engleski

The biodiversity of macrobenthos within the coralligenous community dominated by the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata in the central part of the Eastern Adriatic Sea (Croatia): preliminary results

The coralligenous is considered to be a „ hot spot“ of biodiversity in the Mediterranean and Paramuricea clavata assemblage is regarded as one of its most representative facies. Despite its ecological and economic value, the coralligenous in the Eastern Adriatic Sea remains poorly studied. The aim of this study was to determine macrobenthic species composition of the coralligenous community dominated by the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata and to assess its spatial variability. Four 25 x 25 cm random quadrats were scrapped off per site by SCUBA divers, on the vertical walls in the bathymetric range from 30 to 37 m. Preliminary results are available for 4 sites located in the central part of the Eastern Adriatic Sea: the east and the southwest part of the island Biševo and islands Mali Obručan and Rašip Veli in the Kornati archipelago. To date 82 bryozoan taxa, 11 species of anthozoans and 45 taxa of polychaetes were recorded. The analysis of other taxonomic groups is ongoing. The most dominant bryozoans were erect species Smittina cervicornis (Pallas, 1766) and Schizotheca serratimargo Hincks, 1886 as well as encrusting species Schizomavella cornuta (Hincks, 1880). Anthozoans noted during this study such as Monomyces pygmaea (Risso, 1826), Paracyathus pulchellus (Philippi, 1842) and Ceratotrochus magnaghii Cecchini, 1914 were rarely recorded in the Eastern Adriatic Sea. The majority of the noted polychaete fauna was typical of the coralligenous community with a dominance of serpulids. A multivariate analysis based on composition of species recorded so far showed no significant differences between studied sites. The present study will provide a baseline that enables detection of future changes in species composition of this valuable habitat.

macrobenthos; biodiversity; coralligenous; Adriatis Sea; Croatia

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