Soft-bottom crustacean assemblages in Mediterranean marine caves: the cave of Cerro Gordo (Granada, Spain) as case study

Although marine caves are priority conservation areas according to the Directive 92/43/CEE of the European Community, there is a lack of studies dealing with their soft-bottom communities. For a case study, we selected the Cerro Gordo cave at 15 m depth. Three different zones were defined: a semi-dark 25-m long entrance area, a dark intermediate area of 35 m, and the final zone at 90 m from the entrance. Sediment samples were taken from these zones as well as from outside the cave (control) by SCUBA diving. Six rectangular cores of 10 × 250 cm² were collected in each site for macrofaunal study, and three more replicates were taken to analyze physico-chemical parameters. The granulometry showed a clear gradient from medium sands outside the cave to silt and clay in the inner zone. Measurements of the crustacean assemblages showed that the number of species and abundance were significantly higher outside the cave (30–40 species, >4,000 ind m⁻²) than inside (5–10 species,