HR: 15:00h
AN: OS52J-05    [PDF]
TI: Occurrences of Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata in the Gulf of Mexico
AU: * Schroeder, W W
EM: wschroeder@disl.org
AF: Marine Science Program, University of Alabama, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, 101 Bienville Boulevard, Dauphin Island, AL 36528 United States
AU: Brooke, S
EM: sbrooke@darkwing.uoregon.edu
AF: Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon, P.O. Box 5389, Charleston, OR 97420 United States
AU: Olson, J B
EM: jolson@bama.ua.edu
AF: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Box 870344, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 United States
AU: Phaneuf, B A
EM: brett@ocean.tamu.edu
AF: Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 United States
AU: McDonough, J J
EM: john.mcdonough@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA, Office of Ocean Exploration, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Springs, MD 20910 United States
AU: Etnoyer, P
EM: peter@mcbi.org
AF: Marine Conservation Biology Institute, 3777 Griffith View Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90039 United States
AB: Assemblages of Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata often support diverse and abundant communities of associated fauna, including some commercially-important species. These deep-water corals are fragile, slow-growing, and long-lived and are globally threatened, primarily from destructive fishing practices, but also from the exploration for and extraction of fossil fuels. A workshop on deep-sea corals held in Galway, Ireland, in January 2003, identified a fundamental need to accurately locate and map deepwater coral ecosystems before further ecological studies could be performed. While records of deep-water corals in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) date back to 1960, relatively little is known about their distribution, abundance, and ecology. The most well developed Lophelia habitat that has been identified occurs in the northeastern GoM on the southwestern flank of a low-relief, carbonate capped knoll (29:09.5N, 88:01.0W), where colonies are beginning to coalesce and form coral thickets. This site will be the foundation for future studies on habitat characterization, coral ecology, and the potential impact of anthropogenic activity. This presentation summarizes current information on the distribution and abundance of Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata in the GoM using published material, the National Museum of Natural History Taxonomic Database, and findings from a recent NOAA-OE cruise (RB-03-07) in the northern GoM. Reports of isolated or sparse coral coverage included in this summation will provide additional sites for further exploration.
DE: 4815 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting