Diet and seasonal prey capture rates in the Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum L.)

Bathymetric distribution and growth rates of <i>Eunicella verrucosa</i> (Cnidaria: Gorgoniidae) populationsalong the Marseilles coast (France)

“…They are also equivalent to those noted in other Mediterranean gorgonians living at similar depths: 1.8 to 2.7 cm year -1 for Paramuricea clavata (Mistri andCecherelli 1994, Coma et al 1998), 2.2 cm year -1 for Eunicella singularis ) and 2.57 cm year -1 for Leptogorgia sarmentosa (Mistri and Ceccherelli 1993). Gorgonians are colonial suspension feeders that feed on plankton and on dissolved and particulate organic matter (Ribes et al 1999, Ribes et al 2003, Tsounis et al 2006. In colonial Anthozoa, food availability favours higher growth rates by affecting metabolic functions (Marschal et al 2004, Skoufas et al 2000, Mortensen and Buhl-Mortensen 2005.…”

“…Numerous studies of population dynamics, growth rate, reproduction and feeding ecology have been conducted on Mediterranean gorgonians, and in particular on Eunicella singularis, Paramuricea clavata and Corallium rubrum (Weinberg 1978, 1979, Vélimirov and Weinbauer 1991, Coma et al 1995, Mistri and Ceccherelli 1993, Garrabou and Harmelin 2002, Tsounis et al 2006, Linares et al 2007. Other studies have focused on distribution, autecology and growth of Leptogorgia sarmentosa (Weinberg 1978, Weinberg 1979, Francour and Sartoretto 1992, Mistri and Ceccherelli 1993.…”

Prey-capture rates in four Mediterranean cold water corals

“…gorgonians) or alcyonacean species Alcyonium siderium, Paramuricea clavata, and Leptogorgia sarmentosa (Coma et al 1994, Ribes et al 1998, Rossi et al 2004). Capture of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton or uptake of dissolved organic matter (DOM) have also been observed among corals and octocorals (Fabricius 1998, Orejas et al 2001, Ribes et al 2003, Picciano & Ferrier-Pagès 2007, Grover et al 2008, and some Mediterranean species are more or less omnivorous, taking advantage of a wide spectrum of food sources (Ribes et al 2003, Tsounis et al 2006. Further research may therefore identify a larger variety of prey types among CWC as well.…”

Reproductive patterns in deep versus shallow populations of the precious Mediterranean gorgonian Corallium rubrum (Linnaeus, 1758) (Sardinia, central-western Mediterranean)

“…Studies on demography (Santangelo & Abbiati, 2001;Garrabou & Harmelin, 2002), reproduction (Vighi 1972;Santangelo et al, 2003;Torrents et al, 2005;Tsounis et al, 2006a;Torrents & Garrabou, 2011;Bramanti et al, 2014), recruitment, settlement and mortality (Garrabou and Harmelin 2002;Bramanti et al, 2003Bramanti et al, , 2005Bramanti et al, , 2007, growth (Marschal et al, 2004;Bramanti et al, 2005;Gallmetzer et al, 2010), distribution and space competition (Giannini et al, 2003) and feeding ecology (Tsounis et al, 2006b;Picciano & Ferrier-Pagès 2007) have contributed to a better understanding of the ecology of mainly red coral shallow populations. Because of the wide bathymetric range of this species, which leads to huge sampling limitations for deeper populations (Genin et al, 1992), little attention is given to the deeper populations (50-200 m ) (Rossi et al, 2008;Cau et al, 2015bCau et al, , 2016Angiolillo et al, 2016;Benedetti et al, 2016).…”