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26 Occurrence of Living Cold-Water Corals at Large Depths Within Submarine Canyons of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea

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Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future

Part of the book series: Coral Reefs of the World ((CORW,volume 9))

Abstract

In the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, cold-water corals Madrepora oculata, Lophelia pertusa, Dendrophyllia cornigera and Desmophyllum dianthus have been mostly described at relatively shallow depths (i.e. <400 m). Here, we report the results of the inspection of the large, deeply incised Cap de Creus, La Fonera and Blanes submarine canyons in order to assess the presence of cold-water corals at depths between 600 and 1500 m. Two complementary methodologies were applied: remotely operated vehicle dives for in situ observation, and Agassiz trawls to get biological samples. Remotely operated vehicle videos pictured aggregations of specimens of the solitary D. dianthus at 1409 m depth in La Fonera Canyon, which seemed to be alive. This is the first in situ observation of this species at such depths in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Agassiz trawl samples provided living M. oculata and L. pertusa in Blanes Canyon at 1200 and 900 m depth, respectively. They also yielded living D. dianthus in Cap de Creus Canyon at 900 m and in Blanes Canyon at 900 and 1200 m depth. Jointly with other recently published results, our findings demonstrate that submarine canyons in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea host significant cold-water coral populations, locally extending to water depths below 1000 m.

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Acknowledgements

The work presented here was developed within the DOS MARES (ref. CTM2010-21810-C03) research project funded by the Spanish Government, and the PROMARES-OASIS DEL MAR research cruise funded by Obra Social “la Caixa”. The final push to finalise this paper was given by IDEM project (ref. 11.0661/2017/750680/SUB/ENV.C2), funded by DG Environment of the European Commission and project I-MarCat funded by Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Support was also received from Generalitat de Catalunya autonomous government through “Grups de Recerca Reconeguts” grant 2017 SGR 315 to GRC Geociències Marines. A Mecho is supported by the Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands (ESMOI), a Millennium Institute/Nucleus (code: 120030) supported by the Millennium Scientific Initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism from Chile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GRC Geociències Marines, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Anna Aymà, Miquel Canals & Galderic Lastras

  2. Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

    Jacopo Aguzzi, Joan Batista Company & Ariadna Mecho

  3. Millennium Nucleus of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands (ESMOI), Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile

    Jacopo Aguzzi, Joan Batista Company & Ariadna Mecho

  4. National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, Southampton, UK

    Claudio Lo Iacono

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Correspondence to Miquel Canals .

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  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas

  2. Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre (ENALIA), Nicosia, Cyprus

    Carlos Jiménez

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Aymà, A. et al. (2019). 26 Occurrence of Living Cold-Water Corals at Large Depths Within Submarine Canyons of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. In: Orejas, C., Jiménez, C. (eds) Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future. Coral Reefs of the World, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_26

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