The Mediterranean Sea under siege: spatial overlap between marine biodiversity, cumulative threats and marine reserves

By Marta Coll, Chiara Piroddi, Camille Albouy, F. Ben Rais Lasram, Wwl Cheung, Villy Christensen, V. Karpouzi, F. Guilhaumon, David Mouillot, M. Paleczny and 5 more. 2012

624 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Aim A large body of knowledge exists on individual anthropogenic threats that have an impact on marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea, although we know little about how these threats accumulate and interact to affect marine species and ecosystems. In this context, we aimed to identify the main areas where the interaction between marine biodiversity and threats is more pronounced and to assess their spatial overlap with current marine protected areas in the Mediterranean. Location Mediterranean Sea. Methods We first identified areas of high biodiversity of marine mammals, marine turtles, seabirds, fishes and commercial or well-documented invertebrates. We mapped potential areas of high threat where multiple threats are occurring simultaneously. Finally we quantified the areas of conservation concern for biodiversity by looking at the spatial overlap between high biodiversity and high cumulative threats, and we assessed the overlap with protected areas. Results Our results show that areas with high marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea are mainly located along the central and north shores, with lower values in the south-eastern regions. Areas of potential high cumulative threats are widespread in both the western and eastern basins, with fewer areas located in the south-eastern region. The interaction between areas of high biodiversity and threats for invertebrates, fishes and large animals in general (including large fishes, marine mammals, marine turtles and seabirds) is concentrated in the coastal areas of Spain, Gulf of Lions, north-eastern Ligurian Sea, Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, south-eastern Turkey and regions surrounding the Nile Delta and north-west African coasts. Areas of concern are larger for marine mammal and seabird species. Main conclusions These areas may represent good candidates for further research, management and protection activities, since there is only a maximum 2% overlap between existing marine protected areas (which cover 5% of the Mediterranean Sea) and our predicted areas of conservation concern for biodiversity.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/77aa347642afeeb11804730793e9844f090f1eac

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Citations in the corpus

Current global risks to marine mammals: Taking stock of the threats (2018, background): “…impacts on ecosystems and species in the form of maps, so-called “risk maps”, allow the identification of risk hotspots and are often used for prioritization of conservation measures or actions (e.g. Halpern et al., 2008, 2015; Schipper et al., 2008; Trebilco et al., 2011; Coll et al., 2012).”
A Review of Plastic-Associated Pressures: Cetaceans of the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Australian Shearwaters as Case Studies (2018, background): “These same anthropogenic pressures are potentially affecting the population stability of cetaceans and other large marine organisms in the Mediterranean Sea where areas with high species diversity overlap with areas that suffer cumulative anthropogenic threats (Coll et al., 2012).”
A review of impacts of marine dredging activities on marine mammals (2015, background): “where intensive construction activities (including dredging) occur (see, for example, Chilvers et al., 2005; Coll et al., 2012; Anderwald et al., 2013; Pirotta et al., 2013), the direct and indirect impacts on marine mammals are less well understood.”
Invading the Mediterranean Sea: biodiversity patterns shaped by human activities (2014, methodology): “In the Mediterranean Sea, a northwestern-to-southeastern gradient of native species richness is observed, although this could be, at least partly, due to gaps in our knowledge of the biota along the southern and eastern rims (Figure 7; Coll et al., 2010, 2012; Bianchi et al., 2012).”
Jellyfish populations in the Mediterranean Sea (2012, background): “As the Mediterranean Sea has a long history of overfishing (COLL et al. , 2012) , the potential effects on jellyfish populations cannot be ignored.”
Unravelling the ecological role and trophic relationships of uncommon and threatened elasmobranchs in the western Mediterranean Sea (2015, background): “These 2 areas are notably im - pacted by human activities (Coll et al. 2006, 2012).”
The Mediterranean Plastic Soup: synthetic polymers in Mediterranean surface waters (2016, neutral): “Being one of the busiest navigation crossroads and top touristic destinations in the world, surrounded by a heavily populated and industrialized coastline, it is not surprising that in this basin, the impacts of human activities are proportionally stronger than in any other sea 57 .”
Unpublished Mediterranean records of marine alien and cryptogenic species (2020, background): “The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea faces many cumulative threats due to anthropogenic activities and global change (Coll et al. 2012; Micheli et al. 2013).”
Additive effects of climate change on connectivity between marine protected areas and larval supply to fished areas (2015, background): “cies are overexploited with population persistence depending on conservation effort (Coll et al., 2012).”