Reconstruction of the Maërl habitat to better understand its ecological integrity.

Autor: Demestre M; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: montse@icm.csic.es., Soto S; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Durán R; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Del Arco JAG; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Cabrito A; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Illa-Lopez L; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Maynou F; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Sánchez P; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., García-de-Vinuesa A; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain., Emelianov M; Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Feb 20; Vol. 912, pp. 168752. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 21.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168752
Abstrakt: Maërl habitats are composed of coralline red algae species that can live freely rolling on the seabed and forming nodules, the so-called rhodoliths, or incrusted forming coralligenous habitats. Maërl habitats are generally distributed in the Mediterranean at a depth of between 30 m and 70 m and are considered one of the most emblematic Mediterranean seabeds. In the present study, the complex structure of maërl habitats was investigated to i) characterise the relief features and classify the different sediments, ii) to estimate the abundance of the coralline red algae (both rhodoliths and encrusting ones) and iii) to analyse the biodiversity of the species inhabiting the habitat. Data were obtained from an approximately 11 km-long transect, using non-intrusive sampling methods, integrating information from video images collected using the Remotely Operated Vehicle LIROPUS (IEO_CSIC), and multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data. Video images were used to reconstruct (using GIS) the habitat structure and characteristics. Throughout the transect, a strong relationship between habitat characteristics and the effect of trawling activity and the geomorphology of the studied area was observed. The closed area to fishing activity showed a high abundance of rhodoliths in well-structured megaripples reliefs. Contrarily, the areas affected by fishing showed an important destructuring of the relief with a low density of rhodoliths. Last, the muddy bottoms showed areas with no characteristic features and no rhodoliths. All this information has allowed to reconstruct the maërl habitat in the Blanes continental shelf (NW Mediterranean) and analyse the fragmentation of the assemblages seen in the video to assess its good environmental status (GES), and finally to identify the level of ecological integrity of this vulnerable habitat.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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