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Comunicación escrita (póster) a Congresos, • Cold-water corals (CWC) form complex 3-D structures that are biodiversity hotspots. However, the knowledge about their ecophysiological response to global change stressors (i.e. warming, acidification, decrease of dissolved oxygen concentration) is still very limited, as well as their possible interactions with local stressors such as the impacts from mining and fishing activities. • Three long-term, multi stressor experiments will explore the combined impact of several environmental and local stressors based on the IPCC projections on different CWC species across the North Atlantic. • Further experiments will include the addition of particles from mining or sediment from trawling activities to all treatments after long-term experiments finish to study the potential physical damage and ecotoxicological effects. • The results from these studies will increase our knowledge on the potential consequences of global change and local stressors and their possible interactions on CWC species and ecosystems that they form. • The results will contribute to support science-based marine spatial planning for the North Atlantic., European Union Commission Horizon 2020 Programa (grant agreement 818123), FEDER ((ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000140), Ayuntamiento de A Coruña (Spain) and Deep-Sea Biology Society

The year 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Narcís Monturiol, an engineer andinventor behind the development of the first self-propelled manned submersible:Ictineu. Sincethen, submarines have played an important role in marine scientific research. In this work, wewant to give credit to this inventor by sharing the experience of the authors both in the field ofscientific research and education based on the studies performed by the submarineJAGOoverthe seabed of Cap de Creus., L’any 2019 es commemoraren els 200 anys del naixement de Narcís Monturiol, enginyer i inventor,en tant que creador, del primer submarí tripulat de propulsió autònoma: l’Ictineu. Des d’ençà, elssubmarins tingueren i estan tenint un rol cada vegada més rellevant en la recerca científicamarina. En aquest treball volem fer un reconeixement a l’inventor, tot explicant l’experiència delsautors en el camp de la recerca científica i de l’educació a partir dels estudisfets als fons marinsdel cap de Creus amb el submaríJAGO

Occurrence and abundance of deep-water corals in the Levantine Mediterranean Sea is still largely unknown. This is the first attempt to quantitatively describe a Dendrophyllia ramea population discovered in June 2015 during the CYCLAMEN expedition on board the Research Vessel Aegaeo. This population is the deepest ever described until now in the Mediterranean and was found on the outer insular shelf off eastern Cyprus (Protaras, 35°02′N; 34°05′E). Video transects conducted by means of a remotely operated vehicle revealed a well-developed population of D. ramea located on a sandy seabed at 125–170 m depth. The highest density was 6 colonies m−2 and on average 1.6 ± 1.4 (SD) colonies m−2. The population consists of isolated or piled up branches of various sizes and large colonies, some ∼50 cm max width. The corals thrive on soft bottoms, representing a rather novel aspect of the research on D. ramea, since the species is still considered to be mostly associated with rocky substrates. The occurrence of the species in sedimentary grounds makes it especially vulnerable to bottom contact fishing gears as bottom trawling. Spatial distribution of the coral population, as well as a first attempt to characterize its habitat, are explored as an approach to describe the habitat's suitability and the vulnerability for the species in the area, Sí

