A deep-water crinoid Leptometra celtica bed off the Portuguese south coast
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A deep-water crinoid Leptometra celtica bed off the Portuguese south coast Paulo Fonseca & Fátima Abrantes & Ricardo Aguilar & Aida Campos & Marina Cunha & Daniel Ferreira & Teresa P. Fonseca & Silvia García & Victor Henriques & Margarida Machado & Ariadna Mechó & Paulo Relvas & Clara F. Rodrigues & Emília Salgueiro & Rui Vieira & Adrian Weetman & Margarida Castro
Received: 9 May 2013 / Revised: 23 October 2013 / Accepted: 23 October 2013 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract The existence of a wide bed of the crinoid Leptometra celtica (M’Andrew and Barrett 1857), at approximately 500 m depth, off the Portuguese south coast is inferred from remotely operated vehicle (ROV) transects carried out as part of a research project (IMPACT) aimed at evaluating the impact of bottom trawling on the burrowing crustacean Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) fishing grounds. The crinoid bed is located in an enclave of gravelly sand surrounded by muddy sediments, the latter constituting the typical habitat of Norway lobster. An overall description of the geological and oceanographic features off the Portuguese southern coast is presented, highlighting the complexity of factors influencing the research zone. A delimitation of the crinoid bed and a comparison of taxa richness for the P. Fonseca (*) : F. Abrantes : A. Campos : D. Ferreira : T. P. Fonseca : V. Henriques : E. Salgueiro Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), Avenida de Brasília, 1449-006 Lisbon, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] R. Aguilar : S. García OCEANA, Leganitos, 47, 28013 Madrid, Spain M. Cunha : C. F. Rodrigues : R. Vieira Departamento de Biologia & CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal M. Machado : P. Relvas : M. Castro Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal A. Mechó Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta, 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain A. Weetman Marine Laboratory, Marine Scotland Science (MSS), 375 Victoria Road, PO Box 101, Aberdeen AB11 9DB, UK
epibenthic megafauna of the adjacent towed zone are carried out. This finding highlights the urgent need for a comprehensive mapping programme to allow for the identification and preservation of sensitive habitats within the scope of the European Union Habitats and Marine Strategy Framework Directives. Keywords Crinoid bed . Leptometra celtica . Deepwater benthic habitats . ROV transects . South Portugal
Introduction A fishery for Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris) and other deep sea species (Figueiredo et al. 2001; Fonseca et al. 2007) has been undertaken off the south and southwest coasts of Portugal for more than 60 years. Areas targeted by this fishery are of depths between 150 and 700 m and consist of muddy sediment, which represents more than 2/3 of the sea bed between the 500-m bathymetric line and the coastline (MAMAOT 2012). Although
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