, Jonas, Hühnerbach, Veit, Krastel, Sebastian, Wynn, Russell B. and Flögel, Sascha
(2015)
The Eugen Seibold coral mounds offshore western Morocco: oceanographic and bathymetric boundary conditions of a newly discovered cold-water coral province.
Geo-Marine Letters, 35 (4), .
(doi:10.1007/s00367-015-0405-7).
Abstract
This study reports a new cold-water coral (CWC) province covering ~410 km2 off western Morocco (ca. 31°N) ~40 nautical miles north of the Agadir Canyon system between 678 and 863 m water depth, here named the Eugen Seibold coral mounds. Individual mounds are up to 12 m high with slope angles varying between 3° and 12°. Hydroacoustic data revealed mound axes lengths of 80 to 240 m. Slope angle, mound height, and density of mounds decrease with increasing water depth. The deepest mounds are composed of dead and fragmented Lophelia pertusa branches. Living CWCs, mainly L. pertusa, were sampled with box cores between 678 and 719 m water depth. Conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) measurements revealed living CWC colonies to occur within the deeper part of the North Atlantic Central Water (NACW; conservative temperature ? of 9.78–9.94 °C, absolute salinity SA of ca. 35.632 g/kg, and seawater density ?? of 27.31–27.33 kg/m3). Comparable CWC reefs off Mauritania (17°N–18°N) and on the Renard Ridge (35°N) in the Gulf of Cadiz, the latter consisting only of a dead CWC fabric, are also located in the deeper layer of the NACW slightly above the Mediterranean Outflow Water. The new CWC province, with its thin cover of living corals and much larger accumulations of dead thickets and fragmented coral rubble, was successfully discovered by CTD reconnaissance applying seawater density as a potential indicator of CWC occurrences, followed by hydroacoustic mapping. U-Th isotope systematics for macroscopically altered buried Lophelia material (25 cm sediment depth) yielded absolute ages dating back to the late Holocene at least.
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Published date: August 2015
Organisations:
Marine Geoscience
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Local EPrints ID: 380106
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/380106
ISSN: 0276-0460
PURE UUID: 4b5bf816-9702-4485-9813-0782a94534d4
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Date deposited: 05 Aug 2015 13:22
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:54
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Author:
Silke Glogowski
Author:
Wolf-Christian Dullo
Author:
Peter Feldens
Author:
Volker Liebetrau
Author:
Jonas von Reumont
Author:
Veit Hühnerbach
Author:
Sebastian Krastel
Author:
Russell B. Wynn
Author:
Sascha Flögel
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