engleski

Conservation status of the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata (Risso, 1826) populations from the Eastern Adriatic Sea

The red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata (Octocorallia, Cnidaria) is a long-lived, structurally important species in the Mediterranean benthic communities affected by several disturbances such as destructive fishing activities, mucilage events and mass mortality outbreaks caused by elevated seawater temperature. Given that almost all of the data currently available for this species were gathered in the NW Mediterranean Sea, we aimed to assess P. clavata conservation status in the Eastern Adriatic Sea. The density, size, biomass and necrosis rates were examined in 9 populations distributed along 200 km of the coastline, in the depth range from 30 to 50 m. The density ranged between 7 and 20 colonies per m2 whereas biomass ranged from 156 to 714 g per m2. The mean colony height was 31.2 cm and the maximum was 138 cm. The populations displayed different size frequency distributions indicating contrasting population dynamics. The presence of large colonies (> 80 cm) in several populations is noteworthy. For all populations, the extent of injury (i.e. denuded axis or present epibiosis) of P.clavata colonies was on average 9.7 ± 4% (mean ± SD), ranging from 2 to 20%. In addition, the proportion of healthy colonies (with <10% of injured surface) was high (>70%) in almost all of studied populations. The observed impact levels and size structure suggest good conservation status of P. clavata populations in the Eastern Adriatic Sea and provide baseline for their monitoring in the future.

Adriatic Sea; Paramuricea clavata monitoring baseline

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