THE BIOLOGY OF SEAMOUNTS

The presence of numerous seamounts in the world's oceans, especially in the Pacific, has only become known to the scientific community in the last 50 years. This chapter deals with the current knowledge on the effects of seamounts on pelagic ecosystems, factors that influence the structure of seamount communities, the establishment, maintenance and genetic isolation of populations on seamounts and on the effects of commercial exploitation on seamounts organisms. The reviews, addresses in the chapter, cover aspects of the biology of seamounts especially those in Keating et al., but this literature has had limited circulation amongst biologists. Moreover, this chapter also throws attention on seamounts especially in respect to the current topography interactions, the biology of the soft benthos on seamounts and on the biology of commercially valuable species of fish associated with seamounts. Finally, the combination of this new data with that obtained in previous studies provides a complete picture of the current knowledge of the biology of seamounts, which can be of use to marine biologists, fisheries biologists and oceanographers. © 1994 Academic Press Limited