Sarsiflustra abyssicola is essentially an Arctic and NE Atlantic species that occurs in the offshore waters of Norway, the Faroe Isles and Shetland. The species forms erect foliose colonies, with flimsy lobe-shaped fronds. Colonies grow to between 3 and 4 cm in height and attach to the substrate by a broad encrusting basal portion. Sarsiflustra abyssicola colonises hard substrates on mixed deposits, generally in water that is deeper than 50 m.
Colonies grow through asexual budding of new zooids at the periphery.
Colonies form an erect foliose tuft of flat lobed fronds that develop from a broad encrusting sheet attached to the substrate. Zooids are elongated ovals or rectangles, typically 1mm by 0.5 mm and lacking spines. They are arranged “back to back” to form bilaminar sheets. The frontal surface of the zooids is completely membranous and the vertical walls are only very lightly calcified, resulting in the erect portion of the colony being flimsy.
Rectangular to oval avicularia, around 1.5 mm long, are located at the branching point of zooid rows. The distal end of the avicularia (furthest from the colony origin) is tongue-shaped, and a calcified wall projects from the avicularia on the frond surface. The calcified projection forms a rostrum that supports a deep brown chitinous mandible.
Small, reduced brood chambers (ovicells) are immersed at the distal end of the zooids. The ovicells are cup-shaped and visible as a lightly calcified structure with a prominent apical pore.
Colonies typically grow to between 3 and 4 cm. Zooids are 1.0 by 0.5 mm
An Arctic species, that occurs in the offshore waters of the eastern temperate Atlanitc e.g. Norway, the Faroe Isles and Shetland. The species ranges southward along the edge of the continental slope to the Azores.
Sarsiflustra abyssicola is an Arctic, cold temperate species that is most frequently found offshore attached to hard substrata on mixed deposits, in moderately deep water.
The founding zooid (ancestrula) develops into a young colony, and later into an adult colony through asexual budding. Sexually produced embryos are brooded within the colony, before larvae are released. Larvae settle after liberation and metamorphose into an ancestrula.
Like all bryozoans, S. abyssicola is a suspension feeder. It feeds on small phytoplankton using ciliated tentacles of the lophophore.