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The Exploration of Submarine Canyons and their Benthic Faunal Assemblages*.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Gilbert T. Rowe
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Synopsis

The geological exploration of submarine canyons and valleys began late in the nineteenth century.Theories of canyon genesis are many, but the probable causes are turbidity currents or sediment slumps, or both. Recent biological investigations indicate that the faunal composition of canyons is quite different from adjacent depths without canyons. The predominance of motility in the fauna implies that canyons today are physically more dynamic than previously expected. Motility could be an adaptive strategy for survival in an unstable sedimentary environment, or the species may be trophic opportunists which are able to take advantage of the entrapment by canyons of large aggregates of organic detritus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 73: Challenger Expedition Centenary Proceedings 2 , 1972 , pp. 159 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1972

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Footnotes

*

This work was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014–66–0241) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant GA-31235X).

References

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