Ecological Role of Submarine Canyons and Need for Canyon Conservation: A Review

26 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, supplementary material https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00005/full#supplementary-materialSubmarine canyons are major geomorphic features of continental margins around the world. Several recent multidisciplinary projects focused on the study of canyons have considerably increased our understanding of their ecological role, the goods, and services they provide to human populations, and the impacts that human activities have on their overall ecological condition. Pressures from human activities include fishing, dumping of land-based mine tailings, and oil and gas extraction. Moreover, hydrodynamic processes of canyons enhance the down-canyon transport of litter. The effects of climate change may modify the intensity of currents. This potential hydrographic change is predicted to impact the structure and functioning of canyon communities as well as affect nutrient supply to the deep-ocean ecosystem. This review not only identifies the ecological status of canyons, and current and future issues for canyon conservation, but also highlights the need for a better understanding of anthropogenic impacts on canyon ecosystems and proposes other research required to inform management measures to protect canyon ecosystemsUF was funded by the Balearic Government post-doctoral grant 2016, co-financed by European Social Plan; VH was supported by the CODEMAP project (ERC Starting Grant no 258482) and the NERC MAREMAP programme; PP has been funded by the ABIDES project (CTM2015-65142-R); AR was supported by NIWA research project “Impact of resource use on vulnerable deep-sea communities” (MBIE contract CO1X0906). IV was funded by Ifremer and Région Bretagne. ALA is supported by Science Foundation Ireland / Marine Institute IvP award 15/IA/3100Peer reviewedPeer Reviewe