Cold-Water Corals. Distribution of fauna and ... - Jacobs University

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1.0 Introduction Cold-Water Coral (CWC) ecosystems are amongst the most biologically diverse and commercially significant habitats on the European continental margin (Roberts et al, 2009). They are formed predominantly by the accumulation over time of biogenic calcium carbonate skeletal material secreted by azooxanthellate coral animals with growth. This skeletal material forms a complex, three-dimensional structure which provides habitat niches for a host of other organisms. Over the last two decades improvements in remote sensing technology and international collaborative research projects such as HERMES, HERMIONE and CORAMM have allowed these often remote ecosystems to be studied quantitatively. The papers and findings presented in this thesis were produced during my PhD studies as a graduate student within the HERMES and CORAMM research projects. In this chapter I will present the aims of my PhD research within the framework of these two projects and introduce to the interested reader some of the fauna, history and distribution of CWC reefs on the Norwegian margin. 1.1 PhD study within the HERMES and CORAMM projects My PhD studies were conducted as a graduate student within the recently completed HERMES and CORAMM research projects, and as such were partially directed by the goals of these projects. 1.1.1 The HERMES project The Hotspot Ecosystems Research on the Margins of European Seas (HERMES) was a particularly successful project funded by the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme. The project ran from April 2005 to March 2009 and was aimed at combining together a number of partner organisations in (primarily biological) research at a selection of the more biodiverse regions of the European seafloor. By project close, 50 partner organizations from 17 nations had taken part in the research. The project was structured around 10 interrelated workpackages, five of which dealt with study of varying ecosystems, with a further five covering cross-cutting issues such as data management and education and outreach (this particular workpackage was co-ordinated by Jacobs University, Bremen). Workpackage 2 dealt with cold-water corals and carbonate mound systems. The results from 2
investigations into reef formation, growth histories, distribution and faunal composition produced by this workpackage have been published widely, with new HERMES papers still coming to press periodically. 1.1.2 The CORAMM project The Coral Risk Assessment, Monitoring and Modelling (CORAMM) project was a ~3 year initiative co-ordinated by Jacobs University, Bremen and funded by Statoil, Norway. The project brought together 7 principal partners in trying to develop a novel approach to investigating seafloor cold-water coral ecosystems. CORAMM partners were:- Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany Alfred Wegener Institute for Marine and Polar Research (AWI), Germany Gothenburg University, Sweden The Max Plank Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPI) The Netherlands Institute for Ecology (NIOO) Bielefeld University, Germany Statoil, Norway Additional project support: Partners from the International Consortium on Continental Margins (IRCCM) and HERMES were involved in some of the research and infrastructure support. Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway, gave permission for sampling of Lophelia pertusa from the protected Tisler Reef, Norway for use in experimental studies. From the outset the intention of the CORAMM project was to produce a cohesive results dataset which would both increase general understanding of these dynamic ecosystems, and also feed as directly into future ecosystem management strategies. CORAMM attempted to fill a number of the many gaps in knowledge about how best to assess and monitor reef health, and the degree to which key ecosystem species are impacted by exposure to anthropogenically produced particulate material. A primary aim of CORAMM was to investigate whether or not exposure to 'drill cuttings', (waste products from drilling operations, section 1.6.2) would have a negative impact on coral health. CORAMM consisted of four workpackages:- 3
Page 1: Cold-Water Corals. Distribution of
Page 4 and 5: Frontispiece: Brisingid sea stars (
Page 6 and 7: List of publications Papers present
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Page 12 and 13: Chapter 1 - Introduction Figures Fi
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Figure 5. Species density plot prod
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Figure 7. Average density of each s
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100 75 50 25 0 Rost Traena Sotbakke
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100 75 50 25 0 Rost Sotbakken Traen
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Geodia baretti Overall most abundan
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feeding strategies for L. pertusa i
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some morphological or flow regime f
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De Mol B, Van Rensbergen P, Pillen
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Rogers AD (1999) The biology of Lop
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ABSTRACT Lophelia pertusa is the mo
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column, as is observed in other scl
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delivered to each aquarium. The Sve
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Following the acclimatisation perio
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3.2 Maximum capture rate Net maximu
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Fig. 2. Artemia salina concentratio
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Fig. 4. Artemia salina concentratio
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densities net uptake is reduced by
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Costello, M., McCrea, M., Freiwald,
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Lepland, A., Mortensen, P., 2008. B
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Wisshak, M., Freiwald, A., Lundälv
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Abstract The Cold-Water Coral (CWC)
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structures has led to widespread de
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temperature controlled laboratory (
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Two experimental runs were carried
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epeated measures designs. All analy
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103
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Figure 3. Percentages of polyp acti
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was similar to that observed in the
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Acknowledgements This work was fund
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Fosså JH, Lindberg B, Christensen
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113
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Summary Within this thesis we prese
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Future plans Although the CORAMM pr
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Appendix 1 Appendix Small scale flo
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Appendix 2 Size variation within th
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% Total 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 Particle
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% Total 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 Particle
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Cold-Water Corals. Distribution of fauna and ... - Jacobs University

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