Ramalho, L.V.; López-Fé, C M.; Mateo-Ramírez, A.; Rueda, J.L. (2020). Bryozoa from deep-sea habitats of the northern Gulf of Cádiz (Northeastern Atlantic). Zootaxa. 4768(4): 451-478.

379527

10.11646/zootaxa.4768.4.1 [view]

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:341C80B1-AE7A-46A9-AEC6-EE11CD1E3106 [view]

Ramalho, L.V.; López-Fé, C M.; Mateo-Ramírez, A.; Rueda, J.L.

2020

4768(4): 451-478

Publication

The Gulf of Cádiz (GoC) is located in the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by the southwestern Iberian and northwestern Moroccan margins, west of Gibraltar. Following Machín et al. (2006), the GoC is defined as a wide prism in the Atlantic region west of the Strait of Gibraltar that goes from Cape St. Vincent, in the southwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, to Cape Beddouza in the Moroccan coast, at about 32.6°N (Fig. 1). The GoC represents an area with a high seepage activity in a contourite channeled drift, which also generates a high geodiversity with submarine structures such as mud volcanoes (MVs), mud diapirs (MDs), mud volcanoes/mud diapirs complexes (MVDs), diapiric ridges, pockmarks as well as abundant contouritic bottoms and channels (Somoza et al. 2003; Díaz del Río et al. 2003; León et al. 2007; Palomino et al. 2016; Lozano et al. 2020). In this area ca. 70 MVs and MVDs have been detected so far on the upper and middle part of the continental slopes of the southern Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Morocco (between 300 and 4000 m) (Fernández-Puga et al. 2007; León et al. 2007, 2012; Palomino et al. 2016). In some MVs and MVDs the seafloor contains methane-derived authigenic carbonates (MDACs) such as chimneys, slabs and crusts that are formed after anaerobic methane oxidation and sulfide reduc- tion by chemosynthetic bacteria (Díaz del Río et al. 2003; León et al. 2007). These MDACs represent a source of hard substrates that are available for colonization by a wide variety of sessile fauna such as poriferans, gorgonians, cold-water corals, antipatharians, sponges and bryozoans as well as mobile invertebrates and fishes (Vanreusel et al. 2009; Rodrigues et al. 2013; Rueda et al. 2012, 2016; Palomino et al. 2016; Lozano et al. 2020). Those areas with abundant MDACs increase the seabed complexity and biodiversity in comparison to the adjacent muddy bottoms (Rueda et al. 2012). The GoC is strongly influenced by the deep Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW), which may produce strong bottom currents in specific areas, favoring the exhumation of MDACs that were once formed under- neath the sediment by the chemosynthetic bacteria. Moreover, the MOW can also promote the presence of typical Mediterranean fauna in some regions of the northeastern part of the GoC where the MOW influence is more acute (Palomino et al. 2016; Rueda et al. 2016; Sánchez-Leal et al. 2017; Ramalho et al. 2018a; Sitjà et al. 2019).

Eastern Atlantic warm temperate to boreal

Systematics, Taxonomy

Ectoprocta

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