The Mullineaux Lab
Age Structure of Deep-Sea Coral Populations
Paragorgia sp. polyps on Manning Seamount
Many deep seamounts, such as those in the New England Seamount chain in the North Atlantic, support extensive coral populations. These coral colonies, which may live to be hundreds of years old, provide habitat for a variety of species, including invertebrates and fishes. Because the corals are so old and the sources for recolonization are so distant, it is believed that these communities are very vulnerable to disturbance, such as deep-water trawling by fishermen seeking to exploit seamount fisheries. We plan to use radioisotope dating of existing colonies, together with colonization studies and surveys of existing populations, in order to determine the age structure of these coral populations and estimate the possible impacts of anthropogenic disturbance. These studies are funded by the NOAA Ocean Exploration program and the Ocean Life Institute.