Fig. 2: Study regions and focal species, ecosystems or key processes.

A iAtlantic study regions mapped alongside transatlantic oceanographic monitoring arrays and Argo float locations and the track of iAtlantic’s 2021 “iMirabilis2” research and capacity building expedition. B Images illustrating focal species, ecosystems or key processes in each region: (I) Subpolar Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) open ocean ecosystem off Iceland—a humpback whale breaching offshore Iceland (Image Credit: Stefán Ragnarsson, Hafrannsóknastofnun); (II) Abyssal plain, submarine canyon and cold-water coral banks from the Rockall Trough to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain—a cold-water coral reef framework on Rockall Bank (Image Credit: J Murray Roberts, University of Edinburgh, JC073); (III) Cold-water coral and hydrothermal vent ecosystems, central Mid-Atlantic Ridge—vent mussel beds at Lucky Strike, Mid-Atlantic ridge (Image Credit: Ifremer⁹⁷; (IV) Deep-sea canyons and open-ocean ecosystems, NW Atlantic—rocky substrate of the Gully canyon supporting diverse cold-water coral and sponge epifauna (Image Credit: Fisheries and Oceans Canada); (V) Subtropical open-ocean ecosystems of the Sargasso Sea—a humpback whale migrating through clumps of Sargassum weed (Image Credit: Andrew Stevenson, Whales Bermuda); (VI) Eastern tropical North Atlantic, Cabo Verde—here Saharan dust blown offshore Mauritania/Senegal is deposited around Cabo Verde where it helps fuel primary productivity (NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team, M. Scott); (VII) Equatorial deep/open ocean fracture zones—catch from a scientific trawl in the Romanche Fracture Zone (Image Credit: André Barreto, University of the Itajaí Valley (UNIVALI)); (VIII) Continental slope, margin and cold seep ecosystems from Angola to the Congo Lobe—cold-water coral reef in the hypoxic waters off Angola (Image Credit: MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen); (IX) Abyssal plains and deep-sea ridge ecosystems of the Benguela Current from the Walvis Ridge to South Africa—bathymetric image showing the Walvis Ridge, stretching SW from the coast of Namibia (Image Credit: NOAA); (X) Deep-sea continental slope, banks and cold seep ecosystems off Brazil—a submersible illuminates a deep pockmark in Santos Basin (Paulo Sumida, University of São Paulo); (XI) Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain off Brazil—Creole fishes Paranthias furcifer and the endemic wrasse Clepticus brasiliensis on Vitória Bank (Image Credit: Hudson Pinheiro, California Academy of Sciences); (XII) Cold-water coral banks in the Malvinas Upwelling Current off Argentina—the cut surface of a sediment core collected off Argentina showing abundant fossil cold-water coral fragments. Scale bar 5 cm (Image Credit: MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen).