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Following the exciting exploration of hot vent and cold seep ecosystems, the rediscovery of cold-water coral ecosystems with high-technology instrumentation is currently another hot topic in multidisciplinary marine research. Conventionally, coral reefs are regarded as restricted to warm and well-illuminated tropical seas, not associated with cold and dark waters of higher latitudes. However, ongoing scientific missions have shed light on the global significance of this overlooked ecosystem. Cold-water coral ecosystems are involved in the formation of large seabed structures such as reefs and giant carbonate mounds, and they represent unexploited paleo-environmental archives of earth history. Like their tropical cousins, cold-water coral ecosystems harbour rich species diversity. Despite the great water depths, commercial interests overlap more and more with the coral occurrences. Human activities already impinge directly on cold-water coral reefs causing severe damage to this vulnerable ecosystem. In this volume, the current key institutions involved in cold-water coral research have contributed 62 state-of-the-art articles from geology and oceanography to biology and conservation.

Corals --- Deep-sea ecology --- Coral reef ecology --- Coral reefs and islands --- Reef ecology --- Marine ecology --- Lithophytes --- Anthozoa --- Ecology --- Oceanography. --- Paleontology . --- Sedimentology. --- Endangered ecosystems. --- Biogeosciences. --- Paleontology. --- Ecosystems. --- Threatened ecosystems --- Biotic communities --- Nature conservation --- Petrology --- Fossilogy --- Fossilology --- Palaeontology --- Paleontology, Zoological --- Paleozoology --- Historical geology --- Zoology --- Fossils --- Prehistoric animals in motion pictures --- Oceanography, Physical --- Oceanology --- Physical oceanography --- Thalassography --- Earth sciences --- Marine sciences --- Ocean --- Geobiology. --- Biocenoses --- Biocoenoses --- Biogeoecology --- Biological communities --- Biomes --- Biotic community ecology --- Communities, Biotic --- Community ecology, Biotic --- Ecological communities --- Ecosystems --- Natural communities --- Population biology --- Biology --- Biosphere