This grant is for the establishment of a seamount research coordination network to be known as the "Seamount Biogeosciences Network (SBN)" for communication and scientific collaboration, data archiving and integration and for sharing of seagoing logistical operations. Seamounts, submerged isolated mountains in the oceans, are amongst the most diverse and still most poorly understood marine biological environments. They are formed by a range of geological processes and may be found at any ocean latitude, depth and environment. Most seamounts are volcanoes that eventually may grow to become ocean islands or reefs. Seamounts travel with tectonic plates away from their site of origin, often by thousands of miles, and then subside as the plate cools with age. This makes seamounts the oldest intact mountains on Earth. They remain in isolation for up to 150 million of years, each one of them an experiment in benthic life evolution within distinct geological boundary conditions. Seamounts offer access of benthic life to a range of mid-water conditions, from deep nutrient rich currents to shallow water. Initial biological studies reveal that seamounts display extreme biodiversity. This offers unique opportunities to identify and explore novel microorganisms, and to study their physiology, biochemistry and genomics in well constrained settings.
Seamount research involves many scientific disciplines (e.g. oceanography and volcanology) that only rarely communicate with each other, but biology has much to gain from interfacing with the whole spectrum. Overcoming these challenges of interdisciplinary integration are important to successful biological exploration of the interface between the hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. The goal of the SBN is to bring together all the diverse scientific disciplines involved in seamount research, to communicate about and discuss seamount science, and to ease or share the logistical burden of field expeditions. Key components of this network include regular workshops, and the development of a community website and a database that integrates a wide range of seamount data.
