| Summary: | Cold-water coral reef ecosystems occur worldwide and are especially developed along the European margin, from northern Norway to the Gulf of Cadiz and into the Western Mediterranean Sea. The dominant reef builder in these areas is the scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa, often associated with the scleractinian coral Madrepora oculata. These species settle on suitable hard substrates, in environments characterized by elevated currents and high food availability. Along the European margin cold-water coral reefs developed during different times and with different morphologies. In particular, on the Norwegian shelf and upper slope, extended active/living reefs have developed on elevated hard substrata. Along the Irish margin on the Rockall Bank, on the Porcupine Bank, and in the Porcupine Seabight, L. pertusa has built large fossil and/or active carbonate mounds. In the Gulf of Cadiz and in the Alboran Sea buried reefs and patch reefs with often strongly fragmented coral rubble are generally found in association with mud volcanoes below a (hemi-) pelagic sediment cover. Cold-water corals have been known since the eighteenth century but the development of new technologies has resulted in the discovery of huge cold-water coral ecosystems and carbonate mounds during the last few decades. Their widespread occurrence presents a challenge to understand their development, preservation and possible importance in the geologic record. In modern oceans, they provide important ecological niches for the marine benthic fauna in the deep-sea. In comparison to the macrofauna the microfauna, particularly the foraminifera associated with these systems, are poorly known. The present study focuses on the foraminiferal assemblages associated with cold-water coral ecosystems from the European continental margin. Samples were collected in three key regions: surface sediments along the Norwegian margin and in the Porcupine-Rockall region, gravity cores were taken on the top of two mud volcanoes in the Alboran Sea. Planktonic and benthic ...
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