Open-shelf, soft-bottom bryozoans from the Ciclopi Marine Protected Area (E Sicily, Mediterranean)

The bryozoan biocoenoses from five samples collected in open-shelf, soft-bottoms between 83 and 95 metres depth in the Ciclopi Marine Protected Area (north of Catania, Sicily) in the Ionian Sea (Mediterranean) have been studied. Communities are characterised by an apparently low total (44 species), and per station (4-24) species richness; an estimated colony abundance of 40-500 per square metre; the presence of a few number of shared species, and a large number of rare species that are often restricted to single samples, pointing to a patchiness that is possibly linked to substratum availability; the presence of some distinctive species hitherto not recorded from deep shelf soft bottoms; and morphological adaptations for the colonisation of ephemeral clasts mostly falling within the sand and granule sizes. Comparisons are made with scant literature data concerning bryozoans from similar environments from the Mediterranean area, and inferences are put forward regarding environmental factors driving community composition at species and zoarial growth habit level.