ROV-SCUBA integrated survey of the Montecristo Island Nature Reserve (Tuscan Archipelago National Park, Mediterranean Sea)

摘要

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey aimed at exploring the waters around Montecristo Island, a nature reserve in the Tuscan Archipelago (Tyrrhenian Sea), was carried out in summer 2008 down to a maximum depth of ca. 160m. The main target of this exploration was checking the potential occurrence of deepwater scleractinian corals. Whilst the ROV transects did not document any deepwater corals, they did reveal that the coarse detrital bottom of the Montecristo granitic edifice between 110-160m was dominated by a crinoid facies made of Leptometra phalangium (Muller, 1841) with a density of up to 15 individuals per m~2.