Topic
Polycyathus muellerae
About: Polycyathus muellerae is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2 publications have been published within this topic receiving 22 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: The main reef-building scleractinians lacked algal symbionts, suggesting that heterotrophy had a major role in the metabolic processes that supported the production of calcium carbonate.
Abstract: This is the first description of a Mediterranean mesophotic coral reef. The bioconstruction extended for 2.5 km along the Italian Adriatic coast in the bathymetric range −30/−55 m. It appeared as a framework of coral blocks mostly built by two scleractinians, Phyllangia americana mouchezii (Lacaze-Duthiers, 1897) and Polycyathus muellerae (Abel, 1959), which were able to edify a secondary substrate with high structural complexity. Scleractinian corallites were cemented by calcified polychaete tubes and organized into an interlocking meshwork that provided the reef stiffness. Aggregates of several individuals of the bivalve Neopycnodonte cochlear (Poli, 1795) contributed to the compactness of the structure. The species composition of the benthic community showed a marked similarity with those described for Mediterranean coralligenous communities and it appeared to be dominated by invertebrates, while calcareous algae, which are usually considered the main coralligenous reef-builders, were poorly represented. Overall, the studied reef can be considered a unique environment, to be included in the wide and diversified category of Mediterranean bioconstructions. The main reef-building scleractinians lacked algal symbionts, suggesting that heterotrophy had a major role in the metabolic processes that supported the production of calcium carbonate. The large amount of available suspended organic matter in the area could be the main nutritional source for these species, as already suggested in the literature referred to Mediterranean cold-water corals.
52 citations
1 Jan 1994
TL;DR: In this article, 17 species of scleractinia have been found in the Basque coast (SE Bay of Biscay), in between the tide marks and the bathyal leve.
Abstract: espanolEn el presente articulo se citan 17 especies del orden Scleractinia halladas en la costa vasca desde la zona de mareas hasta el piso batial. De las 10 halladas desde el infralitoral hasta el circalitoral inclusive, se aportan para aquellas de mayor interes descripciones originales, y para todas observaciones anatomico-morfologicas, sistematicas y biocenologicas, asi como su distribucion geografica que incluye todas las citas del Golfo de Vizcaya. En la fauna de la costa vasca se demuestra la existencia de tres especies mas que en sectores mas septentrionales -Monomyces pygmaea, Paracyathus pulchellus y Polycyathus muellerae- que poseen su limite de distribucion septentrional en el extremo SE del Golfo de Vizcaya y que hasta este momento se consideraba que estaba situado para dos de ellas, M. pygmaea y P. muellerae, al sur de Portugal. P. muellerae y Caryophyllia inornata, son capaces de constituir facies esciafilas de dominancia animal infralitorales, descritas previamente solo del Mediterraneo, siendo ademas las especies de mas amplia distribucion en comunidades infralitorales entre 6 y 30 m de profundidad. EnglishIn the present article, 17 species of scleractinia were cited off the Basque coast (SE Bay of Biscay), in between the tide marks and the bathyal leve!. Out of the 10 littoral species, the more interesting ones have been anatomically described, and taxonomical, ecological, biocenological and biogeographical remarks are given for ali. Within the Basque littoral fauna, three more species (Monomyces pygmaea, Paracyathus pulchellus and Polycyathus muellerae) have been found in respect to the more northern faunas, or even other points in the southern part of the Bay of Biscay, and that have their northern limit in this area; two of them, M. pygmaea and P. muellerae, were previously not know further north than the southern part of Portugal, and the presence of Paracyathus pulchellus has been confirmed. Caryophyllia inornata and P. muellerae, are typical of infralittoral communities between 6 and 30 m. depth, and are also the most widespread scleractinia at these levels. Scleractinia communities of animal dominance are not uncommon, being P. muellerae and C. inornata the main components of the community; this kiml of facies were previously described and found in Europe only in the Mediterranean. euskaraEuskal kostaldean aurkitutako Scleractinia ordenaren 17 espezie aipatzen
2 citations
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 |
| 1994 | 1 |