title: Macrofaunal assemblages associated with the spongeSarcotragus foetidusSchmidt, 1862 (Porifera: Demospongiae) at the coasts of Cyprus and Greece.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This paper describes a dataset of macrofaunal organisms associated with the spongeSarcotragus foetidusSchmidt, 1862, collected by scuba diving from two sampling sites: one in Greece (North Aegean Sea) and one in Cyprus (Levantine Sea).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This dataset includes macrofaunal taxa inhabiting the demospongeSarcotragus foetidusand contributes to the ongoing efforts of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) which aims at filling the gaps in our current knowledge of the world's oceans. This is the first paper, to our knowledge, where the macrofauna associated withS. foetidusfrom the Levantine Basin is being recorded. In total, 90 taxa were recorded, from which 83 were identified to the species level. Eight of these species are new records for the Levantine Basin. The dataset contains 213 occurrence records, fully annotated with all required metadata. It is accessible at http://lifewww-00.her.hcmr.gr:8080/medobis/resource.do?r=organismic_assemblages_sarcotragus_foetidus_cyprus_greece.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Crete, Greece; Department of Biology, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, Department of Microbial Ecophysiology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pavloudi
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Magdalini
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Michalis
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mavidis
keywords:  Demospongiae ;  Porifera ; Cyprus; Eastern Mediterranean; Greece; Levantine Basin; North Aegean Sea; Sarcotragus foetidus; macrofauna