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Changes and stability of a Mediterranean hard bottom benthic community over 25 years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2015

Marco Bertolino ,
Federico Betti ,
Marzia Bo ,
Riccardo Cattaneo-Vietti ,
Maurizio Pansini ,
Jeniffer Romero  and
Giorgio Bavestrello
Marco Bertolino*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy
Federico Betti
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy
Marzia Bo
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy
Riccardo Cattaneo-Vietti
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Maurizio Pansini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy
Jeniffer Romero
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy
Giorgio Bavestrello
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy
*
Correspondence should be addressed to:M. Bertolino, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy email: [email protected]
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Abstract

During the last decades, the Mediterranean shallow-water benthic communities have experienced significant changes in taxa composition and distribution. These variations were related to a complex set of anthropogenic stressors as well as to mass mortality events starting from 1999 and related to the current climatic changes. To evaluate the effect of these changes on long-living species with a limited larval dispersal capacity, a quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the shallow-water hard bottom community structure was performed over a pluri-decennial interval of time. The aim of this work was the comparison of the quali-quantitative occurrence and seasonal cycles of several benthic taxa living on a rocky cliff of the Portofino Promontory (eastern Liguria, Mediterranean Sea), from 15 to 20 m depth. The studied community, within a Lithophyllo–Halimedetum tunae association, was analysed by sets of photographs repeated, exactly in the same site, at 25 years of distance (1987/88 and 2012/13). The results suggest that the macroalgal coverage of the surveyed cliff suffered, during the monitored span of time, a significant depletion in quali-quantitative terms, while the overall sponge coverage remained almost unvaried. Nevertheless, a discrete analysis of the most common sponge species present in the study area showed significant variations, with some taxa now more abundant (Axinella spp. and Agelas oroides), some virtually stable (Cliona viridis and the complex of red encrusting sponges), and others drastically depleted (Chondrosia reniformis, Phorbas tenacior, Acanthella acuta, Ircinia spp., Dysidea avara and Petrosia ficiformis). Finally, some sponge species showed clear seasonal cycles indicating recruitment periods and post-recruit mortalities.

Keywords

rocky bottom marine communityPoriferastabilitystructural changesMediterranean Sea
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 96 , Issue 2: Proceedings of the 9th World Sponge Conference held in Fremantle Australia in 2013: New Frontiers in Sponge Science , March 2016 , pp. 341 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2015 

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