A unique and threatened deep water coral-bivalve biotope new to the Mediterranean Sea offshore the Naples megalopolis

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Taviani, Marco, Angeletti, Lorenzo, Cardone, Frine, Montagna, Paolo, Danovaro, Roberto
• Other Authors: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Bologna (CNR), Università degli studi di Bari Aldo Moro = University of Bari Aldo Moro (UNIBA), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02973712; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02973712/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02973712/file/s41598-019-39655-8.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39655-8

International audience The Gulf of Naples is an example of the most beautiful and biodiverse marine regions of the Mediterranean Sea and of the most impacted areas in terms of industrial activities, large contaminated areas, resource exploitation, infrastructures at sea and maritime transportation. We conducted Remotely Operated Vehicle surveys in the Dohrn Canyon in the Tyrrhenian Sea at approximately 12 NM off Naples metropolitan area, and revealed a hotspot of deep-sea benthic biodiversity of sessile fauna at ca. 400 m depth. The hard bottoms are characterized by a high abundance of charismatic species, such as the habitat forming cold-water corals (CWC) Madrepora oculata, Lophelia pertusa, Desmophyllum dianthus in association with the large size bivalves Acesta excavata and Neopycnodonte zibrowii. This CWC-bivalve co-occurrence represents a novel biotope for the Mediterranean Sea, which coexists with the evidence of severe anthropogenic threats, such as illegal dumping and fishery malpractices that were visually documented during the survey. We recommend the adoption of specific protection measures to preserve these unique deep-sea assemblages showing the uncommon coexistence of such a number of deep-sea species in a single habitat. In the 19 th century, the beauty and biological richness of the Gulf of Naples (GoN) was such to convince Anton Dohrn to found there in 1872 the first marine station in the world to demonstrate the validity of the Darwin theories on evolution using marine organisms. The following 150 years have witnessed the unbridled growth of scientific studies in the gulf, along with the explosion of the industrial and urban development of the city of Naples and adjacent coast, especially after World War II 1 , which determined a progressive increase of the anthropogenic pressures. Today, the Naples metropolitan area accounts for ca. 4.5 million inhabitants and the entire population of the gulf is distributed along a mere 12 km coastal stretch. The presence of illegal dumping and untreated ...