Are we ready for scaling up restoration actions? An insight from Mediterranean macroalgal canopies

Extensive loss of macroalgal forests advocates for large-scale restoration interventions, to compensate habitat degradation and recover the associated ecological functions and services. Yet, restoration attempts have generally been limited to small spatial extensions, with the principal aim of developing efficient restoration techniques. Here, the success of outplanting Cystoseira amentacea v. stricta germlings cultured in aquaria was experimentally explored at a scale of tens of kms, by means of a multifactorial experimental design. In the intertidal rocky shores of SE Italy, locations with a continuous distribution for hundreds of meters or with few thalli forming patches of few centimeters of C. amentacea canopy were selected. In each location, the effects of adult conspecifics and the exclusion of macrograzers (salema fish and sea urchins) on the survival of germlings were tested. We evaluated the most critical determinants of mortality for germlings, including the overlooked pressure of mesograzers (e.g. amphipods, small mollusks, polychaetes). Despite the high mortality observed during outplanting and early settlement stages, survival of C. amentacea germlings was consistently favored by the exclusion of macrograzers, while the presence of adult conspecifics had no effects. In addition, the cost analysis of the interventions showed the feasibility of the ex-situ method, representing an essential tool for preserving Cystoseira forests. Large scale restoration is possible but requires baseline information with an in-depth knowledge of the species ecology and of the areas to be restored, together with the development of specific cultivation protocols to make consistently efficient restoration interventions

Ecosystem services for supporting coastal and marine resources management, an example from the Adriatic sea (Central Mediterranean sea)

Ecosystem Services (ESs) assessment is increasingly considered the constitutive metric to embrace the social, ecological, and economic spheres. Spatially explicit ES assessments can integrate and standardize different types of information, making them comparable. In this context, a multiple coastal and marine ESs assessment in the Northern-Central Adriatic Sea was carried out, considering seven ESs. Two cultural (tourism and recreational boating), two regulating (carbon sequestration and coastal erosion prevention potential), and three provisioning (mussel, whitefish aquaculture, and industrial fishery) ESs have been measured. The spatial analysis described (un)sustainable human uses of ecosystems in the area. (De)coupling of ES capacities and flows and synergies and tradeoffs among ESs were analyzed. Results indicate spatial agreement for capacities, while contrasting results emerged from the analysis across flows and of the capacity-flow balance. The evidence of a geographical pattern and areas of high, medium, and low capability to provide ESs across the study area was highlighted, suggesting the need for implementing the natural resources management. Some coastal provinces maximize a single ES at the detriment of other ESs, and other provinces built mimics of Nature through artificial facilities. These strategies are not far-sighted in the view of conserving the supply of the whole ESs set. These findings might be useful in the context of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and for the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the Northern-Central Adriatic Sea

Mare Incognitum: A Glimpse into Future Plankton Diversity and Ecology Research

With global climate change altering marine ecosystems, research on plankton ecology is likely to navigate uncharted seas. Yet, a staggering wealth of new plankton observations, integrated with recent advances in marine ecosystem modeling, may shed light on marine ecosystem structure and functioning. A EuroMarine foresight workshop on the “Impact of climate change on the distribution of plankton functional and phylogenetic diversity” (PlankDiv) identified five grand challenges for future plankton diversity and macroecology research: (1) What can we learn about plankton communities from the new wealth of high-throughput “omics” data? (2) What is the link between plankton diversity and ecosystem function? (3) How can species distribution models be adapted to represent plankton biogeography? (4) How will plankton biogeography be altered due to anthropogenic climate change? and (5) Can a new unifying theory of macroecology be developed based on plankton ecology studies? In this review, we discuss potential future avenues to address these questions, and challenges that need to be tackled along the way