Darwin Mounds
Coordinates: 59 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ N , 7 ° 13 ′ 0 ″ W.
The Darwin Mounds are a large area of underwater sand mounds or sand cones located northwest of the coast of Scotland in the northeasternmost part of Rockall Trough . They represent a unique habitat made up of deep water coral reefs. They were discovered in 1998 when oil companies and government agencies were searching for mineral deposits in the area. The hills were named after the research ship, which in turn bears the name of the biologist Charles Darwin .
Description of the Darwin Mounds
The Darwin Mounds are a good 1,000 meters below the surface of the sea and around 185 kilometers northwest of Cape Wrath , the northwestern tip of mainland Scotland. The area includes hundreds of such sand mounds, which in total cover an area of about 100 square kilometers. The individual hills usually have a rounded shape. Some are up to five meters tall and up to 100 meters in diameter. A large number of the sand hills have a "tail". These tails have different lengths and partially unite with the foothills of other hills. Basically, they have a teardrop shape and run from the hill in a south-westerly direction. The special shape of the mound formation is apparently a globally unique characteristic of the Darwin Mounds.
The hills consist mostly of sand. The characteristic shape of the hills probably came about when the sand settled and the water was forced out of it. The rising water formed the cone-like shape. Such sand cones are also found in fossil strata from the Devonian period in Great Britain. They are usually only found in regions of the world with seismic activity. With the Darwin Mounds this is excluded. The south-westerly slope of the sea floor in this region (called the Wyville-Thomson Ridge ) is believed to be responsible for the formation of the hills.
On the tip of the sand cone there are living corals belonging to the stony corals of the genus Lophelia (especially Lophelia pertusa ). Until the discovery of the Darwin Mounds, it was assumed that these corals only grow on solid ground.
Deep-water coral regions such as the Darwin Mounds are particularly sensitive to changes in habitat. Unlike coral reefs in shallow waters, they are not adapted to wave movements. A large population of the Xenophyophore Syringammina gragilissima also lives on the sand cones . These are large unicellular organisms that are widespread in deep water regions. They occur in unusual densities in the Darwin Mounds. The corals also provide habitat for a wide variety of other marine life, including sponges, worms and shellfish. A number of different species of fish also live here, such as the grenade .
Protective measures
On October 23, 2001, then British Secretary of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Margaret Beckett gave the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) her commitment to protect the Darwin Mounds. In particular, fishing with bottom trawls is harmful to regions such as the Darwin Mounds, and there have been isolated cases of fishing with nets weighing up to one tonne in this region. University of Glasgow scientist Jason Hall-Spencer found fragments of coral that were at least 4,500 years old in trawls working in areas off the coast of Ireland and Scotland. An intensive use of bottom trawls in this region would damage this habitat significantly. Since March 22, 2004, the Darwin Mounds have been protected as an important marine water habitat. Fishing with bottom trawls is prohibited in this region.
Individual evidence
- ^ Scottish Government Press Release on EU Protection of the Darwin Mounds
- ↑ UK Deep Sea Image and Video Library ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Biogenic reefs - cold water corals
- ↑ WWF : First coral reef saved in EU waters! ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 29, 2004.
Web links
- "The Darwin Mounds, NE Atlantic," National Oceanography Center.
- "Biogenic reefs - cold water corals" , Joint Nature Conservation Committee (English)