Becoming a Brill Author. Publishing Ethics. Publishing Guides. General Open Access Information. For Authors.
For Academic Societies. For Librarians. Research Funding. Open Access Pricing. Specialty Products. Catalogs, Flyers and Price Lists. Accessing Brill Products. Corporate Social Responsibility. Sales Contacts. Ordering from Brill. Editorial Contacts. Offices Worlwide. Course Adoption. Contact Form. The oceans cover 70 per cent of the surface of the Earth. Fifty percent of the volume of these oceans is below m. The Earth is thus a blue planet and the deep sea is its largest biome.
The deep sea is considered to start at m depth, where light penetration is so weak that photosynthesis cannot longer be supported.
This depth often coincides with the shelf break, which separates the shelf from the continental slope m depth , followed by abyssal plains m and hadal trenches m. Continental margins are characterised by high habitat diversity, including sediment slopes, submarine canyons, cold-water corals and cold seeps amongst others, which support a high biodiversity and a variety of faunal communities.
Mid-ocean ridges form a semi-continuous volcanic mountain chain around the globe, and it is here that hydrothermal vents and their exotic faunal communities are found.
