Virtual Posters

Nowadays everybody is worried for the protection of marine environments, and scientists, more than ever, are in the point of view of citizens. They had been questioned in several occasions for the methods used in the obtaining of samples and data, especially in sensible environments. Because of that, the new studies and sample works try to damage less as possible the environment. Thanks to imaging recording devices, the prospective work of the oceans biota is less disruptive and less damaging.
The use of images to identify benthic biodiversity is more and more used, of special interest in Antarctic waters. But in fact, the species identification is not as easy as we would want, and in some cases we should use “morphotypes”, like in Antarctic gorgonians. Recently we are finding gorgonian morphologies, initially associated to one single genus (or a couple of closely related genera), in a variety of uncertainly related primnoid genera. The current taxonomic importance of branching pattern in this group of benthic cnidarian is still unstable. Due to this fact the identification of Antarctic gorgonians through recorded images is, in several cases, difficult or impossible. The phylogenetic relationships of the involved Antarctic primnoid taxa are revised, and (when possible) some indications are provided in order to avoid erroneous identifications. In addition, the spatial distribution and their relation with the hydrodynamics and other environmental factors, like depth, will be used to identify the branching pattern variability among and within primnoid genera. Their possible ecological advantages will be also discussed.