The discovery of new deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities in the southern ocean and implications for biogeography.

ABSTRACT: Since the first discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Galápagos Rift in 1977, numerous vent sites and endemic faunal assemblages have been found along mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins at low to mid latitudes. These discoveries have suggested the existence of separate biogeographic provinces in the Atlantic and the North West Pacific, the existence of a province including the South West Pacific and Indian Ocean, and a separation of the North East Pacific, North East Pacific Rise, and South East Pacific Rise. The Southern Ocean is known to be a region of high deep-sea species diversity and centre of origin for the global deep-sea fauna. It has also been proposed as a gateway connecting hydrothermal vents in different oceans but is little explored because of extreme condition

SUBMITTER: Rogers AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3250512 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature