@article {DeJuan2013,
	title = {{Benthic habitat characterisation of soft-bottom continental shelves: Integration of acoustic surveys, benthic samples and trawling disturbance intensity}},
	journal = {Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science},
	volume = {117},
	year = {2013},
	month = {jan},
	pages = {199{\textendash}209},
	abstract = {Eleven sites were located on Mediterranean continental shelves to explore the link between the physical characteristics and epibenthic fauna from soft-sediment habitats. These sites, at 32-82 m in depth, were associated with fishing grounds and the trawling intensity was estimated at the site scale to assess the effects of trawling on benthic communities. Each site was surveyed with Multi-Beam (bathymetry and backscatter), side-scan sonar, benthic grabs and a surface dredge. The sites were clustered in three habitat types. Habitat 1, with moderate trawling disturbance, was characterised by homogeneous mud and associated epifauna that was also highly homogeneous across sites. Habitat 2, with sandy mud and scattered gravel and rocks, had a high abundance of sessile suspension feeders that probably attach to the coarser substratum and benefit from the low fishing disturbance in these sites. Habitat 3 included sites with heterogeneous sediments with ma{\"e}rl as the prevailing biocenosis and having the highest species richness, despite being subjected to variable trawling intensity. Statistical models were used to relate environmental parameters and the species abundance. More than 3 physical variables were necessary to explain the epifaunal patterns across sites, including the percentage of mud, sediment heterogeneity and fishing effort. These analyses are an essential step for extrapolating information from benthic samples to the larger scale of habitats, mapped through acoustic surveys. Despite this, a good integration is required between the mapping of physical habitat distribution and the ecological knowledge of communities. {\textcopyright} 2012 Elsevier Ltd.},
	keywords = {benthic habitats, Continental shelf, Fishing disturbance, Mediterranean Sea, Multi-beam, Side-scan sonar},
	issn = {02727714},
	doi = {10.1016/j.ecss.2012.11.012},
	url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84873710304\&partnerID=tZOtx3y1},
	author = {de Juan, S. and Lo Iacono, C. and Demestre, M.}
}
@book {LoIacono2012b,
	title = {{The habitats of the Cap de Creus continental shelf and Cap de Creus Canyon, northwestern Mediterranean}},
	series = {Seafloor Geomorphology as Benthic Habitat. GeoHab Atlas of seafloor geomorphic features and benthic habitats},
	year = {2012},
	pages = {457{\textendash}469},
	publisher = {Elsevier},
	organization = {Elsevier},
	abstract = {Continental shelves and submarine canyons represent peculiar environments that are geologically heterogenous on a small spatial scale (form hundreds to tens of meters) and therefore play a central role in increasing the ecosystem biodiversity. The Cap de Creus continental shelf and Cap de Creus canyon are located in the southernmost sector of the Gulf of Lions, in the northwestern Mediterranean. The Cap de Creus continental shelf contains sandy and muddy sediments and an abrupt morphology, with rocky outcrops, relict bioherms, erosive features, and planar bedforms. The Cap de Creus canyon breaches the shelf at a depth of 110 m and denotes a marked difference in the morphology between the northern and the southern flank, reflecting a different depositional regime. The most common substrates correspond to coarse and medium sands (28\%) and silty sediments (40\%). The most common megabenthic assemblages of the shelf correspond to the communities of "offshore detritic" (31.95\%) and "coastal terrigenous muds" (36.99\%), mostly dominated by sea pens, alcyonaceans, and ceriantharians. The northern flank of the Cap de Creus canyon is predominantly depositional, whereas the southern flank is erosional. Rocky outcrops provide the substratum for cold-water coral (CWC) communities{\textquoteright} development, in which the white coral Madrepora oculata is the most abundant species. {\textcopyright} 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.},
	keywords = {Continental shelf, Geomorphology, Habitat mapping, Northwestern Mediterranean, Submarine Canyon, swath bathymetry},
	isbn = {9780123851406},
	doi = {10.1016/B978-0-12-385140-6.00032-3},
	url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84883461551\&partnerID=tZOtx3y1},
	author = {Lo Iacono, Claudio and Orejas, Covadonga and Gori, Andrea and Gili, Josep Maria and Requena, Susana and Puig, Pere and Rib{\'o}, Marta}
}
@article {LoIacono2010,
	title = {{Large-scale bedforms along a tideless outer shelf setting in the western Mediterranean}},
	journal = {Continental Shelf Research},
	volume = {30},
	number = {17},
	year = {2010},
	month = {oct},
	pages = {1802{\textendash}1813},
	abstract = {High-resolution multibeam swath-bathymetry and sediment samples were collected across the outer shelf region of the Columbretes Islands (southern Ebro continental shelf, western Mediterranean Sea). Bathymetric data from the submerged part of the Columbretes volcanic system revealed the presence of three main relict sand bodies along the outer shelf, at 80-116. m depth range, above which asymmetric and slightly asymmetric large and very large 2D and 3D subaqueous dunes were observed. These bed features were recognized, mapped and quantified with the aim of evaluating their potential formation mechanisms in relation to the local hydrodynamic and morphologic settings of the area. Dunes range from 150 to 760. m in wavelength and from tens of centimeters to 3. m in height, and are among the longest ever recognized in an outer shelf region. These bedforms are mostly composed of medium-sized sandy sediments, presumably coming from the degraded relict sand bodies on top of which they have developed, mixed with fine fractions from the recent draping holocenic sediments. The orientation of the dunes is SSW, progressively turning W towards the southernmost sector of the area, following the trend of the shelf-edge. Contemporary hydrodynamic measurements at the Ebro continental shelf-edge show that recorded currents are insufficient to form the observed bedforms and that stronger currents are required for sediment mobilization and dune formation. Based on their morphology and orientation, it is proposed that these bedforms are produced by the action of the southward-flowing Liguro-Proven{\c c}al-Catalan (LPC) geostrophic current. The LPC probably reaches high near-bottom currents during energetic hydrodynamic events through interactions with the seafloor morphology of the study area. Subaqueous dunes are expected to be basically inactive features with respect to present-day processes, although they can be reactivated during high-energy events. The small $Δ$h/${\l}ambda$ ratio measured in the dune fields of the Columbretes shelf revealed that the dune heights fall below the values predicted by the Flemming (1988) global equation, as observed in other outer shelf settings also dominated by unidirectional flows. This may suggest a different morphodynamic character of large dunes formed on outer shelves in a micro-tidal regime. {\textcopyright} 2010 Elsevier Ltd.},
	keywords = {Continental shelf, Geomorphology, Subaqueous dunes, Swath mapping, Western Mediterranean},
	issn = {02784343},
	doi = {10.1016/j.csr.2010.08.005},
	url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-77957596289\&partnerID=tZOtx3y1},
	author = {Lo Iacono, Claudio and Guill{\'e}n, Jorge and Puig, Pere and Rib{\'o}, Marta and Ballesteros, Maria and Palanques, Albert and l{\'\i} Farr{\'a}n, Marcel and Acosta, Juan}
}
