Hotspot Ecosystem Research on Europe's Deep-Ocean Margins

Abstract

Europe's deep-ocean margin stretches over a distance of 15,000 km along the Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic to the Iberian margin and from western to eastern Mediterranean, and to the Black Sea.The margin extends from the shelf edge at about 200 m depth until about 4000 m depth where the abyssal plain or oceanic basins begin, and covers three million square kilometers, an area about onethird of that covered by Europe's landmass.Most of this deep-ocean frontier lies within Europe's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and is therefore of direct interest for the exploitation of biological, energy, and mineral resources.A major European policy aim is to develop these resources in an ecologically sustainable manner.This requires a profound knowledge of the structure and dynamics of ocean margin ecosystems incorporating a wide variety of complex environments, such as deep-sea corals, cold seeps, and canyons.The knowledge re-