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Octocorals of North Atlantic

Archived data
Availability: Restricted
The data are withheld from general circulation and disclosure but access may be obtained on a case-by-case basis through negotiation

Notes: Restrictions available at contact person

Description
A database of deep water alcyonacean records has been assembled using information that reaches back to the work of A.E. Verrill from the 1800s. more

The database records fall into two time periods, those from 1874 to 1920, and from 1950 to 2001. A total of 25 species in 10 families are so far known from the northeastern U.S. Most of these species are common in deeper waters of the continental shelf, with a few being restricted to the canyons and other slope environments. A comparison of western and eastern North Atlantic records indicates there is little similarity between the regions. In the cold temperate to boreal part of the region there is about 41% similarity of the “stoloniferous” and “massive body” soft coral species, but only about 28% similarity amongst all the “gorgonian” species. In the warm temperate part of the region the similarity for all groups is less than 10%. Deep water alcyonaceans are strongly impacted by bottom fishing gear so it is likely that modern distributional records will not be exactly similar to those from deep in the past.

Scope
Themes:
Biology
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, AE, East Atlantic, ANW, North West Atlantic, MED, Mediterranean, Alcyonacea, Octocorallia

Geographical coverage
AE, East Atlantic Stations [Marine Regions]
Boreal part of Atlantic
ANW, North West Atlantic Stations [Marine Regions]
East Canada to Cape Hatteras and Florida straits
MED, Mediterranean Stations [Marine Regions]
Lusitanian part of Mediterranean

Temporal coverage
1874 - 1920
1950 - 2001

Taxonomic coverage
Alcyonacea [WoRMS]
Octocorallia [WoRMS]

Contributor
University of Maine; Darling Marine Center, moredata owner

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Literature research
Metadatarecord created: 2005-07-15
Information last updated: 2013-12-10
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