Aim The exploration of submarine canyons offshore southwestern Australia using remotely operated vehicles (ROV) has documented the occurrence of cold‐water coral (CWC) ecosystems, predominantly along the heads and slopes of the canyons. Representing the first major ROV investigation in this region, information on CWC distribution in this area is still limited. Here we apply a habitat suitability model (HSM) to identify the pot...

Ocean acidification is thought to be a major threat to coral reefs: laboratory evidence and CO 2 seep research has shown adverse effects on many coral species, although a few are resilient. There are concerns that cold‐water corals are even more vulnerable as they live in areas where aragonite saturation (Ω ara ) is lower than in the tropics and is falling rapidly due to CO 2 emissions. Here, we provide laboratory evidence tha...

Much attention is currently devoted at upgrading our knowledge on biodiversity and functioning of deep water ecosystems. Information is constantly enriched by researchers, even from basins as the long-studied Mediterranean Sea. In such a perspective, we studied meiobenthic and nematode communities inhabiting muddy sediments from three different habitats at bathyal depths in the Strait of Sicily: a cold-water coral site (CS) in...

Recent ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) exploration and bottom sampling in the southern Adriatic Sea (Apulian and Montenegrin margins) resulted in the discovery of cnidarian-rich deep-sea habitats in the depth range of ca. 400-700 m. In particular, ROV inspection of Montenegrin canyons reveals the existence of megabenthic communities dominated by a variety of cnidarians, including scleractinians (Madrepora oculata, Lophelia per...

The MARCOS cruise, which took place in the South Central Mediterranean Sea on board the RV ‘Urania’, resulted in the collection of 27 species of Echinodermata from shallow to bathyal depths, many from around Malta (the Fisheries Management Zone). The fauna is represented by common to rare taxa already reported from the Mediterranean with the exception of the amphi-Atlantic ophiuroid Ophiotreta valenciennesi rufescens (Koehler,...