Pelagic ecology of the South West Indian Ocean Ridge seamounts: introduction and overview

Journal article

The Indian Ocean was described by Behrman (1981) as the “Forlorn Ocean”, a region neglected by science up to the late-1950s. For example, the Challenger Expedition from 1872 – 1876 largely avoided the Indian Ocean, sailing from Cape Town into Antarctic waters sampling around the Prince Edward Islands, Kerguelen Island and Crozet Islands before heading to Melbourne. From 1876 to the 1950s there were expeditions on several vessels including the Valdivia, Gauss and Planet (Germany), the Snellius (Netherlands), Discovery II, MahaBiss (United Kingdom), Albatross (Sweden), Dana and Galathea (Denmark; Behrman, 1981). There was no coordination between these efforts and overall the Indian Ocean, especially the deep sea remained perhaps the most poorly explored of the world’s oceans.

Authors: Rogers, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
• Volume: 136
• Pages: 1-4
• Publication date: 2016-12-18
• Acceptance date: 2016-11-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2016.12.009
• EISSN: 1879-0100
• ISSN: 0967-0645
• Keywords: seamounts; pelagic ecology; South West Indian Ocean; oceanography