Atlas of the Mediterranean seamounts and seamount-like structures
Book by Marzia Rovere (CNR-Ismar) and Maurizio Wurtz
Friday 05 February 2016
Authors: Marzia Rovere and Maurizio Wurtz
Atlas of the Mediterranean seamounts and seamount-like structures
IUCN, Unione Mondiale per la Conservazione della Natura
Files available for download.
Relatively recent knowledge has been acquired by the latest advances in technology which have led to demonstrate the ecological significance of unknown ecosystems. Thanks to that new technology, in the Mediterranean over 242 seamounts, banks rises, highs, hills, spurs and other kind of sea floor elevations have been identified and described through the project “Atlas of the Mediterranean Seamounts and Seamount-like Structures” coordinated by Maurizio Würtz and Marzia Rovere with the collaboration of more than 20 experts and with the support of the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation.
The Atlas’s aim is to produce a useful tool for future research planning as well as a reference for conservation and governance actions in deep sea waters of the Mediterranean. The publication gathers basic information with morphological and geological descriptions, and data on biodiversity, habitats, specially benthic and pelagic communities around the seamounts. The information presented is divided among 5 regions: Alboran sea, Western Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian sea, Sardinia Channel, Strait of Sicily, Ionian sea, Adriatic sea, and Eastern Mediterranean. The term of “Seamount” identified elevations rising at least 100 m from the surrounding seafloor, consequently it encompasses a wide set of underwater features.
