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Wolof’s Knoll: A Small Seamount on the Mauritanian Continental Slope

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Deep-Sea Ecosystems Off Mauritania

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Abstract

One of the objectives of the Maurit˗1011 survey was the environmental and faunistic characterization of a small seamount of 200 m in height, discovered during the Maurit˗0911 expedition, on the upper continental slope south of Nouakchott, at 17°08′ 50″N and 16°46′ 38.1″W. It is an isolated conical structure with small ridges, almost parallel to the edge of the continental shelf and not connected to nearby coral mounds barrier. The geomorphology of this submarine elevation, as well as the debris from a hydrothermal vents or cold seeps discovered in the rock dredge samples suggests a diapiric association because no hydrothermal benthic fauna was found. The summit of the seamount was covered with sponges belonging mainly to the family Geodiidae, and ophiuroids belonging to the suspension-feeders family Ophiotrichidae. We also found accompanying fauna comprising about 50 species, mainly consisting of molluscs and decapods. Despite its small size but taking into account the richness of the suspension-feeders community living on it, this Wolof’s Seamount (so called to honour the artisanal fishermen who first discovered it) could be promoted as a marine protected area in the Mauritanian continental margin.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to their friendly colleagues Dr Susana Soto, Sara Castillo and Belén Calero for their help with identification and the ecological data they provided on crustacean decapod, mollusc and echinoderm specimens. We also thank Mrs. Teresa Medialdea (IGME) for her feedback in the analysis of the rock samples. We wish to thank the referees Dr Bertrand Richer de Forges from the Centre IRD de Noumea (New Caledonia), Dr Sebastian Krastel from Kiel University (Germany) and Dr Timothy O’Hara from Museum Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) for their comments and suggestions, which have improved considerably the original manuscript.

This work was undertaken within the framework of the EcoAfrik project and has been partially funded by the MAVA Fondation pour la Nature (MAVA contract 12/87 AO C4/2012). This is the ECOAFRIK publication number 8.

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  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Corazón de María, 8, 28002, Madrid, Spain

    José Luis Sanz & Luis Miguel Agudo

  2. Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    Fran Ramil

  3. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Subida a Radio Faro, 50-52, 36390, Vigo, Spain

    Ana Ramos

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  1. José Luis Sanz
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Correspondence to José Luis Sanz .

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  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía , Vigo, Spain

    Ana Ramos

  2. Facultade de Ciencias do Mar, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

    Fran Ramil

  3. Instituto Español de Oceanografía , Madrid, Spain

    José Luis Sanz

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Sanz, J.L., Ramil, F., Agudo, L.M., Ramos, A. (2017). Wolof’s Knoll: A Small Seamount on the Mauritanian Continental Slope. In: Ramos, A., Ramil, F., Sanz, J. (eds) Deep-Sea Ecosystems Off Mauritania. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1023-5_15

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