Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 165, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112104
Keywords
Corallium rubrum; Marine plastic debris; Litter-fauna interactions; Mediterranean Sea; Restoration
Funding
- PON AIM - PON Ricerca e Innovazione 2014-2020 - Azione I.2 [1854833, 407]
- Italian PRIN2017 program
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The study found that the Mediterranean red coral can successfully colonize and grow on seafloor plastic litter, providing a new possibility for using plastic in restoration activities for the coral. However, this approach may have adverse effects on the population dynamics of the coral.
Seafloor macrolitter is ubiquitous in world?s oceans; still, huge knowledge gaps exist on its interactions with benthic biota. We report here the colonization of plastic substrates by the Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum (L. 1758), occurring both in controlled conditions and in the wild at ca. 85 m depth in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Juveniles settled on seafloor macro-litter, with either arborescent or encrusting morphology, ranging from 0.6 to 3.5 mm in basal diameter and 0.2?7.1 years of age, also including a fraction (20%) of potentially sexually mature individuals. In controlled conditions, larvae settled and survived on plastic substrates for >60 days. Our insights show that marine plastic debris can provide favourable substrate for C. rubrum settlement either in controlled conditions or in the wild, suggesting their possible use in restoration activities. However, we pinpoint here that this potential benefit could result in adverse effects on population dynamics.
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