User:Seacucumberqueue/draft article on continental margins

Continental Margin Ecosystems (COMARGE) is a field project of the Census of Marine Life. Continental margins are characterized by a high degree of landscape complexity and diversity and support some of the ocean's strongest gradients (e.g. depth, pressure, organic matter flux, oxygen). Collectively, these conditions create unique ecosystems, many of which we are just beginning to understand. As exploitation of living and mineral resources is advancing faster than ecological knowledge on continental slopes, a comprehensive analysis of species distribution, biodiversity patterns and processes and ecosystem functioning on continental margins is needed to forecast environmental risks on continental margins. Launched in 2005, COMARGE aims at: 1) Describing biodiversity patterns of benthic and bentho-demersal communities on continental margins, with a focus on multiple habitats and spatial scales; and 2) Identifying the contribution of environmental heterogeneities to these patterns.

To achieve its goals, COMARGE oversees three regional projects: The Biozaire Project for study of the African equatorial margin; A look at metazoan life at extreme sulfide concentrations in the Northeast Pacific; and Exploration of Chemosynthetic Habitats of the New Zealand Region for study of deep-sea communities in the Southwest Pacific. A video highlighting a cold seep site discovered during the Biozaire Project can be found here.

ArcOD is led by Dr. Myriam Sibuet of France and Dr. Robert Carney of the USA; Dr. Lenaick Menot of France is project manager.