Spatial distribution of megabenthic communities and associated diversity in Cap de Creus continental shelf and submarine canyon (NW Mediterranean)
| Date | 2022-07-28 | ||||||||||
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| Temporal extent | 2007 -2014 | ||||||||||
| Author(s) | Dominguez-Carrió Carlos 1, 2, Riera Joan Lluís3, Robert Katleen4, 5, Zabala Mikel3, Requena Susana1, 6, Gori Andrea3, Orejas Covadonga8, 9, Lo Iacono Claudio1, 4, Estournel Claude7, Corbera Guillem1, Ambroso Stefano1, Uriz Maria Jesús10, López-González Pablo J.11, Sardá Rafael10, Gili Josep-Maria1 |
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| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Institut de Ciències del Mar, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ICM-CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain 2 : Instituto de Investigação em Ciências do Mar - Okeanos, Departamento de Oceanografia e Pescas, Universidade dos Açores, Rua Prof. Doutor Frederico Machado 4, 9901-862, Horta, Portugal 3 : Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 643, 08028, Barcelona, Spain 4 : National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, European Way, SO14 3ZH, Southampton, UK 5 : Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University, 155 Ridge Rd, St. John's, NL A1C 5R3, Canada 6 : RSPB, Centre for Conservation Science, The Lodge, Sandy SG19 2DL, Bedfordshire, UK 7 : Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (LEGOS), CNRS/UPS/CNES/IRD, Avenue Edouard Belin 14, 31400, Toulouse, France 8 : Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Gijón (IEO-CSIC), Avenida Príncipe de Asturias 70 bis, 33212 Gijón, Spain 9 : Hanse-Wissenschatfskolleg – Institute for Advanced Study (HWK), Lehmkuhlenbusch 4, 27753 Delmenhorst, Germany 10 : Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CEAB-CSIC), Carrer d’accés a la Cala Sant Francesc 14, 17300, Blanes, Spain 11 : Biodiversidad y Ecología Acuática, Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Sevilla, Spain |
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| DOI | 10.17882/89630 | ||||||||||
| Publisher | SEANOE | ||||||||||
| Keyword(s) | Invertebrate megafauna, Cold-water corals, Sponge grounds, Underwater images, Community analysis, Habitat mapping, Random Forest, Biodiversity, Natura 2000 Network | ||||||||||
| Abstract | In 2014, the continental shelf and submarine canyon off Cap de Creus (NW Mediterranean) were included in the Site of Community Importance (SCI) “South-West Gulf of Lions canyons system” of the Natura 2000 Network of protected areas. Before the declaration of the SCI (2007-2103), 60 underwater video transects were performed in the area by means of ROVs and a manned submersible, covering more than 30 km of seafloor. Based on the annotation of the video images, we identified the main invertebrate megabenthic communities dwelling from the shelf (70 m depth) down to the bottom of the canyon head (400 m depth). The results of the multivariate analyses indicated that this marine area hosted several benthic communities dominated by suspension- and filter-feeding species, including octocoral gardens, soft-coral assemblages, crinoid fields, sponge grounds and cold-water corals. This dataset includes (1) the geographical location of the benthic communities identified in the video footage, as determined by the clustering analysis, (2) the intra-community diversity associated to the benthic communities, provided as the number of megafauna species identified in each sampling unit and the exponential of Shannon, and (3) the spatial distribution of the benthic communities mapped by means of the Random Forest classification algorithm. This dataset is related to the article “Diversity, structure and spatial distribution of megabenthic communities in Cap de Creus continental shelf and submarine canyon (NW Mediterranean)” submitted to Progress in Oceanography by Dominguez-Carrió et al., which contains further information on how the data were obtained and processed. |
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| Acknowledgements | This dataset was obtained in the framework of the European projects HERMES (Goce-CT-2005-511234-I) and Life+ INDEMARES (LIFE07/NAT/E/000732), and the Spanish projects DEEP CORAL (CTM2005-07756-C02-02/MAR) and the Acciones Complementarias (CTM2005-24174-E, CTM2006-27063-E/MAR, CTM2007-28758-E/MAR). The authors thank the crew of the research vessel García del Cid and all scientists and technicians who participated in the DEEP CORAL, HERMES and INDEMARES cruises. We also thank Gavin Newman (ROV pilot) and the members of the JAGO Team Jürgen Schauer and Karen Hissmann (Geomar, Kiel) for the acquisition of the video footage, as well as the General Directorate of Fisheries Management of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) for providing of the VMS data and to Dan Orange (AOA Geophysics Inc.) for the bathymetric data of the submarine canyon. CD-C acknowledges the financial support received by the EU funded projects Life+ INDEMARES (LIFE07/NAT/E/000732) and ENPI ECOSAFIMED (ENPI CBC MED 2007-2013) and by the FCT-IP Project UIDP/05634/2020. | ||||||||||
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