Seamounts generate efficient active transport loops to nourish the twilight ecosystem.

Seamounts are ecological oases nurturing abundant fisheries resources and epibenthic megafauna in the vast oligotrophic ocean. Despite their significance, the formation mechanisms underlying these seamount ecological oases remain uncertain. To shed light on this phenomenon, this study conducted interdisciplinary in situ observations focusing on a shallow seamount in the oligotrophic ocean.

Sensitivity of coccolithophores to carbonate chemistry and ocean acidification.

About one-third of the carbon dioxide (CO(2)) released into the atmosphere as a result of human activity has been absorbed by the oceans, where it partitions into the constituent ions of carbonic acid. This leads to ocean acidification, one of the major threats to marine ecosystems and particularly to calcifying organisms such as corals, foraminifera and coccolithophores. Coccolithophores are abundant phytoplankton that are responsible for a large part of modern oceanic carbonate production.