Mediterranean gorgonians fighting

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The Reef Check Mediterranean Underwater Coastal Environment Monitoring Protocol

Since 2001, trained snorkelers, freedivers, and scuba diver volunteers (collectively called EcoDivers) have been recording data on the distribution, abundance, and bathymetric range of 43 selected key marine species along the Mediterranean Sea coasts using the Reef Check Mediterranean Underwater Coastal Environment Monitoring (RCMed U-CEM) protocol. The taxa, including algae, invertebrates, and fishes, were selected by a combination of criteria, including ease of identification and being a key indicator of shifts in the Mediterranean subtidal habitats due to local pressures and climate change. The presence and abundance of gas bubbles leaching from the seabed are also recorded. The dataset collected using the RCMed U-CEM protocol is openly accessible across different platforms and allows for various uses. It has proven to be useful for several purposes, such as monitoring the ecological status of Mediterranean coastal environments, assessing the effects of human impacts and management interventions, as well as complementing scientific papers on species distribution and abundance, distribution modeling, and historical series. Also, volunteers\u2019 commitment promotes marine stewardship and environmental awareness in marine conservation. Here, we describe the RCMed U-CEM protocol, from training volunteers to recording, delivery, and sharing data, including the quality assurance and control (QA/QC) procedures

Mass mortality hits gorgonian forests at Montecristo Island.

Mediterranean gorgonian forests are species-rich habitats, and like many other marine habitats they are threatened by anthropogenic disturbances and mass mortality events. These mortality events have often been linked to anomalies in the temperature profiles of the Mediterranean region. On 5 September 2017, colonies of the gorgonians Eunicella singularis and Eunicella cavolini exhibited rapid tissue loss, down to a depth of 30 m along the steep cliffs of Montecristo Island, Tuscan Archipelago National Park, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. Interestingly, Montecristo has previously been identified as a reference site for the ecological quality assessment of the western Mediterranean benthic assemblages on rocky bottoms. The observed mortality event occurred during a period of increased sea temperature. By utilising a combination of high-resolution oceanographic analysis, forecast models and citizen science initiatives, we propose that an early warning system for the concomitance of heat waves and mortality events can be put in place. A temperature-based coral disease surveillance tool could then be established for the entire Mediterranean Sea. Such a tool would allow for the timely study of mass mortality phenomena and the implementation of prompt mitigation and/or restoration initiatives. Finally, this specific mortality event, in a Marine Protected Area, offers a unique opportunity to monitor and assess the resilience of gorgonian populations and associated benthic assemblages in the absence of other, more directly, anthropogenic disturbances such as pollution and land runoff.N/

The Environmental Effects of the Innovative Ejectors Plant Technology for the Eco-Friendly Sediment Management in Harbors

A sediment bypassing plant based on innovative jet pump, ejectors, has been tested in the first-of-a-kind demo application at the harbor of Cervia (Italy, Northern Adriatic Sea). The ejector is a jet pump aimed to reduce sediment accumulation in navigation channels and coastal areas. Herein we present results of the first study assessing the potential ecological effects of the ejectors plant. Sediment characteristics, benthic, and fish assemblages before and after the plant activation have been analyzed in the putatively impacted (the sediment removal and discharge) areas and four control locations, one time before and two times after plant activation. Ejectors plant operation resulted in a reduction of the mud and organic matter content in the sediment, as well as in changes in shell debris amount in the impacted areas. Abundance and species richness of benthic macroinvertebrates, initially reduced in the impacted areas, probably due to the previous repeated dredging, returned to higher values during demo plant continuous operation. Higher diversity of fish fauna was observed in the study area during plant operation period. Observed dynamics of the ecological status of the marine habitat suggest that an ejectors plant could represent an eco-friendly solution alternative to dredging operations to solve harbor siltation problems

NAMBER: A biotic index for assessing the ecological quality of mesophotic biogenic reefs in the northern Adriatic Sea

1. The aim of the present study was to propose a biotic index (North Adriatic Mesophotic BiogEnic Reefs, NAMBER) suitable for assessing the ecological quality of the mesophotic biogenic reefs of the northern Adriatic continental shelf based on photographic sampling. 2. At each of the 20 study sites, the degree of bioconstruction (expressed as percentage cover of crustose coralline algae), the α-diversity (expressed as the mean number of taxa), and the degree of sensitivity to human disturbance and climate change (based on literature data and expert judgement) of the benthic assemblages were selected as descriptors and combined in the NAMBER index, using the best values that the three metrics can currently achieve in the studied region as a reference. 3. The study highlighted that there was large spatial heterogeneity among reefs and high variability in the ecological quality values obtained by NAMBER, ranging from bad to high. The index indicates that reefs lying furthest from the coast, under substantially lower anthropogenic pressure, have a generally higher status of environmental quality. However, a clear geographical pattern did not emerge, as reefs close together often had different ecological qualities. 4. The NAMBER index, which combines three ecological descriptors, in accordance with the requirements of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, represents a specific adaptation to the northern Adriatic Sea of a multimetric index previously developed for the north-western Mediterranean Sea, capitalizing on previous knowledge and research efforts. 5. This multimetric biotic index provides an effective standardized tool for monitoring programmes and environmental impact assessments in the northern Adriatic mesophotic biogenic reefs and lays the foundation for ecosystem-based management and conservation in this basin

