Deep-sea coral habitats off the north atlantic Morocco: Distribution and associated communities.

The recent decline in the health status of deep-sea habitats around the world has pushed the need to document and map their distribution to preserve them in their marine ecosystems. This work describes deep-water coral habitats (133-729 m) and their associated communities, based on nine ROV video transects. These transects cover a 171 km sub-seafloor profile within a predefined 5560 km area along the North Atlantic coast of Morocco, surveyed in 2020 as part of a coral habitat mapping study under the FAO-NANSEN programme.

Do cold water corals provide an essential habitat for Helicolenus dactylopterus (Delaroche, 1809) in the Northwest Africa?

Cold water corals (CWC) provide habitats for many organisms including demersal fish. Bottom trawl observations have indicated a co-occurrence of the fish Helicolenus dactylopterus with CWC reefs, but a detailed understanding of this relation is lacking. To better understand the nature of this relation we have analyzed 85 video-lines from ROV dives conducted at 25-1700 m depth off Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal in 2020 and 2021.

Litter on the seafloor along the African coast and in the Bay of Bengal based on trawl bycatches from 2011 to 2020.

We present the occurrence of seafloor litter on the coast of Africa and in the Bay of Bengal based on records from the EAF-NANSEN Programme in 2011 to 2020. Litter bycatch records from 534 bottom trawls were standardized to km before analysis. Three percent of the records indicated areas of high littering and the highest densities occurred from 100 to 300 m in depth and 50 to 100 km from the coast.

A new species of Crinoniscus Pérez, 1900 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Crinoniscidae) parasitising the pedunculate barnacle Heteralepas newmani Buhl-Mortensen & Mifsud (Cirripedia: Heteralepadidae) with notes on its ecology and a review of the genus.

The new species Crinoniscus stroembergi n. sp. belonging to the parasitic isopod family Crinoniscidae Bonnier, 1900, is described from a pedunculate barnacle host collected in the Mediterranean Sea.

Does grab size influence sampled macrofauna composition? A test conducted on deep-sea communities in the northeast Atlantic.

In deep-sea surveys, heavy gears are often preferred to effectively collect macro benthos while smaller samplers are sufficient in coastal and shallow areas. However, there are few comparative studies of the samples retained and results gained from different-sized grabs. To study the differences in sampling properties between a small (sampling area of 0.

Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves.

Bottom trawlers land around 19 million tons of fish and invertebrates annually, almost one-quarter of wild marine landings. The extent of bottom trawling footprint (seabed area trawled at least once in a specified region and time period) is often contested but poorly described. We quantify footprints using high-resolution satellite vessel monitoring system (VMS) and logbook data on 24 continental shelves and slopes to 1,000-m depth over at least 2 years.

Amphipod family distributions around Iceland.

Amphipod crustaceans were collected at all 55 stations sampled with an epibenthic sledge during two IceAGE expeditions (Icelandic marine Animals: Genetics and Ecology) in 2011 and 2013. In total, 34 amphipod families and three superfamilies were recorded in the samples. Distribution maps are presented for each taxon along with a summary of the regional taxonomy for the group.

Marine litter in the Nordic Seas: Distribution composition and abundance.

Litter has been found in all marine environments and is accumulating in seabirds and mammals in the Nordic Seas. These ecosystems are under pressure from climatic change and fisheries while the human population is small. The marine landscapes in the area range from shallow fishing banks to deep-sea canyons.

Differences in biological traits composition of benthic assemblages between unimpacted habitats.

There is an implicit requirement under contemporary policy drivers to understand the characteristics of benthic communities under anthropogenically-unimpacted scenarios. We used a trait-based approach on a large dataset from across the European shelf to determine how functional characteristics of unimpacted benthic assemblages vary between different sedimentary habitats. Assemblages in deep, muddy environments unaffected by anthropogenic disturbance show increased proportions of downward conveyors and surface deposit-feeders, while burrowing, diffusive mixing, scavenging and predation traits assume greater numerical proportions in shallower habitats.

The use of benthic indicators in Europe: from the Water Framework Directive to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) are the European umbrella regulations for water systems. It is a challenge for the scientific community to translate the principles of these directives into realistic and accurate approaches. The aim of this paper, conducted by the Benthos Ecology Working Group of ICES, is to describe how the principles have been translated, which were the challenges and best way forward.

Carbon sequestration, the precautionary approach and the responsibility of scientists.

This paper reviews problems connected to the use of the deep-sea and sub-sea geological formations for carbon sequestration. We will focus on the risks and dangers involved in using this kind of large-scale engineering approach, which is not yet fully tested, to combat global warming. We will not provide a complete discussion on the technologies involved, but concentrate on a few principal questions, such as the responsibility of environmental scientists involved in this research.