Seafloor Characteristics in the Azores Region (North Atlantic)

摘要

Current European legislation such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; 2008/56/EC) has highlighted the need for accurate maps on the geomorphology of Europe’s maritime territory.Such information is notably essential for the production of habitat maps and cumulative impact assessments of human activities (Halpern et al., 2008) necessary for marine spatial planning initiatives (Gilliland and La?oley, 2008) and assessments of the representativity/su?ciency of marine protected areas networks like Natura 2000.Broadscale satellite bathymetry presently allows the identi?cation of all prominent geomorphic structures present on the sea?oor with a high grade of accuracy.However, these datasets and maps still need to be more widely disseminated in the scienti?c community.