Spatial patterns and drivers of benthic community structure on the northern Adriatic biogenic reefs

The northern Adriatic Sea (NAS) hosts numerous biogenic subtidal reefs that are considered biodiversity hotspots. Several studies have already investigated the origin and biodiversity of these reefs. However, many of them are still unexplored and further knowledge is needed for their conservation. Here, the spatial variability, epibenthic community structure, and environmental features that characterize these habitats were investigated. Fifteen randomly selected reefs were sampled between 2013 and 2017, including some remote sites that have never been studied before. A fuzzy k-means clustering method and redundancy analysis were used to find similarities among sites in terms of epibenthic assemblages and to model relationships with abiotic variables. The results showed that these reefs are highly heterogeneous in terms of species composition and geomorphological features. The results were also consistent with previous studies and highlighted three main types of benthic assemblages defined by the dominance of different organisms, mainly reflecting the coastal-offshore gradient: nearshore reefs, generally dominated by stress-tolerant species; reefs at a middle distance from the coast, characterized by sponges, non-calcareous encrusting algae and ascidians; offshore reefs, dominated by reef builders. However, distance from the coast was not the only factor affecting species distribution, as other local factors and environmental characteristics also played a role. This kind of biogenic reefs in temperate seas are still poorly known. The present work contributed to shed further light on these habitats, by complementing the results of previous studies on their natural diversity, highlighting the specificity of the epibenthic communities of NAS reefs and the need to improve current, still inadequate, conservation measures

Needs and gaps in optical underwater technologies and methods for the investigation of marine animal forest 3D-structural complexity

Marine animal forests are benthic communities dominated by sessile suspension feeders (such as sponges, corals, and bivalves) able to generate three-dimensional (3D) frameworks with high structural complexity. The biodiversity and functioning of marine animal forests are strictly related to their 3D complexity. The present paper aims at providing new perspectives in underwater optical surveys. Starting from the current gaps in data collection and analysis that critically limit the study and conservation of marine animal forests, we discuss the main technological and methodological needs for the investigation of their 3D structural complexity at different spatial and temporal scales. Despite recent technological advances, it seems that several issues in data acquisition and processing need to be solved, to properly map the different benthic habitats in which marine animal forests are present, their health status and to measure structural complexity. Proper precision and accuracy should be chosen and assured in relation to the biological and ecological processes investigated. Besides, standardized methods and protocols are strictly necessary to meet the FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) data principles for the stewardship of habitat mapping and biodiversity, biomass, and growth data

Are well-studied marine biodiversity hotspots still blackspots for animal barcoding?

Marine biodiversity underpins ecosystem health and societal well-being. Preservation of biodiversity hotspots is a global challenge. Molecular tools, like DNA barcoding and metabarcoding, hold great potential for biodiversity monitoring, possibly outperforming more traditional taxonomic methods. However, metabarcoding-based biodiversity assessments are limited by the availability of sequences in barcoding reference databases; a lack thereof results in high percentages of unassigned sequences. In this study we (i) present the current status of known vs. barcoded marine species at a global scale based on online taxonomic and genetic databases; and (ii) compare the current status with data from ten years ago. Then we analyzed occurrence data of marine animal species from five Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) classified as biodiversity hotspots, to identify any consistent disparities in COI barcoding coverage between geographic regions and at phylum level. Barcoding coverage varied among LMEs (from 36.8% to 62.4% COI-barcoded species) and phyla (from 4.8% to 74.7% COI-barcoded species), with Porifera, Bryozoa and Platyhelminthes being highly underrepresented, compared to Chordata, Arthropoda and Mollusca. We demonstrate that although barcoded marine species increased from 9.5% to 14.2% since the last assessment in 2011, about 15,000 (corresponding to 7.8% increase) new species were described from 2011 to 2021. The next ten years will thus be crucial to enroll concrete collaborative measures and long term initiatives (e.g., Horizon 2030, Ocean Decade) to populate barcoding libraries for the marine realm.the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BiGeA) of the University of Bologna (UniBo). The CoMBoMed initiative was supported by the European Marine Research Network (EUROMARINE Network), the Inter-Departmental Research Centre for Environmental Sciences (CIRSA – UniBo), the Cultural Heritage Department (DBC - UniBo, https://beniculturali.unibo.it/it), the Fondazione Flaminia and the ERANet Mar-Tera Project SEAMoBB (Solutions for sEmi-Automated Monitoring of Benthic Biodiversity).Peer reviewe

