Circalittoral faunal turf occurrences on the Azores shelves (central north Atlantic) from 2005 to 2018 ...
Circalittoral faunal turfs are animal-dominated shelf assemblages that are found on hard substrata between the lower limit of the infralittoral zone and the shelf edge. Benthic organisms generally form dense intricate mixes that may include tall alcyonarians, sponges, hydroids, scleractinians and go...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Dataset |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Marine Data Archive
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.14284/558 http://www.vliz.be/en/imis?dasid=8041&doiid=671 |
| Summary: | Circalittoral faunal turfs are animal-dominated shelf assemblages that are found on hard substrata between the lower limit of the infralittoral zone and the shelf edge. Benthic organisms generally form dense intricate mixes that may include tall alcyonarians, sponges, hydroids, scleractinians and gorgonians, as well as less prominent fauna such as encrusting sponges, bryozoans, ascidians, bivalves, solitary cup corals, serpulid worms and vermetid gastropods. ... : These assemblages make up an important part of two of the EC Habitats Directive Annex I habitats: i) ‘Reefs’ (1170) and ii) ‘Submerged or partly submerged sea caves’ (8830) containing deep aphotic enclaves. A variety of circalittoral faunal turfs have been observed on the Azores shelves but knowledge on their distribution and the assemblages they form is scarce. This dataset compiles circalittoral faunal turf occurrences from sublittoral surveys conducted across the Azores archipelago (NE Atlantic) between 2005 and 2018. Sampling concentrated on island shelf and margin settings and was conducted using various optical platforms: (i) two small remote operated vehicles (a VideoRay Explorer micro-ROV and a SeaBotix LBV300S-6 mini-ROV); (ii) two custom-made underwater drop-down video frames carrying Tritech MD4000, GoPro Hero3+ or GitUp Git 2 cameras. A literature-based record made with a manned submersible is included for the sake of completion. The compilation comprises 548 occurrences (200 presences and 348 ... |
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