Scientific watch – Page 2

Highly restricted dispersal in habitat-forming seaweed may impede natural recovery of disturbed populations

Cystoseira senu lato forests play a central role in marine Mediterranean ecosystems. Over the last decades, Cystoseira s. l. suffered from a severe loss as a result of multiple anthropogenic stressors. In particular, Gongolaria barbata has faced multiple human-induced threats,

Performance of a baited underwater video system vs. the underwater visual census technique in assessing the structure of fish assemblages in a Mediterranean marine protected area

Accurate, rapid, and cost-effective fish assemblage monitoring is fundamental to marine protected areas (MPA) management as a pivotal tool to verify whether and t what extent MPA conservation objectives have been achieved and to redefine these objectives in the framework

Toward a recovery of the pen shell Pinna nobilis in the French Mediterranean open sea?

Populations of Pinna nobilis have been declining in French coasts for many years, mainly due to anthropogenic impacts such as pollution, boat mooring, trawling and the artificialization of the coastline. Already considered as vulnerable species, a mass mortality event has

A practical novel assessment tool for the socio-ecological condition of protected areas: the protection level index (PLI)

Protected area (PA) managers and policy makers need to determine and demonstrate the effectiveness of PA management and keep track of the conservation status in ways that are practical, scientifically sound and comparable among PAs in various terrestrial and aquatic

New records of scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC) assemblages in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (western Mediterranean Sea): Human impacts and conservation prospects

Scleractinian cold-water corals (CWCs) are among the main habitat engineers of the deep Mediterranean Sea, hosting a high diversity and playing a significant ecological role. In the last two decades, many new living scleractinian CWC sites throughout the Mediterranean Basin

Ecosystem approach to fisheries management works – How switching from mobile to static fishing gear improves populations of fished and non-fished species inside a marine protected area

Lyme Bay marine protected area (MPA) is the UK’s first and largest example of an ambitious, whole-site approach to management, to recover and protect reef biodiversity. The whole-site approach applies consistent management, in this case excluding bottom towed fishing, across

Active ecological restoration of cold-water corals: techniques, challenges, costs and future directions

Cold-water corals (CWC) habitats dwell on continental shelves, slopes, seamounts, and ridge systems around the world’s oceans from 50 to 4000 m depth, providing heterogeneous habitats which support a myriad of associated fauna. These highly diverse ecosystems are threatened by

A terrestrial and marine nature reserve in the NW Mediterranean, Scàndula (Corsica): Biodiversity and lessons from 46 years of management

The Scàndula Nature Reserve (SNR), both terrestrial (919 ha) and marine (664 ha), was established in 1975. The marine part of SNR includes a No-Take Zone (82 ha) where any form of fishing is prohibited, and a partial reserve, where

Marine connectivity conservation rules of thumb for MPA and MPA network design

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely used as place-based protective measures for restoring and safeguarding marine biodiversity. To design effective and resilient MPAs and coherent networks of MPAs, it is necessary to take into account ecological connectivity which allows populations

The MPA Guide: A framework to achieve global goals for the ocean

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are conservation tools intended to protect biodiversity, promote healthy and resilient marine ecosystems, and provide societal benefits. Despite codification of MPAs in international agreements, MPA effectiveness is currently undermined by confusion about the many MPA types