Ocean Margin Systems

Description

Ocean margins are the transitional zones between the oceans and continents. They represent dynamic systems in which numerous processes shape the environment and result in an impacting the utilization and hazard potentials for humans. These processes are influenced by a variety of steering mechanisms, from mountain building and climate on the land to tectonics and sea-level fluctuations in ocean margins . This book examines various aspects of regulation for the long-term development of ocean margins, of the impact of fluids and of the dynamics of benthic life at and below the seafloor in ocean margin systems. Front Matter....Pages I-IX Sedimentary Settings on Continental Margins — an Overview....Pages 1-14 Continental Margins — Review of Geochemical Settings....Pages 15-31 Imaging the Subsurface with 2-D and 3-D Seismic Data....Pages 33-55 State of the Art and Future Prospects of Scientific Coring and Drilling of Marine Sediments....Pages 57-66 New Technologies for Ocean Margin Studies — Autonomous Instrument Carrier Systems....Pages 67-77 Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: Are they the Ideal Sensor Platforms for Ocean Margin Science?....Pages 79-97 Physical Processes and Modelling at Ocean Margins....Pages 99-123 Seabed Classification at Ocean Margins....Pages 125-141 The Benthic Boundary Layer....Pages 143-155 Ocean Margin Early Diagenetic Processes and Models....Pages 157-177 Slope Instability of Continental Margins....Pages 179-193 Margin Building — Regulating Processes....Pages 195-203 Fluid Flow in Continental Margin Sediments....Pages 205-217 Macrobenthic Activity and its Effects on Biogeochemical Reactions and Fluxes....Pages 219-234 Cold Seep Communities on Continental Margins: Structure and Quantitative Distribution Relative to Geological and Fluid Venting Patterns....Pages 235-251 The Importance of Mineralization Processes in Surface Sediments at Continental Margins....Pages 253-267 Numerical Modelling of Transport Processes in the Subsurface....Pages 269-294 Subsurface Fluid Flow and Material Transport....Pages 295-306 Benthic Biodiversity Across and Along the Continental Margin: Patterns, Ecological and Historical Determinants, and Anthropogenic Threats....Pages 307-321 Molecular Ecology and Evolution of Slope Species....Pages 323-337 Larval and Reproductive Strategies on European Continental Margins....Pages 339-350 Factors Controlling Soft Bottom Macrofauna Along and Across European Continental Margins....Pages 351-363 Reef-Forming Cold-Water Corals....Pages 365-385 Life at the Edge: Achieving Prediction from Environmental Variability and Biological Variety....Pages 387-404 Processes driven by the Small Sized Organisms at the Water-Sediment Interface....Pages 405-418 Nucleic Acid-Based Techniques for Analyzing the Diversity, Structure, and Function of Microbial Communities in Marine Waters and Sediments....Pages 419-438 Carbonate Mounds as a Possible Example for Microbial Activity in Geological Processes....Pages 439-455 The Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane: New Insights in Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry....Pages 457-477 Microbial Systems in Sedimentary Environments of Continental Margins....Pages 479-495