Exploring seamount ecosystems and biodiversity in the tropical Western Pacific Ocean

摘要

Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany,part of Springer Nature 2021 Seamounts are underwater mountains that rise at least 1000 m from the seafl oor.They are generally extinct underwater volcanoes,of which a few remain active and support both vent and seamount communities.Seamounts constitute distinct submarine landscape of the world’s ocean fl oor and over half the number of seamounts occur in the Pacifi c Ocean,among them the Magellan seamounts and Marcus-Wake seamounts are found to have the most developed cobalt-rich crusts.Seamounts have been known to support higher biomass and higher diversity of marine life than their surrounding deep-sea fl oors.The exploration of seabed minerals and the Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA)have continuously driven the seamount surveys.