Jose Luis Rueda Ruiz
Javier Urra
Ricardo Aguilar
Lorenzo Angeletti
Marzia Bo
Cristina García Ruiz
Manuel M. González Duarte
Eduardo López
Teresa Madurell
Manuel Maldonado
Angel Mateo Ramírez
César Megina
Juan Moreira
Francina Moya
Lais V. Ramalho
Antonietta Rosso
Celia Sitjà
Marco Taviani
2019-07-11
<p>A book chapter on the associated biodiversity of cold-water corals. Cold-water corals are recognised as a key component of Mediterranean deep-sea ecosystems but the knowledge of their associated biodiversity is still limited. To date, the fauna associated to the Central Mediterranean cold-water coral habitats is the best known (e.g. the cold-water coral provinces of Santa Maria di Leuca, Bari canyon and Strait of Sicily) but such knowledge should be extended to the whole Mediterranean Basin. The combined biodiversity censed so far for Mediterranean cold-water coral habitats and those of adjacent areas (Strait of Gibraltar-Gulf of Cádiz) includes a conspicuous number of species (ca. 520 spp.) with a high representation of sponges (ca. 90 spp.), polychaetes (ca. 90 spp.), cnidarians (ca. 80 spp.), bryozoans (ca. 75 spp.), crustaceans (ca. 60 spp.), molluscs (ca. 50 spp.), fishes (ca. 50 spp.), echinoderms (ca. 20 spp.) and brachiopods (7 spp.). Most species are not univocally linked to cold-water corals, but they benefit from the complex and diverse microhabitats provided by them. There is a clear need to continue the investigation of<br>
Mediterranean cold-water coral habitats to fully document the faunistic inventory, biogeographic connections and functions of the many species connected to such emblematic ecoystems of the deep-sea.</p>
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_29
oai:zenodo.org:4049896
eng
Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
https://zenodo.org/communities/atlas
https://zenodo.org/communities/eu
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
Biodiversity
Cold-water coral
Benthic community
Demersal fauna
Mediterranean Sea
Cold-Water Coral Associated Fauna in the Mediterranean Sea and Adjacent Areas
info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart