Living in close quarters: epibionts on Dendrophyllia ramea deep-water corals (Cyprus and Menorca Channel)

41e Congres de la Commission Internationale pour l’Exploration Scientifique de la Mer Méditerranée (CIESM), 12-16 September 2016, Kiel.-- 1 page, 1 figureIn sharp contrast to shallow and/or tropical coral habitats, the role of deep-water corals (DWC) as habitat providers is not well known and even less understood. For this purpose, epibionts on the deep-water coral Dendrophyllia ramea were studied from samples collected in Cyprus and compared to those from Menorca Channel. A total of 63 species were found; bryozoans (ca. 60%) and serpulid polychaetes (ca. 10%) dominated the assemblage of species. Cyprus (48 species in total) and Menorca (22) corals shared few epizoic species (7). Several of these species were previously thought absent from the Levantine basin. These results are important contributions to the knowledge on the deep-water epibiotic biodiversity of the Levantine Basin and the Mediterranean Sea in generalPeer Reviewe