This study area reaches from the northern Rockall Trough, along the Atlantic margins of the UK and Ireland, down to the centre of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain. The area is home to cold-water coral reefs, submarine canyons, seamounts and banks, each with their own biological communities. A long-term ocean observatory on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain gives insights into the environmental changes that this northern sector of the Atlantic has experienced over time, while oceanographic moorings and annual ocean measurements along the Extended Ellett Line across the Rockall Trough provide invaluable input data for the oceanographic models that estimate the flux of heat and carbon through the NE Atlantic.

Boundary of the iAtlantic study region: 2. Abyssal plain and deep-sea coral banks from the Rockall Trough to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain

Region #2 preliminary boundaries were mostly adequate, but adjusted to encompass the Bourcart spur. It was noticed that the existing boundary it’s fine for t...