En el mar profundo, allí donde la luz no llega a penetrar, el océano se hace oscuro y los ecosistemas dominados por organismos vegetales dejan paso a otros formados únicamente por animales. Entre estos ecosistemas de las zonas profundas, están los arrecifes y bosques de corales de profundidad. Como en el caso de los ecosistemas de corales tropicales, se trata de complejas estructuras tridimensionales generadas por el lento crecimiento de corales pétreos, cuyos esqueletos están formados por carbonato de calcio, así como de gorgonias y corales negros cuyos esqueletos tienen una estructura proteica. La complejidad estructural que estos organismos sésiles generan es aprovechada por multitud de especies de invertebrados y de peces que entre sus ramas encuentran refugio, alimento o el lugar idóneo de cría. Esta combinación de morfologías, colores y formas de vida da lugar a unos ecosistemas de altísima diversidad y de gran belleza. A diferencia de los corales tropicales, que se sustentan principalmente por la fotosíntesis de algas simbiontes albergadas en sus tejidos, los corales de profundidad se alimentan de las partículas y organismos que se encuentran suspendidos en el agua y que capturan gracias a los tentáculos de sus pólipos. Se trata por tanto de organismos exclusivamente heterotróficos que se alimentan de plancton y de partículas de materia orgánica. Los corales de profundidad están presentes en todos los océanos del planeta, principalmente entre 150 y 2000 m de profundidad, en aguas frías y ricas en alimento. En el Mar Mediterráneo son muchos los lugares en los que se ha observado la presencia de comunidades de corales de profundidad, especialmente en las cimas y flancos de montañas submarinas, así como en las paredes de los cañones submarinos que inciden los márgenes continentales. También se han documentado poblaciones de corales y gorgonias de profundidad en fondos rocosos de los sectores más profundos de las plataformas continentales y en sus márgenes. La elevada diversidad de especies asociada a los corales de profundidad hace de estas comunidades un enclave atractivo para la actividad pesquera. Redes y palangres de fondo pueden dañar o romper las ramas de los corales, favoreciendo así el crecimiento de organismos que los recubren y que pueden llegar a ocasionarles la muerte. Si bien la pesca de arrastre no actúa directamente en los fondos rocosos, ya que suponen un alto riesgo para el arte de pesca, el efecto que provoca su paso por los fondos sedimentarios cercanos es notable, suponiendo un importante aumento de sedimento en suspensión que puede llegar a dejar cubiertos a los corales por un fino fango del cual no pueden liberarse. A estos impactos directos hay que añadir la vulnerabilidad de estos organismos a los cambios fisicoquímicos y biológicos derivados del cambio global, especialmente los que afectan a la química de los carbonatos (acidificación), el aumento de la temperatura del agua de mar (estrés térmico) y los cambios en la circulación y la producción primaria (cambios en la disponibilidad de alimento). ​ Por todo ello, y teniendo en cuenta la elevada longevidad y el lento crecimiento de los corales de profundidad, es absolutamente necesario implementar medidas eficaces de protección de estos ecosistemas, que deben incluir la regulación de las actividades de pesca, la mejora en la selectividad de las artes de pesca para reducir su impacto, y el establecimiento de áreas marinas protegidas que incluyan las comunidades de corales de profundidad.

In September-October 2016 the oceanographic cruise MEDWAVES was conducted (in the frame of the ATLAS project H2020), in order to follow the path of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) in the Atlantic from Cádiz to the Azores. MEDWAVES aimed to investigate the influence of the MOW in the community composition of benthic assemblages in several Atlantic geomorphological features. One of the targeted areas was the Ormonde seamount in the Atlantic Ocean, 160 nautical miles SW off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. This seamount, together with the Gettysburg seamount, is part of a volcanic ridge named Gorringe that rises from 5,000 m to less than 80m depth, respectively representing the abyssal plain until the photic zone. Its panoply of marine life and environments increased the demand for conservation measures. Consequently, Gorringe bank is currently protected by the Habitats Directive and part of Natura 2000 network since 2015. Other protective measures include the intention to designate the Gorringe Bank,as part of the seamount complex Madeira-Tore, as new Portuguese MPA of large dimensions delimited in deep oceanic areas, under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive implementation. Given its ecological importance and location through the pass of the MOW, the Ormonde seamount was selected as one of the main target areas during the MEDWAVES cruise. Six ROV dives were conducted with the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) “Liropus” (IEO), covering the Northeast and North flanks of the seamount between 1,950 and 600 meters depth. As expected, the depth gradient revealed different benthic communities in the distinct depth zones. Ormonde seems to be a flourishing area for deep-sea sponges (e.g. Asconema sp.), present in high densities along with high species diversity. Scleractinian corals (e.g. Solenosmillia variabilis) as well as gorgonians (e.g. Viminella sp., Corallium tricolor) and black corals (e.g. Stichopathes sp.) were also present in the area displaying varying density patterns in the different flanks of the seamount. The depth gradient is also related with a vertical variation of the water masses, among others, the MOW, located between 500 and 1,400 m depth, with salinities from 35.6 to 36.4 and temperatures between 10 and 12°C. In this work we present the first characterization of the deep benthic megafauna communities of Ormonde and its potential relation to depth, substrate type and water masses.

