The coralligenous in the present-day system from the Salento coast (southern Adriatic Sea)

Alessia de Luca¹, Stefania Lisco¹, Pasquale Acquafredda¹, Guadalupe Anhai Gimenez² & Massimo Moretti^1
1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", 70125 Bari, Italy.
²Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Biotecnologie e Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", 70125 Bari, Italy.
Corresponding author e-mail: alessia.deluca@uniba.it

Bioconstructions or biogenic reefs are more or less cohesive sedimentary bodies. They can consist of a large number of species of organisms capable of directly forming a rigid structure through the production of calcium carbonate or the aggregation of hard parts of benthic organisms. One of the main bioconstructions characterizing the Apulian seafloor is the Coralligenous assemblages, a typical bioconstruction of the Mediterranean Sea formed by the concretion of coralline algae. In coralligenous habitats, the interaction between physical and biological processes determines the evolution of the system. This works aims to describe growth models to understand the structural and morphological variations of the coralligenous assemblages in different areas of the Apulian shelf, through a multidisciplinary approach. Analyzing present-day systems allows us to understand how coralligenous assemblages have evolved in the past. In addition, the proposed method can be applied to other areas in the Mediterranean basin to compare other coralligenous assemblages.

coralligenous, bioconstructions, Southern Adriatic Sea, image analysis.