Determination of Corallium rubrum population age structure

International Workshop on Red Coral Science, Management, and Trade: Lessons form the Mediterranean, 23-26 September 2009, Naples, Italy.-- 4 pages, 2 figures

Management approaches based on a detailed knowledge of specific population demographic features are fundamental to ensure long-term exploitation sustainability (Knittweis et al. 2009). Demography focuses on the specific dynamics of each population, allowing to project population structure over time. This approach allows setting out local conservation strategies for wildlife and for exploited species structured into discrete local populations, such as the Mediterranean red coral (Abbiati et al. 1993). Regarding corals, long-term studies are scarce due to their slow growth and longevity (Connell 1997; Garrabou and Harmelin 2002). Because of its high economic value, the precious Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Gorgonacea) has been harvested for more than 2000 years and its shallow-water populations (living between 20 and 70 m depth), indicate a regression and even a partial economic extinction (Tsounis et al. 2007). Demographic studies based on sound age structure and growth rate assessment in different populations are nevertheless scarce (Santangelo et al. 2009). In this study we compared the age structure and the basal growth rate of two shallow Corallium rubrum populations dwelling in two marine protected areas

This study was funded by the Common research project between the University of Pisa, Department of Biology (Italy) and CSIC-ICM (Spain): “Population dynamic of Corallium rubrum.”

Peer Reviewed