Science Priorities for Seamounts: Research Links to Conservation and Management

Seamounts shape the topography of all ocean basins and can be hotspots of biological activity in the deep sea. The Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) was a field program that examined seamounts as part of the global Census of Marine Life (CoML) initiative from 2005 to 2010. CenSeam progressed seamount science by collating historical data, collecting new data, undertaking regional and global analyses of seamount biodiversity, mapping species and habitat distributions, challenging established paradigms of seamount ecology, developing new hypotheses, and documenting the impacts of human activities on seamounts. However, because of the large number of seamounts globally, much about the structure, function and connectivity of seamount ecosystems remains unexplored and unknown. Continual, and potentially increasing, threats to seamount resources from fishing and seabed mining are creating a pressing demand for research to inform conservation and management strategies. To meet this need, intensive science effort in the following areas will be needed: 1) Improved physical and biological data; of particular importance is information on seamount location, physical characteristics (e.g. habitat heterogeneity and complexity), more complete and intensive biodiversity inventories, and increased understanding of seamount connectivity and faunal dispersal; 2) New human impact data; these shall encompass better studies on the effects of human activities on seamount ecosystems, as well as monitoring long-term changes in seamount assemblages following impacts (e.g. recovery); 3) Global data repositories; there is a pressing need for more comprehensive fisheries catch and effort data, especially on the high seas, and compilation or maintenance of geological and biodiversity databases that underpin regional and global analyses; 4) Application of support tools in a data-poor environment; conservation and management will have to increasingly rely on predictive modelling techniques, critical evaluation of environmental surrogates as faunal “proxies”, and ecological risk assessment

Evaluation of the environmental parameters controlling the vulnerability of the coastal marine regions

The evaluation of environmental vulnerability is one of the key factors in need of consideration during the improvement of decision-making systems and the development of response strategies to radionuclide release into marine regions. Environmental marine modelling has to simultaneously describe the dispersion of radionuclides in water and sediment phases; bioaccumulation of radionuclides in biota and finally, dose assessments. It is obvious that such an approach comes up against the problem of complexity and the need for a large set of parameters. The sensitivity analysis of the model parameters can contribute to a better understanding of experimental data as well as define parameters which can play a key role in the evaluation of environmental vulnerability. In the present paper sensitivity analysis has been carried out using the compartment modelling approach for assessment of the environmental vulnerability as dose to man. The sensitivity analysis shows that the influence of model parameters can vary greatly depending on the concrete radionuclude and on the marine region. It is also shown that the results of the sensitivity parameter analysis can contribute to the process of defining which parameters can play an important role in the dose assessment and the evaluation of environmental vulnerability

Radioecological sensitivity of the shallow marine environment

An evaluation of the radioecological sensitivity of the coastal marine regions can be used to improve risk management and decision-making systems, especially the development of response strategies, by defining the most sensitive areas. Environmental sensitivity analysis has been carried out for six marine coastal regions for a single deposition of 1000 Bq/m2 for radionuclides 137Cs, 90Sr, 131I and 239Pu. The analysis has been based on dose calculations during the 1st year, 2nd year and 10th year after releases of radionuclides for adults and children of 1 and 10 years of age. The calculations have been carried out by the compartment model, which includes the processes of dispersion of radioactivity in water - sediment environment and accumulation of radionuclides by marine organisms. Doses to man are calculated on the basis of seafood consumption. Results show that for all regions the radiation doses for adults are significantly higher than doses calculated for children. Further, the doses calculated for the first year dominate the doses of the second and tenth year following the releases of radionuclides. Calculations also indicate that doses vary greatly for different radionuclides; and the dose levels for the same radionuclide vary greatly in different marine environments