Rakka Maria mrakka@dal.ca 0000-0002-8179-242X Maier Sandra R 0000-0001-9728-0771 van Oevelen Dick dick.van.oevelen@nioz.nl 0000-0002-1740-5317 Bilan Meri mbilan@dal.ca Godinho António antonio.magalhaes.godinho@gmail.com Orejas Covadonga cova.orejas@ieo.csic.es 0000-0002-2580-1002 Carreiro-Silva Marina carreirosilvamarina@gmail.com 0000-0001-6446-6342 2020 Zooplankton capture rates by the octocoral species Dentomuricea aff. meteor and Viminella flagellum in the Azores Archipelago dataset https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.913194 2020-03-06T14:14:00 The majority of octocoral species are found in waters deeper than 50m where they create three-dimensional and highly heterogenous habitats known as coral gardens. The Azores Archipelago is an octocoral biodiversity hotspot and coral gardens are one of the most prominent deep-sea communities encountered regionally. Although food availability and flow have been recognized as key factors in determining the dynamics of suspension feeder communities, very little information exists on how flow affects the feeding capacity of deep octocoral species. The study focused on two common habitat-forming octocoral species in the Azores, Dentomuricea meteor and Viminella flagellum, aiming at determining their ability to capture zooplankton prey under variable flow velocities. The rotifer Branchionus plicatilis was used as prey, while three flow velocities were established in recirculating 13L flumes: 3 cm/s, 6 cm/s and 9 cm/s. Both species efficiently captured zooplankton prey. Capture rates were lower under 3 cm/s, however no difference was detected between 6 and 9 cm/s. Dentomuricea meteor reached higher capture rates per polyp than V.flagellum, possibly due to their differences in polyp size and density. not specified ATLAS A Trans-Atlantic assessment and deep-water ecosystem-based spatial management plan for Europe http://www.eu-atlas.org/ University of Edinburgh https://www.ed.ac.uk https://ror.org/01nrxwf90 Horizon 2020 of the European Commission H2020 https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-2020_en https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007601 678760 A Trans-Atlantic assessment and deep-water ecosystem-based spatial management plan for Europe https://doi.org/10.3030/678760 32.8 CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ citable author27839 author28829 author64980 author65004 author65163 author73858 author74395 award39 funder20475 inst1777 license21 project4225 topotype1