Title
The rhizome layer of Posidonia oceanica: an important habitat for Mediterranean brachiopods
Abstract
Mediterranean brachiopods are elusive organisms to find alive even if the bathymetric range of some species extends to very shallow waters. We here record an abundant population of Joania cordata (Risso, 1826) and Argyrotheca cuneata (Risso, 1826) in the rhizome layer of a Posidonia oceanica (Linné) Delile, 1813 meadow in Plakias, southwestern Crete from 5 to 20 m depth. Altogether, we collected 963 living individuals and 4309 shells by suction sampling; it is the largest collection of living brachiopods in Posidonia meadows ever reported. Although literature records on the occurrence of shallow-water brachiopods in this habitat are few, we claim that Posidonia rhizomes are a particularly suitable infralittoral habitat for these organisms due to their sciaphilous conditions. Suction sampling is an effective technique to collect them and can enable the discovery of many more populations in the Mediterranean Sea.
Keywords
Joania cordataArgyrotheca cuneataSeagrassSuction samplingCreteEastern Mediterranean Sea
Object type
Language
English [eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1073095
Appeared in
Title
Marine Biodiversity
Volume
49
Issue
5
From page
2467
To page
2472
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date issued
2019
Access rights
Rights statement
© The Author(s) 2019

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