Biodiversity of zoobenthic hard-substrate sublittoral communities in the Eastern Mediterranean (North Aegean Sea)

The spatial dispersion of zoobenthos from sublittoral hard substrate communities in the northern part of the Aegean Sea has been studied during summer 1997 and 1998. Material was collected by SCUBA diving, by totally scraping off five replicate quadrates (400 cm² each) at three depth levels (15, 30, 40 m) from six sites located in Chalkidiki peninsula, plus one in Kavala Gulf. The examination of the 19,343 living specimens collected revealed the presence of 314 species. Though the multivariate analyses showed high similarity between stations, the structure of this sciaphilic algal community seems to have an increased spatial heterogeneity. Four distinct facies were recorded in accordance with the occurrence of different algal forms, the degree of hard substrate inclination and the water clarity. A short review on the biodiversity of sublittoral communities in the Mediterranean revealed the affinity between the western and the eastern basin and also among the photophilic and the sciaphilic algal communities.