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Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future pp 85–94Cite as

10 Bathyal Corals Within the Aegean Sea and the Adjacent Hellenic Trench

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

Abstract

Within the Aegean Sea and the adjacent Hellenic trench, 128 records of bathyal corals (>200 m water depth; only 6% recorded alive) are described so far, comprising 13 species. Further fossil occurrences of these corals are documented from 10 outcrops on Crete and Rhodes. Caryophyllia calveri, Caryophyllia sarsiae, Dendrophyllia cornigera, Desmophyllum dianthus, Javania cailleti, Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata, Schizocyathus fissilis, Stenocyathus vermiformis and Trochocyathus mediterraneus predominate in water depths >200 m. Although Caryophyllia smithii, Guynia annulata and Paracyathus pulchellus also occur in deeper waters, they are mainly reported from shallower water depths. Radiogenic dates obtained from various deep-water species imply their presence in this region since the mid-Pleistocene, however most dates exhibit ages since the last glacial maximum. All bathyal coral species are predominantly found on steep escarpments and topographic highs in coarse sediments or on hard substrates along the steep structured slope of the Hellenic Trench off Crete, Karpathos and Rhodes. A similar environment setting is reconstructed for the fossil occurrences on Rhodes.

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Acknowledgements

The author is especially grateful to Claudia Wienberg, Andrea Peirano, two anonymous reviewers and the editor Covadonga Orejas for their fruitful comments on previous drafts of the manuscript. The manuscript and author benefitted from data and funding of the DFG-project Fr 1134/7 Reaktionen benthischer Organismen auf rapide Umweltveränderungen im Plio-Pleistozän von Rhodos, östliches Mittelmeer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Bremen, Germany

    Jürgen Titschack

  2. SaM – Senckenberg am Meer Wilhelmshaven, Abteilung Meeresforschung, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Jürgen Titschack

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  1. Jürgen Titschack
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Correspondence to Jürgen Titschack .

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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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Titschack, J. (2019). 10 Bathyal Corals Within the Aegean Sea and the Adjacent Hellenic Trench. 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_10

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