Growth variation of Eunicella singularis (Esper, 1794) (Gorgonacea, Anthozoa)

Gorgonian colonies of Eunicella singularis were collected randomly from Are thoussa and Phidonissi at Kavala bay (North Aegean Sea, Greece) using SCUBA diving. The following biometric macro-features were measured after stabili sation of colony dry weight (DW): maximum height, maximum width, total bran ch length and rectangular surface area. The allometric or isometric relatio nships were examined using the equation: log(Y) = log(b)+a*log(X) or Y=b*X- a (Y: Dry Weight and X: the four macro-features) The investigation of the r elationships between the dry weight and the other four macro-features demon strates the presence of two groups of parameters. The first group, which in cludes the height and the rectangular surface area, exhibits a variation of growth depending on the sampling sites. The second one includes the width and the total branch length and does not exhibit significant variations dep ending on the hydrodynamical characteristics of the site. These results ind icate that the most appropriate parameters for estimating the growth of the Eunicella singularis gorgonian colonies during a population dynamic survey were width and total branch length.