Caracterización ambiental de montes submarinos del Mar de Alborán a partir del estudio de los sedimentos y las asociaciones de foraminíferos bentónicos Environmental characterization of seamounts in the Alboran Sea using an approach based on sediments and benthic foraminiferal assemblages

Résumé fourni par la source

Studies on seamounts from the Djibouti Banks (Alboran Sea) are very scarce. The special interest of these seamounts is their location between Atlantic and Mediterranean water masses and the peculiar hydrodynamic, physicochemical and sedimentological characteristics. The granulometric and geochemical analyses as well as the benthic foraminiferal assemblages of sediments from Herradura and Avempace seamounts (collected during the project DEEPER–IEO) have allowed characterizing the environment of these seamounts summits. In general, both seamounts show similar environmental conditions of low hydrodynamism and muddy to clayey sand sediments with large proportion of biogenic and, probably, fine-sized particles from coastal areas and Saharan dust. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages are also very similar in both seamounts and dominated by species of families Uvigerinidae, Cibicidae and Textulariidae. The interdisciplinary approach of this study is reliable for effective analysis of habitats with threatened species of high ecological and economical value.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.