Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:34:37.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

First record of Caryophyllia smithii in the central southern North Sea: artificial reefs affect range extensions of sessile benthic species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2015

Joop W.P. Coolen*
Affiliation:
Department of EcosystemsIMARES Wageningen UR – Institute for Marine Resource & Ecosystem Studies, P.O. Box 167, 1790 AD Den Burg, The Netherlands Wageningen University, Chair group Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a, 6708 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands Stichting Duik de Noordzee schoon, Duyvenvoordestraat 35, Monster, The Netherlands
Wouter Lengkeek
Affiliation:
Stichting Duik de Noordzee schoon, Duyvenvoordestraat 35, Monster, The Netherlands Bureau Waardenburg, P.O. Box 365, 4100 AJ Culemborg, The Netherlands
Gareth Lewis
Affiliation:
Stichting Duik de Noordzee schoon, Duyvenvoordestraat 35, Monster, The Netherlands
Oscar G. Bos
Affiliation:
Department of EcosystemsIMARES Wageningen UR – Institute for Marine Resource & Ecosystem Studies, P.O. Box 167, 1790 AD Den Burg, The Netherlands
Lodewijk Van Walraven
Affiliation:
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg Texel, The Netherlands
Udo Van Dongen
Affiliation:
Stichting Duik de Noordzee schoon, Duyvenvoordestraat 35, Monster, The Netherlands
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: J.W.P. Coolen, Department of Ecosystems, IMARES Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 167, 1790 AD Den Burg, The Netherlands email: joop.coolen@wur.nl
Get access

