Seafloor Geomorphology as Benthic Habitat: GeoHab Atlas of Seafloor Geomorphic Features and Benthic Habitats, Second Edition, provides an updated synthesis of seabed geomorphology and benthic habitats. This new edition includes new case studies from all geographic areas and habitats that were not included in the previous edition, including the Arctic, Asia, Africa and South America. Using multibeam sonar, the benthic ecology of submarine features, such as fjords, sand banks, coral reefs, seamounts, canyons, mud volcanoes and spreading ridges is revealed in unprecedented detail. This timely release offers new understanding for researchers in Marine Biodiversity, environmental managers, ecologists, and more. - Explores the relationships between seabed geomorphology, oceanography and biology - Provides global case studies which directly focus on habitats, including both biological and physical data - Describes ways to detect change in the marine environment (change in the condition of benthic habitats), a critical aspect for judging the performance of policies and legislation

Geomorphometry is the science of quantitative terrain characterization and analysis, and has traditionally focused on the investigation of terrestrial and planetary landscapes. However, applications of marine geomorphometry have now moved beyond the simple adoption of techniques developed for terrestrial studies, driven by the rise in the acquisition of high-resolution seafloor data and by the availability of user-friendly spatial analytical tools. Considering that the seafloor represents 71% of the surface of our planet, this is an important step towards understanding the Earth in its entirety. This volume is the first one dedicated to marine applications of geomorphometry. It showcases studies addressing the five steps of geomorphometry: sampling a surface (e.g., the seafloor), generating a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from samples, preprocessing the DTM for subsequent analyses (e.g., correcting for errors and artifacts), deriving terrain attributes and/or extracting terrain features from the DTM, and using and explaining those terrain attributes and features in a given context. Throughout these studies, authors address a range of challenges and issues associated with applying geomorphometric techniques to the complex marine environment, including issues related to spatial scale, data quality, and linking seafloor topography with physical, geological, biological, and ecological processes. As marine geomorphometry becomes increasingly recognized as a sub-discipline of geomorphometry, this volume brings together a collection of research articles that reflect the types of studies that are helping to chart the course for the future of marine geomorphometry.

This university-level reference work covers a range of remote sensing techniques that are useful for mapping and visualizing benthic environments on continental shelves. Chapters focus on overviews of the history and future of seafloor mapping techniques, cartographical visualisation and communication of seafloor mapping, and practical applications of new technologies. Seabed mapping is referenced by high-resolution seismic methods, sidescan sonar, multibeam bathymetry, satellite imagery, LiDAR, acoustic backscatter techniques, and soundscape ecology monitoring, use of autonomous underwater vehicles, among other methods. The wide breadth of subjects in this volume provides diversified coverage of seafloor imaging. This collection of modern seafloor mapping techniques summarizes the state of the art methods for mapping continental shelves.

This book on the current state of knowledge of submarine geomorphology aims to achieve the goals of the Submarine Geomorphology working group, set up in 2013, by establishing submarine geomorphology as a field of research, disseminating its concepts and techniques among earth scientists and professionals, and encouraging students to develop their skills and knowledge in this field. Editors have invited 30 experts from around the world to contribute chapters to this book, which is divided into 4 sections – (i) Introduction & history, (ii) Data & methods, (ii) Submarine landforms & processes and (iv) Conclusions & future directions. Each chapter provides a review of a topic, establishes the state-of-the-art, identifies the key research questions that need to be addressed, and delineates a strategy on how to achieve this. Submarine geomorphology is a priority for many research institutions, government authorities and industries globally. The book is useful for undergraduate and graduate students, and professionals with limited training in this field.

This textbook deals with the most important items in Marine Geology, including some pioneer work. The list of topics has grown greatly in the last few decades beyond the items identified by Eugen Seibold as central and now includes prominently such things as methane and climate change; that is, the carbon cycle and the Earth system as a whole. Relevant geophysical, geochemical, sedimentological and paleontological methods are shortly described. They should allow the reader to comment on new results about plate tectonics, marine sedimentation from the coasts to the deep sea, climatological aspects, paleoceanology and the use of the sea floor. The text tries to transmit to the reader excitement of marine geological research both aboard and in modern laboratories. Basic mineralogical, geochemical, biological and other relevant data and a detailed list of books and symposia are given in an Appendix. This Introduction builds on the third edition of “The Sea Floor” by E. Seibold and W.H. Berger. While much of the original text was written by Seibold, a considerable portion of the material presented in this edition is new, taking into account the recent great shift in marine geological research, some of it with great relevance to human concerns arising in a rapidly changing world.

Marine sediments provide the largest habitat on planet earth, yet knowledge of the structure and function of their flora and fauna continues to be poorly described in current textbooks. This concise, readable introduction to benthic ecology builds upon the strengths of the previous edition but has been thoroughly revised throughout to incorporate the new technologies and methods that have allowed a rapid and ongoing development of the field. It explores the relationship between community structure and function, and the selection of global examples ensures an international appeal and relevance. The economic value of marine sediments increases daily, reflected in the text with a new emphasis on pollution, climate change, conservation, and management.

Advances in seafloor mapping have allowed for the production of fine-scale seafloor landscape (i.e., benthoscape) maps that are analogous to terrestrial land cover maps, providing the foundation for assessing the spatial configuration of seafloor habitat patches. While many species rely on large, well-connected patches for foraging and migration, variability in patch size and configuration can be difficult to incorporate into Marine Protected Area (MPA) design. In this thesis, I developed a novel method that considers the spatial arrangement of benthic habitat patches in MPA design. I applied the approach to the Eastport MPA and surrounding region in Newfoundland, Canada by first quantifying the composition and configuration of the benthoscape using multibeam echosounder, seafloor video surveys, and patch size and connectivity metrics. Using a reserve design algorithm, I then compared outputs that included and excluded the prioritization of benthoscape connectivity. The approach presented in this thesis results in the preferential selection of large patches within the home-range of a given species, which can be important for reducing fragmentation in conservation prioritization solutions and better supporting species and ecological processes. This approach offers potential benefits for the conservation of coastal and marine regions by increasing our understanding of how we can incorporate broad scale patterns into on-the-ground conservation decision making.