Biocenosis of Mediterranean upper bathyal rock

Description (English)

The deep sea corals, also called white corals, imperfectly known in the Mediterranean, basically includes two major ramified species Lophelia prolifera and Madrepora oculata, which are relicts of the cold fauna of the Quaternary. These white coral clumps only exist at appreciable depth, starting from 200 meters down, on the edges of canyons, where the slope and turbulence are sufficient for the hard substratum (standing rock or consolidated thanatocoenosis) to carry little sediment. The living parts of these clumps usually seem to be reduced to the tips of the branches. The dead parts that are not under mud are very much colonised by bryozoans, brachiopods and serpulid polychaetes, and constitute centers of diversity for the sessile fauna of the continental slope. These species are able to create two single facies or a third, characterised by the copresence of these two species.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification