Recent ROV surveys conducted on the Ragusa bank in the Sicily Channel (Mediterranean Sea) documented illegal and continuous use of the 'ingegno' gear for red coral fishing. Three lost gears were recorded showing different levels of epibiosis thus supporting multi-annual exploitation of the bank. The red coral population of the Ragusa bank...
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2017 (v1)PublicationUploaded on: April 14, 2023
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2016 (v1)Publication
A new index of ecological status, named Mesophotic Assemblages Ecological Status (MAES) index, was elaborated on the basis of ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) photography and video footage in order to assess the status of mesophotic megabenthic assemblages from hard bottom. The index was tested on seven sites located between 50 and 150 m depth...
Uploaded on: April 14, 2023 -
2017 (v1)Publication
Ecological theory predicts that heterogeneous habitats allow more species to co-exist in a given area, but to date, knowledge on relationships between habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity of coral forests in the outer shelf and upper slope along continental margins is rather limited. We investigated biodiversity of coral forests from 8 sites...
Uploaded on: March 27, 2023 -
2017 (v1)Publication
Association between habitat structuring organisms and other species has great relevance for ecosystem-based conservation measures. Those occurring in temperate areas, particularly in the upper portion of the continental margin, are mostly unknown or not properly understood because of the difficulty to discriminate co-occurrence and real...
Uploaded on: March 27, 2023 -
2016 (v1)Publication
The Mediterranean red coral, Corallium rubrum, is one of the most precious corals worldwide. Below 50 m depth, C. rubrum populations are generally characterised by large and sparse colonies, whereas shallow populations (above 50 m depth) show high densities of small colonies. We show here instead that populations dwelling between 80 and 170 m...
Uploaded on: April 14, 2023 -
2016 (v1)Publication
Commercially harvested since ancient times, the highly valuable red coral Corallium rubrum (Linnaeus, 1758) is an octocoral endemic to the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent Eastern Atlantic Ocean, where it occurs on rocky bottoms over a wide bathymetric range. Current knowledge is restricted to its shallow populations (15-50 m depth), with...
Uploaded on: April 14, 2023 -
2015 (v1)Publication
Marine debris is a recognized global ecological concern. Little is known about the extent of the problem in the Mediterranean Sea regarding litter distribution and its influence on deep rocky habitats. A quantitative assessment of debris present in the deep seafloor (30–300 m depth) was carried out in 26 areas off the coast of three Italian...
Uploaded on: April 14, 2023 -
2015 (v1)Publication
Rocky pinnacles arising from soft bottoms of the circa-littoral zone may host oases of deepwater coral biodiversity: Engineer species that enhance ecosystems three-dimensional complexity often acting as shelter for associated fauna that can comprise commercially relevant species. Although variations in beta diversity of these coral oases were...
Uploaded on: April 14, 2023 -
2015 (v1)Publication
Leiopathes glaberrima is a tall arborescent black coral species structuring important facies of the deep-sea rocky bottoms of the Mediterranean Sea that are severely stifled by fishing activities. At present, however, no morphological in vivo description, ecological characterization, age dating and evaluation of the possible conservation...
Uploaded on: March 27, 2023 -
2018 (v1)Publication
The geological, biological and geochemical features of a particular field of hydrothermal vents, discovered in the Panarea Volcanic Complex during a research survey carried out in 2015, are described for the first time. The site, located at 70–80 m depth off the South-western coast of the islet of Basiluzzo, was named Smoking Land for the...
Uploaded on: April 14, 2023