Deep-sea ecosystems off Mauritania: An introduction

Abstract

The waters surrounding the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, located in the Northwest African region, harbour one of the four major upwelling systems and productive areas of the world's oceans. Along 754 km of the desert coastline, the permanent upwelling phenomena and seasonal shifting of the oceanographic front strongly influence the water mass structures, climate and species distribution in the Mauritanian EEZ . Despite oceanographic and faunistic interest and the threats of demersal deep-sea fisheries and oil exploration, for the past fewdecades,marine research inMauritaniawas performed to obtain information on the Banc d'Arguin and other coastal ecosystems; only recently, research is being focused on the study of slope habitats. Between 2007 and 2010, the Spanish Oceanographic Institute launched a partnership programwith the Mauritanian Institute for Oceanographic Research and Fisheries and the University of Vigo (Spain) to study the resources and ecosystems in Mauritanian deep waters. Four multidisciplinary expeditions were conducted using the Spanish R/V Vizconde de Eza, and geomorphological prospection and oceanographic and biological sampling were performed. Special efforts were made to characterize the Banc d'Arguin canyon systems, the giant coral carbonatemounds barrier and a newly discovered seamount. In this monograph,we tried to compile, in one volume, the main findings of theMaurit surveys and provide a detailed description of the bathymetry, geomorphology and oceanography, and biodiversity and structure of demersal fishes and benthic communities that inhabit the soft- and hard-bottom habitats of the Mauritanian slope.