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Distribution of deep-water Alcyonacea off the Northeast Coast of the United States

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Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Erlangen Earth Conference Series ((ERLANGEN))

Abstract

A database of deep-water alcyonacean records has been assembled using information that reaches back to the work of A.E. Verrill from the 1800s. These database records fall into two time periods, those from 1874 to 1920, and from 1950 to 2001. A total of 25 species in 10 families are so far known from the northeastern U.S. Most of these species are common in deeper waters of the continental shelf, with a few being restricted to the canyons and other slope environments. A comparison of western and eastern North Atlantic records indicates there is little similarity between the regions. In the cold-temperate to boreal part of the region there is about 41 % similarity of the “stoloniferous” and “massive body” soft coral species, but only about 28 % similarity amongst all the “gorgonian” species. In the warm temperate part of the region the similarity for all groups is less than 10 %. Deep-water alcyonaceans are strongly impacted by bottom fishing gear so it is likely that modern distributional records will not be exactly similar to those from deep in the past.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Darling Marine Center, University of Maine, Walpole, ME, 04573, USA

    Les Watling

  2. National Undersea Research Center, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT, 06340, USA

    Peter J. Auster

Authors
  1. Les Watling
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  2. Peter J. Auster
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Paleontology, Erlangen University, Loewenichstr. 28, D-91054, Erlangen, Germany

    André Freiwald

  2. Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA, UK

    J. Murray Roberts

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Watling, L., Auster, P.J. (2005). Distribution of deep-water Alcyonacea off the Northeast Coast of the United States. In: Freiwald, A., Roberts, J.M. (eds) Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems. Erlangen Earth Conference Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27673-4_13

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