European
Data Catalogues
Dataset

CKAN

Sub menu


Continental Margin

Dataset Profile

Odm ID
42bb0ea4-1958-42db-babb-ee0f53467238
Title
Continental Margin
Notes
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, some 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 was needed.
Author
Author Email
Catalogue Url
Dataset Url
Metadata Updated
2015-07-07 17:29:55
Tags
Date Released
2010-12-31T00:00:00
Date Updated
2010-12-31T00:00:00
Update Frequency
Organisation
IFREMER
Country
State
Platform
ckan
Language
en
Version
(not set)