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On Cross Seamount manganese crust resources were assessed and the rates of benthic organisms colonizing crusts were studied. Analyses of the iron and manganese oxide-coated bacteria growing on experimental arrays indicate that there is a preference for crust over basalt in the early stages of community development. Dead foraminiferan tests may provide an organic matrix for the ion precipitation that forms ferromanganese crusts. Botryoidal manganese crust microstructure mimics the shape of foraminiferan encrustations and the rate of crust formation may be a function of the abundance of attached foraminifera. Studies of populations of benthic invertebrate species on Cross, Bishop, and Pensacola Seamounts may lead to understanding how environmental factors affect gene pools.
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Last update on 9 March 1999