Marine Life on Seamounts – The CenSeam Collection

The Census of Marine Life on Seamounts ("CenSeam") was a 5 year research programme carried out under the umbrella of the Census of Marine Life. Its principal goal was to create an international network of scientists to address key research questions about seamounts. Two overarching research themes ultimately evolved:

(1) What factors drive community composition and diversity on seamounts, and how do they differ from other habitat types?

(2) What are the impacts of human activities on seamount community structure and function?

A number of seamount reviews and research compilations were published in 2010 prior to the formal completion of CenSeam, but a lot of research initiated earlier in the programme was still in progress. This collection brings together the latest seamount papers, enabling a wide variety of scientific results to be linked. The collection begins with an Overview paper describing the CenSeam programme, focusing in particular on what worked and what did not work in setting up and running this ambitious international programme. The research papers in the Collection cover a broad range of subjects, demonstrating the diversity of seamount science being undertaken in recent years. They include descriptions of faunal communities from several of the world’s oceans, spanning both pelagic and benthic habitats, invertebrates and fishes, and evaluations of the functional role of seamounts in the wider deep-sea environment. The collection concludes with a Review article that examines some of the main findings of CenSeam and other recent seamount research, and their implications for setting future science priorities alongside developing the best ways to both manage and conserve seamount environments and resources.

Collection citation: PLoS ONE: Marine Life on Seamounts - The CenSeam Collection (2012)

PLoS Collections: www.ploscollections.org/CenSeam

Image Credit: National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, New Zealand

 

Overview Top

 

Review Top

 

Research Articles Top