| > Oceanography > Issues > Archive > Volume 23, Number 1 |
2010, Oceanography 23(1):206–209, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2010.96
BOX 12 | How Large Is the Seamount Biome?
Authors | First Paragraph | Full Article | Citation
Authors
Peter J. Etnoyer | Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA, and his current address is National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Charleston, SC, USA
John Wood | Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi TX, USA
Thomas C. Shirley | Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
First Paragraph
Estimates of the number of seamounts occurring worldwide are high and increasing, largely because of improved remote-sensing capabilities. Numbers have grown from a baseline of 15,000 (Wessel, 2001; Marova 2002) to more than 45,000 seamounts worldwide. High-end estimates are in the hundreds of thousands (Hillier and Watts, 2007; Kitchingman et al., 2007; Wessel, 2007; Wessel et al., 2010). So, it is logical to ask: What is the total area of the seamount biome? If the world's seamount features were assembled into a continuous region, how large would this place be? How would the area of the seamount biome compare to continents, and to other marine biomes? These data would be informative, because terrestrial biomes are fairly well resolved and enumerated (Udvardy, 1975; Woodward, 2003), but marine biomes are less well mapped and understood.
Full Article
Citation
Etnoyer, P.J., J. Wood, and T.C. Shirley. 2010. Box 12: How large is the seamount biome? Oceanography 23(1):206–209, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2010.96.