Defying Dissolution: Discovery of Deep-Sea Scleractinian Coral Reefs in the North Pacific.

ABSTRACT: Deep-sea scleractinian coral reefs are protected ecologically and biologically significant areas that support global fisheries. The absence of observations of deep-sea scleractinian reefs in the Central and Northeast Pacific, combined with the shallow aragonite saturation horizon (ASH) and high carbonate dissolution rates there, fueled the hypothesis that reef formation in the North Pacific was improbable. Despite this, we report the discovery of live scleractinian reefs on six seamounts of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Emperor Seamount Chain at depths of 535-732 m and aragonite saturation state (Ω_arag) values of 0.71-1.33. Although the ASH becomes deeper moving northwest along the chains, the depth distribution of the reefs becomes shallower, suggesting the ASH is havin

SUBMITTER: Baco AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5511196 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature