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Habitat structure and biological characteristics of a maerl bed off the northeastern coast of the Maltese Islands (central Mediterranean)

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Abstract

Forty stations within a 20 km2 Maltese maerl bed were sampled by grab to gather data on sediment granulometry and the percentage mass, sphericity, and morphotype of rhodoliths. Two stations were monitored between July 1996 and April 1998 to study temporal variation in species diversity and abundance of the epi- and endo-benthos. Maerl was commonest at 51–90 m depth with 20–39% live rhodoliths in central parts of the maerl bed, while the peripheral parts had less than 20% live rhodoliths. The most abundant rhodolith morphotypes were branching forms and those with a rugged surface. The maerl bed proved to have high species diversity with 244 animal and 87 algal taxa recorded; molluscs, crustaceans, and annelids were the dominant taxa in the endobenthos, and bryozoans and sponges in the epibenthos. Community composition, rhodolith morphology and sediment characteristics at the two sites were related to differences in the hydrodynamic regime resulting from seabed topographical heterogeneity.

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Acknowledgments

Part of this research was undertaken in the framework of the BIOMAERL project with support from the European Commission’s Marine Science and Technology Programme (MAST III) under contract MAS3-CT95-0020. Maltese participation in the BIOMAERL project was made possible through grants from the University of Malta , the Malta Council for Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education of the Government of Malta, for which we are grateful. We thank Prof P.G.Moore (University Marine Biological Station, Millport and coordinator of the BIOMAERL project) and Dr J. Hall-Spencer (University of Plymouth) for their help and interest. We are also grateful to two anonymous referees whose comments on an earlier draft of this paper greatly improved it. The work described in this paper was carried out in full conformity with the laws of Malta. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Malta, Msida, MSD2080, Malta

    Marija Sciberras, Miraine Rizzo, Jael R. Mifsud, Katielena Camilleri, Joseph A. Borg, Edwin Lanfranco & Patrick J. Schembri

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  1. Marija Sciberras
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Supplementary Material Appendix 1

The depth (m) and geographic position of the stations where live calcareous algae were present are given. The percentage mass of the live calcareous algae fraction (LCAF) at each station is also given, except for stations G4 and H3 where only a very small amount of live calcareous algae and no non-living sediment were collected (PDF 12 kb)

Supplementary Material Appendix 2

Classified species list of the species collected using grab sampling during the seasonal sampling at Sites 1 and 2 between July 1996 and April 1998 (PDF 20 kb)

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Sciberras, M., Rizzo, M., Mifsud, J.R. et al. Habitat structure and biological characteristics of a maerl bed off the northeastern coast of the Maltese Islands (central Mediterranean). Mar Biodiv 39, 251–264 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-009-0017-4

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