Concept information
Preferred term
COMARGE
Definition
- An integrated effort to document and explain biodiversity patterns on gradient-dominated continental margins, including the potential interactions among their variety of habitats and ecosystems. The continental margins are the ribbons of seafloor beginning at the edge of the continental slope and extending rapidly to abyssal plain depths. During the past few decades, our understanding of deep continental margin habitats has changed more than for any other large area of Earth. While it has been known for a long time that the ocean margins are a mixture of rugged mountainous scenery and sediment- covered slopes, it is only in recent times, with higher-resolution bathymetry and increased bottom sampling, that areas once envisioned as monotonous landscapes are now acknowledged to have a high degree of complexity and diversity. Continental margins furthermore support some of the ocean's strongest gradients (e.g. depth, pressure, organic matter flux, oxygen). Collectively, these processes create unique ecosystems, which some are only now being discovered and which we are just beginning to understand. As exploitation of living and mineral resources is advancing faster than ecological knowledge on continental slopes, a comprehensive analysis of species distribution, biodiversity patterns and processes on continental margins is needed. An objective of COMARGE is to turn basic advances in ecology into sound environmental advice. Fundamental patterns of species distribution first observed and explained in the context of monotonous slopes will be re-evaluated in light of the newly recognized heterogeneity of continental margins. Multi-scale habitat definition and mapping will provide basic georeferenced information to develop environmental sensitivity maps. Comprehensive cross-margin syntheses at the species level will enlighten benthic species distributions in the deep-sea realm and refine estimates of how many species co-exist on continental margins. The scale of species distribution is a matter of debate among deep-sea ecologists and a basic requirement in conservation policies. Comprehensive cross-margin syntheses at the community level will allow local to global testing of controls on species diversity, will generate data inputs for food web models and will provide insights in theoretical ecology. A better understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, ecosystem functioning and their inter-relationships is acutely needed in order to forecast environmental risks on continental margins. Summary provided by http://www.ifremer.fr/comarge/en/index.html (en)
Broader concept
- A - C (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/5acaedee-52a3-4ece-9812-7fdc3426e9f2
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