Phyllophora in The Black Sea
Phyllophora in The Black Sea
Phyllophora in The Black Sea
Dragos Micu1, Gabriel Ion2, Mihaela C. Melinte-Dobrinescu2, Stefan Strungariu3, Nataliya Milchakova4, Andrei Briceag2, Constantin Ungureanu2, Sorin Balan2 1NIRDEP - NIMRD Grigore Antipa, 300 Mamaia Blvd., RO-90058, Constanta, Romania E-mail: [email protected] 2National Institute for Research and Development GeoEcoMar, Constanta, Romania 3Marine Research Station Ioan Borcea, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania 4IBSS-NASU Sevastopol, Ukraine
BACKGROUND
Phyllophora fields are a bioengineered habitat type unique to the Black Sea, consisting of extensive stands of perennial red algae (genera Phyllophora, Coccotylus) developing on circalittoral hard substrata and a highly diverse associated fauna. Zernovs Phyllophora Field - located on the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea - is the largest, comprising the worlds most abundant stands of Phyllophoraceae. In its pristine state (1950s-1960s) Zernov s Phyllophora Field used to have a southern lobe extending into the Romanian Black Sea. During the 1970s and 1980s the Northwestern Black Sea was heavily impacted by eutrophication and this, together with commercial harvesting of the Phyllophoraceae, resulted in the reduction of Zernov s Phyllophora Field by several orders of magnitude, only a cluster of small fragmented nuclei surviving inside Odessa Bay. The diversity of the associated fauna and flora was also severely reduced (a 75% decrease in the species richness of macroalgae). Starting with 2004 a trend of slow recovery of Zernov s Phyllophora Field has been detected by Ukrainian scientists.
and
Coccotylus truncatus
Fig. 1 Variation of ZPF extent on the Northwestern Shelf during the last decades. The extent of ZPF south of the RO-UA border, discovered during COCOBLAS 2013, is marked with hatching.
1967 Ph. crispa
10 9 8 7
Stock
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
1978
Ph. crispa
2013
Fig. 3 Long-term dynamics of the ZPF Phyllophora stock (million tons), with corresponding images to the right.
Coccotylus truncatus
Fig. 4 Samples of Coccotylus truncatus (left) and the crab Liocarcinus navigator (right).
CONCLUSIONS
1.During COCOBLAS 2013 cruise of the R/V Mare Nigrum (August 2013) we have found that Zernov s Phyllophora Field is again present in the Romanian Black Sea, after a hiatus of over 40 years. 2.Zernov s Phyllophora Field is slowly recovering, but the balance between the species of Phyllophoraceae building the habitat has changed. Phyllophora crispa, which was dominant in the past, has become a secondary species, while now the dominant species is Coccotylus truncatus. The only species found by us in Romanian waters is Coccotylus truncatus. 3.The density of Phyllophoraceae in the Romanian lobe of the field is extremely low for the time being. Before they can have the same ecosystem engineering value as they did in the past, time and conservation measures are needed. The main threat to recovery of ZPF is exploration and exploitation of the gas fields that occur inside its historical distribution area.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research leading to these results is funded from the European Community s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. 287844 for the project Towards COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas (from the shore to the high and deep sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential (COCONET).