Collaborative Database to Track Mass Mortality Events in the Mediterranean Sea

Anthropogenic climate change, and global warming in particular, has strong and increasing impacts on marine ecosystems (Poloczanska et al., 2013; Halpern et al., 2015; Smale et al., 2019). The Mediterranean Sea is considered a marine biodiversity hot-spot contributing to more than 7% of world's marine biodiversity including a high percentage of endemic species (Coll et al., 2010). The Mediterranean region is a climate change hotspot, where the respective impacts of warming are very pronounced and relatively well documented (Cramer et al., 2018). One of the major impacts of sea surface temperature rise in the marine coastal ecosystems is the occurrence of mass mortality events (MMEs). The first evidences of this phenomenon dated from the first half of'80 years affecting the Western Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea (Harmelin, 1984; Bavestrello and Boero, 1986; Gaino and Pronzato, 1989; Voultsiadou et al., 2011). The most impressive phenomenon happened in 1999 when an unprecedented large scale MME impacted populations of more than 30 species from different phyla along the French and Italian coasts (Cerrano et al., 2000; Perez et al., 2000). Following this event, several other large scale MMEs have been reported, along with numerous other minor ones, which are usually more restricted in geographic extend and/or number of affected species (Garrabou et al., 2009; Rivetti et al., 2014; Marbà et al., 2015; Rubio-Portillo et al., 2016, authors' personal observations). These events have generally been associated with strong and recurrent marine heat waves (Crisci et al., 2011; Kersting et al., 2013; Turicchia et al., 2018; Bensoussan et al., 2019) which are becoming more frequent globally (Smale et al., 2019). Both field observations and future projections using Regional Coupled Models (Adloff et al., 2015; Darmaraki et al., 2019) show the increase in Mediterranean sea surface temperature, with more frequent occurrence of extreme ocean warming events. As a result, new MMEs are expected during the coming years. To date, despite the efforts, neither updated nor comprehensive information can support scientific analysis of mortality events at a Mediterranean regional scale. Such information is vital to guide management and conservation strategies that can then inform adaptive management schemes that aim to face the impacts of climate change.MV-L was supported by a postdoctoral contract Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación (IJCI-2016-29329) of Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. AI was supported by a Technical staff contract (PTA2015-10829-I) Ayudas Personal Técnico de Apoyo of Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (2015). Interreg Med Programme (grant number Project MPA-Adapt 1MED15_3.2_M2_337) 85% cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund, the MIMOSA project funded by the Foundation Prince Albert II Monaco and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 689518 (MERCES). DG-G was supported by an FPU grant (FPU15/05457) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. J-BL was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020

Citizen science as a tool for the environmental quality assessment of the Mediterranean coastal habitats

The growing need to assess the environmental status of the Mediterranean coastal marine habitats and the large availability of data collected by Reef Check Italia onlus (RCI) volunteers suggest the possibility to develop innovative and reliable indices that may support decision makers in applying conservation strategies. The aims of this study were to check the reliability of data collected by RCI volunteers, analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of RCI available data, resume the knowledge on the biology and ecology of the monitored species, and develop innovative indices to asses the ecological quality of Mediterranean subtidal rocky shores and coralligenous habitats. Subtidal rocky shores and coralligenous were chosen because these are the habitats more attractive for divers; therefore mlst data are referring to them, moreover subtidal rocky bottom are strongly affected by coastal urbanisation, land use, fishing and tourist activities, that increase pollution, turbidity and sedimentation. Non-indigenous species (NIS) have been recognized as a major threat to the integrity of Mediterranean native communities because of their proliferation, spread and impact on resident communities. Monitoring of NIS’ spreading dynamics at the basin spatial scale is difficult but urgent. According to a field test, the training provided by RCI appears adequate to obtain reliable data by volunteers. Based on data collected by RCI volunteers, three main categories of indices were developed: indices based on species diversity, indices on the occurrence non-indigenous species, and indices on species sensitive toward physical, chemical and biological disturbances. As case studies, indices were applied to stretches of coastline defined according to management criteria (province territories and marine protected areas). The assessments of ecological quality in the Tavolara Marine Protected Area using the species sensitivities index were consisten with those previously obtained with traditional methods