Diversity and abundance of heterobranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda) from the mesophotic and bathyal zone of the Mediterranean Sea

Toma, Margherita; Betti, Federico; Bavestrello, Giorgio; Cattaneo‐Vietti, Riccardo; Canese, Simonepietro; Cau, Alessandro; Andaloro, Franco; Greco, Silvestro; Bo, Marzia

doi:10.1080/24750263.2022.2033859

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The target species were recognized thanks to some of their morphological features, detectable by ROV and sufficient for reasonably good identification. A similar resolution for macrofauna was recently highlighted also for heterobranchs [45]. The presence of both taxa can be considered partially underestimated due to their small size and rather cryptic colours; however, contrary to heterobranchs, brachiopods often form highly visible aggregations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

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Brachiopod Fauna from the Deep Mediterranean Sea: Distribution Patterns and Ecological Preferences

et al. 2022

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Compared to their fossil counterparts, living brachiopods are investigated far less often, due to their occurrence in remote environments such as dark caves or deep environments. Due to the scarcity of studies targeting in situ brachiopods’ populations, large-scale information on their distribution and ecological preferences is still lacking, especially on hardgrounds. The extensive employment of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), however, has opened up the chance to better explore this taxon’s diversity and ecology in the mesophotic and bathyal zones. The analysis of over 600 h of video footage collected from 624 sites, from 40 m to 1825 m, located along the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian coasts of Italy and the Sicily Channel, allowed for a large-scale investigation. The four identified species, Novocrania anomala, Gryphus vitreus, Megerlia truncata and Terebratulina retusa, emerged as common macrofaunal components of the explored habitats, especially between 150 m and 250 m, with high occurrences in the northern areas, especially on offshore seamounts. All species can form dense aggregations of individuals, with M. truncata showing the densest populations on steep rocky terraces (up to 773 individuals m−2). Except for G. vitreus, the only species also recorded on soft bottoms, the others were found exclusively on hardgrounds, with N. anomala showing a peculiar ability to exploit anthropogenic substrates such as terracotta amphorae. No stable species-specific associations were noted, even if numerous species were frequently observed together. Although brachiopods do not show the conspicuous tridimensionality of large filter-feeders, their substrate occupancy and their role in pelagic–benthic processes support their importance in deep-sea Mediterranean ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

“…Contrary to other studied large-scale distributions, however, such as those of heterobranchs and red coral [45,46], the target brachiopods of this study are particularly common in seamount environments. For instance, brachiopod lecithotropic larvae, transported by currents, have the potential for long-distance dispersal [14].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Brachiopod Fauna from the Deep Mediterranean Sea: Distribution Patterns and Ecological Preferences

et al. 2022

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“…Among mollusks, the marine Heterobranchia (class Gastropoda) could be considered one of the most specialized groups consisting of species that have reduced or completely lost their shell in the adult stage, a keystone for the evolution of unique alternative defensive strategies [13]. Marine Heterobranchia, commonly known as 'sea slugs', inhabit almost all marine environments from the shallows to the deep (e.g., [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]). The systematics of this group has exponentially improved in recent years thanks to the development of so-called 'integrative taxonomy', which allows us to investigate the evolutionary relationships between different taxa by integrating multiple sources of data (from morphology, genetics, ecology, ethology, chemistry, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, most Mediterranean heterobranch inventories have focused on coastal areas [27,[30][31][32][33], coastal lakes [34], and only recently deep sea [8,22], but fauna from a lot of other less-known habitats remains mostly unexplored. Mediterranean rocky tide pools are a very promising study area due to their geomorphological heterogeneity that can host a high Heterobranchia diversity as already reported in similar extra-Mediterranean areas [35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Sea Slug Fauna from an Extremely Variable Environment, The ‘Passetto’ Rocky Tide Pools (North Adriatic Sea)