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The aim of the talk is to give an overview to the ATLAS partners of the PhD thesis that is being carried out by Cristina Gutiérrez and supervised by Cova Orejas and Andrea Gori. This PhD is focused on the characterisation and comparison of the deep benthic communities located inside and outside the depth range influenced by the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW), to understand the possible current and past relationship between Atlantic and Mediterranean deep benthic communities mediated by the oceanographic settings. The study is based on the data acquired during the MEDWAVES cruise (September-October 2016), where selected study sites influenced by the MOW were analysed (the mud volcano Gazul, Formigas and Ormonde seamounts and Seco de los Olivos). ROV transects were conducted and High Definition videos recorded. Video transects are currently under quantitative analysis. After finishing the characterisation of the deep benthic communities, a comparative analysis among the study areas will be carried out based on the community composition, abundance and distribution pattern of the dominant species, as well as their population structure. To conduct this comparison, the relationship between the main environmental features (physicochemical characteristics of seawater and geomorphological characteristics of the sea floor) and the benthic community composition and biological features in the study areas will be analysed, including spatial explicit GIS-based analyses (e.g. species distribution models). Finally, innovative next-generation indexes will be generated, specifically designed for the reliable assessment of the ecological state and degree of vulnerability of deep benthic ecosystems. This is of particular scientific interest nowadays in order to generate new procedures for the study of marine vulnerable ecosystems (VMEs) such as deep sponge grounds and CWC communities. The results of this PhD project will lead to an evaluation of the conservation status of the studied benthic communities, helping to address the Good Environmental Status (GES) in the deep sea, and contributing to the Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). In addition, these results will contribute to establish conservation areas based on their species composition, vulnerability, and ecological role of the habitats

The 2nd International Symposium on Submarine Canyons (INCISE2014), 29th September-1st October 2014, Edinburgh.-- 1 page, Predictive habitat mapping has shown great promise to improve the understanding of the spatial distribution of benthic habitats. However, although they surely represent an important step forward in process-based ecosystem management, their predictive efficiency is not always tested by independent groundtruthing data. This is particularly true for the deep-sea environment, where sample data are always limited compared to the large extent of the areas to be mapped. The aim of this study is to apply and test different spatial models to statistically predict the distribution of three Cold-Water Coral (CWC) species (Madrepora oculata, Lophelia pertusa and Dendrophyllia cornigera) in the Cap de Creus Canyon (NW Mediterranean), based on high-resolution swath-bathymetry data and video observations from the submersible JAGO (IFM-GEOMAR). Submarine canyons act as specific hosting areas for CWCs, owing to their favourable environmental conditions, which provide habitat and shelter for a wide range of species, including commercially viable fish. Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt), General Additive Model (GAM) and decision tree model (Random Forest) were independently applied to represent non-linear species-environment relationships using terrain variables derived from multibeam bathymetry (slope, geomorphologic category, rugosity, aspect, backscatter). Relevant differences between the three models were observed. Nonetheless, the predicted areas where CWCs should be found with higher probabilities coincided for the three methods when a lower spatial scale was considered. According to the models, CWCs are most likely to be found on the medium to steeply sloping, rough walls of the southern flank of the canyon, aligning with the known CWC ecology acquired from previous studies in the area. As a final step, a probabilistic predictive ensemble has been produced merging the outcomes of the three models considered, providing a more robust prediction for the three species. The main insight is that important discrepancies can arise in using different species distribution models, especially when high spatial resolutions are considered. This could in part be the result of the different statistical assumptions behind each of the models. We suggest that a more reliable prediction could be obtained by merging models into spatial ensembles, able to reduce differences and associated uncertainties, showing hence a strong potential as an objective approach in the planning and management of natural resources

XVII Simposio Ibérico de Estudios de Biología Marina (SIEBM), 11-14 September 2012, Donostia-San Sebastián

Growth rates of 4 Cold-water Coral (CWC) species (Madrepora occulata, Lophe/ia pertusa, Desmophyllum cristagalli and Dendrophyllia cornigera) from the Mediterranean Sea have been measured under the same and controlled laboratory conditions over a nine months period. Results showed that M. occulata grew faster than the other three species, which presented similar growth rates. These results are discussed and also compared with the growth of tropical coral species maintained in aquaria, but in different light and temperature conditions, which corresponded to the usual culture conditions of these corals. It appeared that the zooxanthellate tropical coral Galaxea fascicularis exhibited similar growth rates than the CWC M. oculata. Further we present new research areas on the Atlantic and Cantabrian continental margin, the Galicia Bank and the Aviles canyon, which are part of the zones studied in the Spanish LIFE project INDEMARES, as well as possible targets as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the NATURA 2000 network. Both areas are studied considering an ecosystem approach, aboarding an integrated study of the physical scenario (hydrography, geomorphology), all ecosystem compartments (fish, endo-, epi-, and suprabenthic and benthopelagic fauna) and the trophic relationships between them. All this information, together with the study of the impact of the fisheries working in the areas, will be integrated in a trophodynamic mass-balance model and will be used to identify vulnerable ecosystems (VE) (as the CWC habitats are) and essential fish habitats (EFH). This methodological approach offers a holistic view of these deep-sea ecosystems and can be used to design more effective and successful management strategies for MPAs

