COMUNITATS NECTO-I EPI-BENTÒNIQUES DELS FONS CIRCALITORALS I BATIALS SEDIMENTARIS AL VOLTANT DE L'ARXIPÈLAG DE CABRERA: INVENTARIAT, CARACTERITZACIÓ I EVOLUCIÓ TEMPORAL.

The analysis of 288 samples obtained during 2001-2016 with bottom trawl and epi-benthic sledge between 42 and 900 m depth, has allowed characterizing the benthic communities of the sedimentary bottoms off Cabrera. Up to 328 species/taxa of decapod crustaceans, cephalopod molluscs and nekto-benthic fish collected with trawl, and 496 species/taxa with sledge, mostly crustaceans, algae, molluscs and fish have been registered. This biodiversity is similar, and even higher, to that of other areas of the Balearic Islands. It can be highlighted maërl-forming algae, a protected habitat, introduced algae and other species not reported up to now in the area, as well as the high diversity of sprouts, especially vulnerable to fishing. Three communities have been identified: (i) continental shelf, where algae, echinoderms, ascidians, sponges, mollusks, cephalopods and fish predominate; (ii) shelf break and upper slope, where echinoderms, decapod crustaceans and fish predominate; and (iii) middle slope, with decapods crustaceans and fish; a pattern that coincides with that described throughout the Mediterranean. Nekto-benthic communities have show stability during the last decades, in accordance with the reduction of the bottom trawl fleet exploiting them. These results, most of them obtained by the scientific monitoring program of European fisheries, which allows assessing not only the living resources and the impact of fishing on the ecosystems, but also to study the biodiversity, contribute to improve the scientific knowledge of marine flora and fauna off Cabrera, as a fundamental tool for its management, to make compatible the marine conservation with the sustainability of fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]