Abstract

In the North Sea, observations of the solitary coral Caryophyllia smithii are mostly limited to the north-east coast of the United Kingdom including the Shetland and Orkney islands. To date, C. smithii has not been reported from far offshore locations in the North Sea south of 57.7°N. Distribution of this species appears limited by the restricted availability of natural hard substrata in the central southern North Sea. There are, however, many artificial hard substrata in this area in the form of shipwrecks and offshore oil and gas installations. These may provide stepping stones for C. smithii to expand its distribution. Here we report the first sighting of C. smithii in the central southern North Sea on an unidentified wreck on the Dogger Bank. This is the first offshore observation of any hard coral in the central southern North Sea.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anonymous (2015) Wrecksite. Available at: www.wrecksite.eu (accessed 7 April 2015).Google Scholar
Bell, N. and Smith, J. (1999) Coral growing on North Sea oil rigs. Nature 402, 601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Best, M.B. (1968) Notes on three common species of Madreporarian corals known as: Caryophyllia smithii, Caryophyllia clavus, Coenocyathus dohrni. Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde 38, 1721.Google Scholar
Cornelius, P.F.S., Manuel, R.L. and Ryland, J.S. (1995) Hydroids, sea anemones, jellyfish, and comb jellies. In Hayward, P.J. and Ryland, J.S. (eds) Handbook of the marine fauna of north-west Europe. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 62135.Google Scholar
De Kluijver, M.J. (1993) Sublittoral hard-substratum communities off Orkney and St Abbs (Scotland). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 73, 733754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duineveld, G.C.A., Künitzer, A., Niermann, U., De Wilde, P.A.W.J. and Gray, J.S. (1991) The macrobenthos of the North Sea. Journal of Sea Research 28, 5365.Google Scholar
Gass, S.E. and Roberts, J.M. (2006) The occurrence of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia) on oil and gas platforms in the North Sea: colony growth, recruitment and environmental controls on distribution. Marine Pollution Bulletin 52, 549559.Google Scholar
Guerin, A.J. (2009) Marine communities of North Sea offshore platforms, and the use of stable isotopes to explore artificial reef food webs. PhD thesis, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.Google Scholar
Hiscock, K. (1980) Marine life on the wreck of the MV ‘Robert’. Report of the Lundy Field Society 32, 4044.Google Scholar
Hiscock, K. and Howlett, R. (1976) The ecology of Caryophyllia smithii (Stokes and Broderip). In Drew, E.A. (ed.) Underwater research. London: Academic Press, pp. 319344.Google Scholar
Hiscock, K., Sharrock, S., Highfield, J. and Snelling, D. (2010) Colonization of an artificial reef in south-west England – ex-HMS ‘Scylla’. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 90, 6994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmedal, L.E. and Wang, H. (2015) Combined tidal and wind driven flows and residual currents. Ocean Modelling 89, 6170.Google Scholar
Kinlan, B.P., Gaines, S.D. and Lester, S.E. (2005) Propagule dispersal and the scales of marine community process. Diversity and Distributions 11, 139148.Google Scholar
Kröncke, I. and Knust, R. (1995) The Dogger Bank: a special ecological region in the central North Sea. Helgoländer Meeresuntersuchungen 49, 335353.Google Scholar
Manuel, R.L. (1988) British Anthozoa. Oxford: Published for the Linnean Society of London and the Estuarine and Brackish-Water Sciences Association by E.J. Brill/W. Backhuys.Google Scholar
Natural History Museum University of Oslo: Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (2015) Other datasets. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/492d63a8-4978-4bc7-acd8-7d0e3ac0e744 (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
Prandle, D. (1984) A modelling study of the mixing of 137Cs in the seas of the European continental shelf. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 310, 407436.Google Scholar
Roberts, J.M. (2002) The occurrence of the coral Lophelia pertusa and other conspicuous epifauna around an oil platform in the North Sea. Journal of the Society for Underwater Technology 25, 8392.Google Scholar
Schrieken, N., Gittenberger, A., Coolen, J.W.P. and Lengkeek, W. (2013) Marine fauna of hard substrata of the Cleaver Bank and Dogger Bank. Nederlandse Faunistische Mededelingen 41, 6978.Google Scholar
Shanks, A.L. (2009) Pelagic larval duration and dispersal distance revisited. Biological Bulletin 216, 373385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorpe, S.A. (2012) On the biological connectivity of oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin 64, 27702781.Google Scholar
Tranter, P.R.G., Nicholson, D.N. and Kinchington, D. (1982) A description of spawning and post-gastrula development of the cool temperate coral Caryophyllia smithii (Stokes and Broderip). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 62, 845854.Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Joint Nature Conservation Committee (2010a) Marine benthic dataset (version 1) commissioned by UKOOA. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/659647c1-f24b-432a-9275-862e159ef50d (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Joint Nature Conservation Committee (2010b) Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) and associated benthic marine data held and managed by JNCC. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/407ed7a7-5f5c-4cde-a069-78d5bd73ca25 (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Marine Biological Association (2010a) Volunteer sightings data held by the DASSH Data Archive Centre. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/11314af8-aad0-4414-a961-e91b88fd4abb (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Marine Biological Association (2010b) Marine life survey data (collected by volunteers) collated by MarLIN. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/6df4cdef-c55d-4a03-9055-3cbadcdd05aa (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Marine Conservation Society (2010) Seasearch marine surveys. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/ce2583cc-da9e-440f-8811-44a1f8230484 (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Porcupine Marine Natural History Society (2010) Marine flora and fauna records from the North-east Atlantic. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/686c1b9b-5f29-4e1f-8c28-f9779d264579 (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
UK National Biodiversity Network: Scottish Natural Heritage (2010) Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) and associated benthic marine data held and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. Available at: www.gbif.org/dataset/e20345d6-0985-4d9b-a076-cf2bbd2aa66c (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
VLIZ Belgian Marine Species Consortium (2010) The Belgian Register of Marine Species. Available at: www.marinespecies.org/berms/ (accessed 26 January 2015).Google Scholar
Wessex Archaeology (2013) Dogger Bank Creyke Beck Environmental Statement Chapter 18 – Marine and Coastal Archaeology. Report number F-OFC-CH-018.Google Scholar
Wilson, J.B. (1975) The distribution of the coral Caryophyllia smithii S. & B. on the Scottish continental shelf. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 55, 611625.Google Scholar
Wilson, J.B. (1976) Attachment of the coral Caryophyllia smithii S. & B. to tubes of the polychaete Ditrupa arietina (Müller) and other substrates. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 56, 291303.Google Scholar
Wilson, J.B. (1979) The distribution of the coral Lophelia pertusa (L.) [L. prolifera (Pallas)] in the north-east Atlantic. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 59, 149164.Google Scholar