aus dem MARUM und dem Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der ...

MARIA S. MERIAN-Berichte, Cruise 20, Leg 4, Bridgetown – Freeport, 15.3.2012 – 7.4.2012
emerge from the mud-draped seabed and become increasingly denser littered with pale-brown
stained coral branches upslope. The coral fragments represent broken branches of
Enallopsammia profunda colonies, locally admixed with Lophelia pertusa fragments (Fig. 6.7a).
Dislocated Enallopsammia colonies, partly alive in the upper 10 cm of the colony, drape the
midslope flanks of the mounds (Fig. 6.7b).
Fig. 6.7 A Lower mound flank with dispersed fragments of E. profunda. B Displaced but still alive colony of
E. profunda. C-E Mound tops with a characteristic dense colonization of L. pertusa forma
brachycephala. Note the hexactinellid sponges in C. F Arcuate E. profunda thicket on a low-relief
mound or sediment drift body.
Colonies of E. profunda merge to dense thickets but they hardly form rigid frameworks as
their branches grow in all directions and secondary fusion with adjacent branches was not
observed. This open-spaced growth habit (Fig. 6.8a) facilitates the disintegration of individual
branches into saltstick-like fragments. The near summit areas and the summits of the mounds are
dominated by L. pertusa (Fig. 6.7c-e). The coral thicket framework can attain heights of up to
0.5 m and the living zone of the colonies is 20-30 cm thick (Fig. 6.8b).
21