The analysis of 99 quantitative macrobenthic samples taken from the Cretan shelf at depths ranging from 40 to 190 m yielded 547 species from a total of 18858 individuals. Both average abundance a n d blomass decreased with depth in this zone by 85 and 75% respect~vely. The fauna was not consistently related to the biocoenoses proposed for the Mediterranean, a t least with regard to the distribution of characteristic species in the sampled stations. Diversity also decreased with depth, result~ng in a rather impoverished fauna towards the outer shelf. The main factors explaining the overall macrofaunal distribution were depth and chlorophyll a, while further analysis for the 4 different groups of stations identified by cluster analysis revealed that factors controlling the structure of the assemblages also change with depth: in the shallow stations sedimentary characteristics such a s grain size play an important role while in deep offshore statlons macrofauna is largely shaped by iood availa b ~h t y and the quality of sedimenting phytoplankton blomass.
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Karakassis et al. (1997) studied this question.