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At any scale, corals are live buildings. Their carbonate skeletons constitute three-dimensional frameworks allowing the delicate coral polyp to emerge from the sea bottom and populate vast areas of the ocean. The role that corals play in the oceans defies any attempt at simplification since it transcends the life span of the small polyp, geological time, and ecological space. Long after the polyps are gone, coral skeletons continue to play an important ecological role by hosting assemblages of disparate species utilizing the calcareous remains. However, the skeleton is one of the reasons coral has a privileged position in human culture. Coral has been regarded as mystic object and unique material of lapidary medical and apotropaic properties, this in great part due to the architecture and arrangement of the skeleton, growth morphologies, and color. Human history has been carved in chalk-white coral tombstones, on effigies, and on painted coral skeletons. Coral eyes of basaltic sentinels on Easter Island contemplate a plethora of coral artifacts scattered along the footpath of mankind: mortuary offerings, statues of pagan goddesses, helmets of Celtic warriors, military fortifications, and insular mosques shared the dream of the stone, when life seemed to depart from the mineral limbo, in the figure of the humble coral polyp. This chapter is the continuation of a personal journey into the coral forest of the world’s oceans (see chapter “The Builders of the Oceans – Part I: Coral Architecture from the Tropics to the Poles, from the Shallow to the Deep”). A selection of examples of human interactions with the “stone from the sea” will illustrate this complex and fascinating relationship with coral Versión del editor

At any scale, corals are live buildings. Their carbonate skeletons constitute three-dimensional frameworks allowing the delicate coral polyp to emerge from the sea bottom and populate vast areas of the ocean. These constructions, reminders of the structural complexity found in the forest, are found everywhere in the Earth’s oceans, from the polar regions to the tropics and from the tidal pools to the dark abyssal plains. They can be found as solitary or in modest aggregations of a few centimeters in size or gargantuan colonies of mythological proportions; when many, they can create the largest nonhuman structures built by organisms. Life and death of the coral “trees” are influenced by the mineral architecture and the presence of bioeroders. Shape and size facilitate or restrict their access to food and light and influence structural strength tested by currents and swells. The role that corals play in the oceans defies any attempt at simplification since it transcends the life span of the small polyp, geological time, and ecological space. Long after the polyps are gone, coral skeletons continue to harbor numerous organisms of disparate nature by overgrowing, drilling, and dissolving the carbonates. These chapters are a personal journey into the coral forest of the world’s oceans, with stations along singular aspects of their present and past. Our point of departure is the ecosystem engineering of the coral polyp through the construction of its skeleton, followed by selected examples of human interactions with the “stone from the sea” ( see Chapter “The Builders of the Oceans – Part II: Corals from the Past to the Present (The Stone from the Sea)” Versión del editor

In the marine benthos, megabenthic communities dominated by sessile suspension feeders (such as sponges, corals, and bivalves) form three-dimensional structures which provide architectural complexity and shelter for several species. These communities are, in part, structurally and functionally similar to the terrestrial forests, with the main difference that they are dominated by animals instead of plants. The term “animal forests” has been introduced to describe these communities, highlighting the structural and functional similarities with their terrestrial counterparts trying to gather, in a single concept, all the three-dimensional alive structures dominated by sessile animals. Among the animal forests, tropical coral reefs, due to their high biodiversity, have been defined as the “rainforests of the sea” and have attracted the interest of scientists all over the world. However, during the last decades, many other animal forests have been subjected to the attention of the scientific community; Cold-water coralcommunities, with their key role in ecosystem functioning, fisheries sustainability, and potential carbon sinks in deep benthic ecosystems, are an example of other animal forests that probably cover larger extensions than the tropical shallow coral reefs, but for which the distribution and fully understanding of their functionality are still largely unknown. Similarly, recent technological advances have allowed scientists to explore the mesophotic environment, revealing complex and unknown animal forests in the so-called twilight zone. Gradually, we begin to understand the real extension of these threedimensional benthic communities and their ecological importance. The animal forests are probably one of the most widely distributed ecosystems on the planet, due to the wide spectra of environments they occupy, from the shallow mussel beds to the tropical and the deepest cold-water coral communities or Antarctic sponge grounds. However, during the last 20 years or so, there has been an increasing evidence of important changes in marine ecosystems due to human-induced disturbances, which are dramatically reducing biodiversity, biomass, and the potential recover of the animal forests all over the world. Many aspects related to the occurrence, distribution, life history, population dynamics, trophic ecology, or physiology of the organisms which structure these communities still need to be understood in order to get an insight into their functional ecology and dynamics. The concept of animal forests imply a holistic approach allowing the pooling of different ecosystems under the same umbrella and possibly lead to a better understanding of their ecological role and the application of effective management and conservation measures.&nbsp