Atlas of the Mediterranean Seamounts and Seamount-like Structures

Seamounts are relevant seafloor structures, which may have different origins and which feature all the world oceans and they may be defined as hotspots of biodiversity, greatly affecting the productivity of the offshore ecosystems and the distribution of pelagic top predators. Seamounts are generally not ecologically isolated or island-like systems, and they can have species assemblages similar to those found in adjacent deep-sea habitats, but can have a different structure in terms of the abundance or frequency of species, and more recent studies indicate that rates of endemism may not be high.