Cold-water coral communities in Blanes Canyon, NW Mediterranean Sea

• Main Authors: Bilan, Meri, Grinyó, Jordi, Ambroso, Stefano, Lo Iacono, Claudio, Huvenne, Veerle A.I., Fabri, Marie-Claire, Durán, Ruth, Paradis Vilar, Sarah, Arjona, Marta, Palanques, Albert, Santín, Andreu, Gori, Andrea, Piraino, Stefano, Rossi, Sergio, Gili, Josep Maria, Puig, Pere
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Università degli studi di Salerno 2020
• Subjects: Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/234511

1 page, figures, tables The Blanes Canyon is located in Northwest Mediterranean, and incises the Catalan margin. Bottom trawling is a common activity in the area, frequently occurring around the canyon rims and flanks, and causing resuspension of a substantial amount of sediment within the canyon. The present study is based on the analysis of video transects performed with the ROV Liropus 2000 in the Blanes Canyon, between 600 and 1100 m depth, in order to characterize cold water coral (CWC) communities in a region undergoing severe human pressure. Structurally controlled vertical walls have been observed to provide suitable habitat for a wide variety of CWCs, forming rich communities that are internationally recognised as Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs). Major communities consisted of the reef-forming species Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata, the solitary scleractinian Desmophyllum dianthus and the black coral Leiopathes glaberrima. Our findings highlight the importance of deep-sea canyons acting as refugia for CWC communities, which however suffer from the indirect impacts of fishing activities, such as sediment resuspension and lost fishing gear This work received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ABRIC Project, Ref. RTI2018-096434-B-I00). BilanM. receives a fellowship from Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018-2022, MIUR