Overview of the conservation status of Mediterranean anthozoa

Pioneer settlement of the cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus (Esper, 1794) on plastic

“…Desmophyllum dianthus is a cold-water scleractinian coral, occurring in the upper bathyal zone (200-2500 m) and frequently associated with frame-building species, like D. pertusum and Madrepora oculata (Roberts et al 2009), contributing to the reef framework as aggregated colonies or ''clumps of specimens''. Desmophyllum dianthus is reported to occur in deep waters at hundreds to thousands of meters depth, with the shallowest reported depth being 7 m depth in subantarctic waters (Försterra et al 2005) and 100 m in the Mediterranean Sea (Bo et al 2017).…”

“…The absence of other coral species as well as other encrusting fouling, despite the size of the plastic and its long residence time at sea, suggests a possible pioneer behavior of D. dianthus, which seems to compete for substrate through a rapid and wide extension of its basal plate. Considering that D. dianthus has been listed as Endangered in the latest IUCN report on the conservation status of Mediterranean Anthozoa (Bo et al 2017), being threatened by habitat degradation due to anthropogenic activities, its tolerance to plastic substrates may ironically favor its dispersal. Nevertheless, this tolerance for plastic substrate deserves further investigation, both for its possible interactions with ecological processes in deep water environments and for its potential application in the field of reef-restoration, in this case targeted on deep-water environments.…”

Morphometric data and allometric relationships of the gorgonian Eunicella singularis (Esper, 1791) (Anthozoa Gorgoniidae) of Paloma Island, Algeria

“…Several massive mortality events have drastically affected the gorgonian communities during the last three decades in several locations along the Mediterranean Sea (Harmelin, 1984;Cerrano et al, 2000;Pérez et al, 2000;Skoufas et al, 2000;Coma et al, 2006;Cigliano & Gambi 2007;Garrabou et al, 2009;Linares et al, 2012;Carella et al, 2014;Rivetti et al, 2014;Rubio-Portillo et al, 2016;Gambi et al, 2018;Turicchia et al, 2018). These events caused dramatic decreases in the gorgonian populations (Garrabou et al, 2009;Bo et al, 2014;, which motivated their inclusion in different conservation frameworks at national and international levels (Otero et al, 2017). Several gorgonians are considered as key species of Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages with ecological, socio-economic and heritage values by the Barcelona Convention as part of the action plan for coralligenous assemblages (UN Environment/MAP 2017) and in the inventorying (UNEP-MAP-RAC/SPA, 2015).…”

“…Coastal marine ecosystems support a high biological diversity and are among the most productive systems in the world (Costanza et al, 1993;Harvell et al, 1999). In the Mediterranean Sea, the gorgonians (Anthozoa Gorgoniidae) play a crucial ecological role in these marine habitats, maintaining biomass and structural complexity of hard bottom communities (Mills et al, 1993;Jones et al, 1994;Ballesteros, 2006;Ponti et al, 2014;Kipson et al, 2015;Otero et al, 2017). Gorgonians may develop singular facies of the highly diverse and valuable coralligenous outcrops (Ballesteros, 2006).…”

Black Coral Distribution in the Italian Seas: A Review

“…Because of their rarity, black corals low growth rates, and low recovery ability, are considered extremely sensitive and listed as indicator species of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). For this reason, they are mentioned in several international agreements concerning marine ecosystem conservation (CITES Appendix II [available at http://www.cites.org]; European Community 1999), in Annex III of the Berna Convention, in Annex II of the Barcelona Convention for the Mediterranean species, and are also categorized as "threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Mediterranean Anthozoa [8] (with the millennial life span L. glaberrima being the only one listed as "endangered"). The main anthropogenic impact affecting these corals is represented by fishing as artisanal and recreational activities and bottom trawling, which may cause the resuspension of fine sediments [4,9,10].…”