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25 Cold-Water Corals and Mud Volcanoes: Life on a Dynamic Substrate

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Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future

Part of the book series: Coral Reefs of the World ((CORW,volume 9))

Abstract

Mud volcanoes are prominent features in distinct areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Cádiz. Cold-water corals use these elevated structures as substrate and develop coral reefs during periods of suitable environmental conditions. So far, this partnership has only been reported from the Alborán Sea and the Gulf of Cádiz, where they occurred during the Bølling-Allerød to early Holocene and during the mid to late Holocene.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been developed as part of the SNF-funded project 4D-Diagenesis@Mound (SNF project n° 200021–149247). We are grateful to the editors and both reviewers Dr. Luis Pinheiro and Dr. Claudia Wienberg for very helpful and constructive comments to improve the manuscript. We dedicate this study to Jean-Pierre Henriet (1945–2017) for his influence and visionary work steering interdisciplinary research on cold-water corals and mud volcanoes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Andres Rüggeberg & Anneleen Foubert

Authors
  1. Andres Rüggeberg
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  2. Anneleen Foubert
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Correspondence to Andres Rüggeberg .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas

  2. Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre (ENALIA), Nicosia, Cyprus

    Carlos Jiménez

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Rüggeberg, A., Foubert, A. (2019). 25 Cold-Water Corals and Mud Volcanoes: Life on a Dynamic Substrate. In: Orejas, C., Jiménez, C. (eds) Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future. Coral Reefs of the World, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_25

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