How Large is a Seamount Biome?

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 thous...

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Main Authors: Peter J. Etnoyer, John Wood, Thomas C. Shirley
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Oceanography Society 2010-03-01
Series:Oceanography
Subjects:
Online Access:http://tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_1/23-1_etnoyer2.pdf
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spelling doaj-b4450e0567104f95903b4a067e6f50c12020-11-25T02:30:50ZengThe Oceanography SocietyOceanography1042-82752010-03-01231206209How Large is a Seamount Biome?Peter J. EtnoyerJohn WoodThomas C. ShirleyEstimates 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. http://tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_1/23-1_etnoyer2.pdfseamountsmarine biomeseamount area
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Peter J. Etnoyer
John Wood
Thomas C. Shirley
spellingShingle Peter J. Etnoyer
John Wood
Thomas C. Shirley
How Large is a Seamount Biome?
Oceanography
seamounts
marine biome
seamount area
author_facet Peter J. Etnoyer
John Wood
Thomas C. Shirley
author_sort Peter J. Etnoyer
title How Large is a Seamount Biome?
title_short How Large is a Seamount Biome?
title_full How Large is a Seamount Biome?
title_fullStr How Large is a Seamount Biome?
title_full_unstemmed How Large is a Seamount Biome?
title_sort how large is a seamount biome?
publisher The Oceanography Society
series Oceanography
issn 1042-8275
publishDate 2010-03-01
description 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.
topic seamounts
marine biome
seamount area
url http://tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_1/23-1_etnoyer2.pdf
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