Toso,

Martini,

Riccardi

et al. 2024

Water

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The Mediterranean Sea is known to be a hot spot for marine biodiversity, especially if considering the highly specialized Heterobranchia mollusks. In recent years, there has been increasing effort to fill some knowledge gaps existing on Mediterranean heterobranch diversity, but, to date, several potentially interesting habitats remain unexplored. In fact, most studies have been focused on sea slugs inhabiting coastal areas and lakes, but those living in extremely variable areas like Mediterranean rocky tide pools remain almost completely ignored even if it is reported worldwide that they can host a high sea slug diversity. In this context, the rocky tide pool system near the ‘Passetto’ urban beach (Ancona, Italy) in the North Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea) represents a biodiversity hot spot, highlighting the importance of the conservation of this peculiar habitat. A preliminary quantitative survey on the associated Heterobranchia unveiled a thriving community residing in this limited and fragile habitat, and it inspired a more detailed investigation as performed in the present study. In order to reveal the presence of species that have gone unnoticed, an in-depth study was carried out between 2018 and 2022, which aimed to amplify the knowledge on this vulnerable environment and the fauna associated with this as yet poorly known habitat. Tide pooling activities corroborated by photographic analyses allowed the recording of 45 taxa in total and the addition of 25 species to the previously known list. Within those, (i) two species were potentially new to science, (ii) one was recorded in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, (iii) two species were added to the Italian fauna, and (iv) one species constituted a new record for Sector 9 of the Italian Seas.

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“…Concerning sponges, their distribution in the Mediterranean is known to be quite uniform [33], but even though the Mediterranean sponge fauna is among the world's most studied [15], the knowledge is more or less limited to habitats shallower than 100 m, with the majority of the available information covering depths of 0-30 m, which can be easily reached with conventional diving techniques [34]. Over recent years, there has been a growing interest in the exploration of the mesophotic zone [10,14,21,30,[35][36][37][38][39][40]. Yet available information about sponges in deeper habitats, even on basic community aspects, such as distribution, is quite limited [41] and mainly concerns the western Mediterranean [12,35,[42][43][44].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sponge Community Patterns in Mesophotic and Deep-Sea Habitats in the Aegean and Ionian Seas

Stamouli,

Gerovasileiou,

Voultsiadou

2023

JMSE

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Sponge assemblages play a significant role in the functioning of the Mediterranean benthic ecosystem. The main goal of this study was to investigate the diversity and distribution of poorly known sponge communities in the mesophotic and deep-sea substrates of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. More than 1500 sponge specimens belonging to 87 taxa were collected from 156 stations during experimental and commercial bottom trawling in the Aegean Sea and the eastern part of the Ionian ecoregion, at depths of between 10 and 800 m. A total of 79 sponge species were found in the Aegean and 40 species in the Ionian Sea. Eight of these species are included in lists of endangered and threatened species, two were newly recorded in the Aegean and six were first recorded in the east Ionian Sea. Both community structure and diversity differed between the two ecoregions. Species richness, biomass, abundance and diversity decreased with increasing depth, while different species dominated, in terms of biomass, abundance and frequency of appearance, in the two ecoregions and the separate depth zones. In contrast with previous investigations, which mostly examined shallow-water sponges, no clear resemblance patterns were observed among the north and south Aegean subareas, probably due to the homogeneity of the deep-sea habitats under investigation. This study, using sampling material from fish stock monitoring programs for the first time, contributed to our knowledge of the largely unknown eastern Mediterranean mesophotic and deep-sea sponge populations, which are subjected to intensive trawling activities.

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Diversity and abundance of heterobranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda) from the mesophotic and bathyal zone of the Mediterranean Sea

Cited by 7 publications

References 48 publications

Brachiopod Fauna from the Deep Mediterranean Sea: Distribution Patterns and Ecological Preferences

Brachiopod Fauna from the Deep Mediterranean Sea: Distribution Patterns and Ecological Preferences

Unraveling the Sea Slug Fauna from an Extremely Variable Environment, The ‘Passetto’ Rocky Tide Pools (North Adriatic Sea)

Sponge Community Patterns in Mesophotic and Deep-Sea Habitats in the Aegean and Ionian Seas

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