Chimienti Giovanni, Tursi Andrea, Logrieco Alessia, Notarangelo Silvia, Mastrototaro Francesco
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology, and Environment, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Orabona 4, 70126, Bari, Italy.
CoNISMa, National Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences, Piazzale Flaminio 9, 00197, Rome, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 14;15(1):16690. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-01554-6.
The colonial coral Cladocora caespitosa is a Mediterranean-endemic scleractinian structuring ecosystems of great conservation and ecological importance. Their nomenclature is here revised distinguishing between three different C. caespitosa formations: beds, grounds and reefs. Here we describe an extensive C. caespitosa bed at Tremiti Islands (Italy, Adriatic Sea), where thousands of colonies develop as free-living coral nodules (coralliths) on a soft, detritic bottom. Colonies were seldom present shallower than 15 m depth as well as on rocky bottoms, while their density increased with depth up to 700 colonies 100 m at 22 m. Their bathymetric occurrence was primarily influenced by seawater temperatures, particularly during summer, when a marked thermocline act as protection against high temperatures. The conservation status of the C. caespitosa bed was overall good, with low epibiosis/necrosis, and negligible bleaching. Demographic traits and size-structure of both colonies and polyps (through corallites) are reported. These rare coral formations might be affected by anthropogenic threats at both local and global scale, thus appropriate conservation measures are needed to avoid significant impacts in the future.
群体珊瑚鹿角杯形珊瑚是地中海特有的石珊瑚，对构建生态系统具有重大的保护和生态意义。在此对其命名法进行修订，区分出三种不同的鹿角杯形珊瑚形态：珊瑚床、珊瑚地和珊瑚礁。在此，我们描述了意大利亚得里亚海特里米蒂群岛一处广阔的鹿角杯形珊瑚床，在那里，数千个群体以自由生活的珊瑚瘤（珊瑚石）的形式生长在松软的碎屑底部。在深度小于15米处以及岩石底部很少有群体存在，而其密度随深度增加，在22米深处每100平方米可达700个群体。它们的深度分布主要受海水温度影响，特别是在夏季，此时明显的温跃层起到了抵御高温的作用。鹿角杯形珊瑚床的保护状况总体良好，附生生物/坏死现象较少，白化现象可忽略不计。报告了群体和珊瑚虫（通过珊瑚石）的种群特征和大小结构。这些罕见的珊瑚形态可能会受到局部和全球尺度上人为威胁的影响，因此需要采取适当的保护措施以避免未来产生重大影响。
