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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Carbonate mounds clustering in three fields were characterized on the upper continental slope of the northern Alboran Sea by means of a detailed analysis of the morphosedimentary and structural features using high-resolution bathymetry and parametric profiles. The contemporary and past benthic and demersal species were studied using ROV underwater imagery and some samples. A total of 325 mounds, with heights between 1 and 18 m, and 204 buried mounds were detected between 155 to 401 m water depth. Transparent facies characterize the mounds, which root on at least six erosive surfaces, indicating different growth stages. At present, these mounds are covered with soft sediments and typical bathyal sedimentary habitat-forming species, such as sea-pens, cerianthids and sabellid polychaetes. Nevertheless, remains of colonial scleractinians, rhodoliths and bivalves were detected and their role as potential mound-forming species is discussed. We hypothesized that the formation of these mounds could be related to favorable climatic conditions for cold-water corals, possibly during the late Pleistocene. The occurrence on top of some mounds of abundant rhodoliths suggests that some mounds were in the photic zone during minimum sea level and boreal guest fauna (e.g., Modiolus modiolus), which declined in the western Mediterranean after the Termination 1a of the Last Glacial (Late Pleistocene).

Details

Title
Morphosedimentary, Structural and Benthic Characterization of Carbonate Mound Fields on the Upper Continental Slope of the Northern Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean)
Author
Sánchez-Guillamón, Olga 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rueda, Jose L 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wienberg, Claudia 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ercilla, Gemma 3 ; Juan Tomás Vázquez 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gómez-Ballesteros, Maria 4 ; Urra, Javier 1 ; Moya-Urbano, Elena 5 ; Estrada, Ferran 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hebbeln, Dierk 2 

 Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO-CSIC), 29640 Fuengirola, Spain; [email protected] (J.L.R.); [email protected] (J.T.V.); [email protected] (J.U.) 
 MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, LeobenerStraße 8, 28359 Bremen, Germany; [email protected] (C.W.); [email protected] (D.H.) 
 Continental Margins Group, Institut de Ciencies del Mar-CSIC, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; [email protected] (G.E.); [email protected] (F.E.) 
 Servicios Centrales de Madrid, Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO-CSIC), 28002 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] 
 Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain; [email protected] 
First page
111
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20763263
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2642434069
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.