Join the dark side: Mediterranean cold-water corals

Cold-water corals (CWCs) are among the main habitat formers of the deep Mediterranean Sea, hosting a lush diversity of species and playing a crucial ecological role. The term CWC sensu lato groups taxa of cnidarians with a more or less pronounced frame-building ability with forest-forming organisms both on hard and soft bottoms. CWC species and their occurrence in the Mediterranean Sea are here reviewed and discussed from a biogeographic point of view, considering the geographical areas of occurrence and the bathymetric ranges of distribution. Due to the interaction between particular topography and a combination of cold, oxygenated and trophic-carrying water masses, CWCs communities develop in a mosaic-like situation along the main paths that such currents follow within the basin. This would help to have a comprehensive knowledge about features and processes governing CWC habitats in the Mediterranean Sea, for proper management strategies needed in the near future.