Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (commonly CenSeam) is a global scientific initiative, launched in 2005, that is designed to expand the knowledge base of marine life at

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise a ...

s. Seamounts are underwater mountains, not necessarily volcanic in origin, which often form subsurface archipelagoes and are found throughout the world's ocean basins, with almost half in the Pacific. There are estimated to be as many as 100,000 seamounts at least one kilometer in height, and more if lower rises are included. However, they have not been explored very much—in fact, only about half of one percent have been sampled—and almost every expedition to a seamount discovers new species and new information. There is evidence that seamounts can host concentrations of biologic diversity, each with its own unique local ecosystem; they seem to affect

oceanic currents An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, ...

, resulting among other things in local concentration of

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

which in turn attracts species that graze on it, and indeed are probably a significant overall factor in biogeography of the oceans. They also may serve as way stations in the migration of whales and other pelagic species. Despite being poorly studied, they are heavily targeted by

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must oft ...

, including

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

. In addition they are of interest to potential

seabed mining Seabed mining, also known as Seafloor mining is the recovery of minerals from the seabed by techniques of underwater mining. The concept includes mining at shallow depths on the continental shelf and deep-sea mining at greater depths associated w ...

. The overall goal of CenSeam is "to determine the role of seamounts in the biogeography, biodiversity, productivity, and evolution of marine organisms, and to evaluate the effects of human exploitation on seamounts." To this effect, the group organizes and contributes to various research efforts about seamount biodiversity. Specifically, the project aims to act as a standardized scaffold for future studies and samplings, citing inefficiency and incompatibility between individual research efforts in the past. To give a scale of their mission, there are an estimated 100,000 seamounts in the ocean, but only 350 of them have been sampled, and only about 100 sampled thoroughly. Although sampling all 100,000 seamounts is infeasible, major seamounts can be sampled in such a way. CenSeam is a subdivision of the

Census of Marine Life The Census of Marine Life was a 10-year, US $650 million scientific initiative, involving a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations, engaged to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. T ...

program. Organisationally, the components of CenSeam consist of a secretariat (Malcolm Clark, Mireille Consalvey, Ashley Rowden and Karen Stocks) which is hosted by the

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research or NIWA ( mi, Taihoro Nukurangi), is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992, NIWA conducts research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental scienc ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...

, New Zealand; an international steering committee; a

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. A ...

advisory panel; and two working groups, Data Analysis and Standardisation. In 2008 CenSeam began collaborating with the

International Seabed Authority The International Seabed Authority (ISA) (french: Autorité internationale des fonds marins) is a Kingston, Jamaica-based intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of ...

to study effects of seabed mining on seamount ecosystems.

External links

SenSeam website

Seamounts Online
SenSeam's ecological sampling database.
Encyclopedia of Earth entry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Global Census Of Marine Life On Seamounts Marine biology Biological censuses

See also

External links

References