• Energy Research

This volume contains the main results of the EC FP7 “The Ocean of Tomorrow” Project CoCoNet, divided in two sections: 1) a set of guidelines to design networks of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas; 2) a smart wind chart that will allow evaluating the possibility of installing Offshore Wind Farms in both seas. The concept of Cells of Ecosystem Functioning, based on connectivity, is introduced to define natural units of management and conservation. The definition of Good Environmental Status, as defined in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, is fully embraced to set the objectives of the project, by adopting a holistic approach that integrates a full set of disciplines, ranging from physics to bio-ecology, economics, engineering and many sub-disciplines. The CoCoNet Consortium involved scientist sfrom 22 states, based in Africa, Asia, and Europe, contributing to build a coherent scientific community. peer-reviewed

Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa are the two main ecosystem engineering, scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC) found in Mediterranean canyons. Factors controlling CWC distribution in the Mediterranean Sea are not yet fully understood in spite of such ecosystems being recognized as sensitive habitats by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. As they are threatened by fishery activity, they are subject to management and protection measures. In order to contribute towards identifying the major drivers governing CWC distribution at local scale, which is a prerequisite for proper management, we focused our attention on two canyons: (1) the Cassidaigne canyon, located in the eastern part of the Gulf of Lion, in which CWC ecosystems have settled in an upwelling environment and form large colonies, and (2) the Bari Canyon System, in the southwestern Adriatic, a site of coral growth that has been hypothesized to respond to hydrographic processes, including the cascading of North Adriatic Dense Water. The objective of our study was to combine several ecological variables to describe the environmental conditions in favor of CWC settlement and growth: (1) CWC observations, extracted from geo-referenced underwater videos, (2) seafloor characteristics derived from high-resolution bathymetry, (3) data on local hydrodynamic conditions (from high resolution hydrodynamic models). Habitat suitability models were used to identify the main variables driving CWC distribution. Models based on presence-only data (Maxent and ENFA) and on presence-absence data (GLMs) were fitted and compared. Seafloor ruggedness was identified to be the major factor driving CWC distribution in both canyons with the three methods. Two hydrodynamic variables (mean temperature and current velocity) were the second most important predictors for explaining CWC settlement and growth. Suitable areas for CWC habitat occurrence were mapped for both canyons. Spatial distributions were generally predicted at the same locations, although the GLM gave less realistic results in the Bari canyon system probably due to the limited range cover of the entire environmental conditions by the absence points, suggesting that the Maxent and ENFA models were more efficient. These theoretical distributions will help in the assessment of potential habitat extent in the deep-sea and also in the scheme of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

After the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, 450 km2 of former terrestrial and coastal landscape of the Maltese Islands was drowned by the ensuing sea level rise. In this study we use high resolution seafloor data (multibeam echosounder data, seismic reflection profiles, and Remotely Operated Vehicle imagery) and bottom samples to reconstruct ~ 300 km2 of this submerged Maltese paleolandscape. The observed paleolandscape is exceptionally well preserved and comprises former coastal landforms – (i) fault-related escarpments, (ii) paleoshore platforms and associated shorelines, (iii) paleoshoreline deposits, and (iv) mass movement deposits – and former terrestrial landforms – (v) river valleys, (vi) alluvial plains, (vii) karstified limestone plateaus, and (viii) sinkholes. These elements indicate that the paleolandscape has been primarily shaped by tectonic activity combined with fluvial, coastal, slope instability and karstic processes; these are the same processes the shaped the current terrestrial and coastal landscape. By correlating the identified landforms with the timing of known changes in sea level during the last glacial cycle, we infer that the alluvial plains and the shallowest limestone plateaus had up to 100 kyr to develop, whereas the paleoshoreline deposits are likely to have formed between 28 kyr and 14 kyr. The most prominent paleoshore platforms, shorelines and river valleys were generated between 60 kyr and 20 kyr. Fluvial erosion is likely to have been prevalent during periods of low sea level (Last Glacial Maximum and stadial conditions during MIS 3), whereas karst processes should have been more effective during warm and humid interstadial periods. Our results have implications for improving the characterization of past environments and climates, as well as providing a much needed background for prehistoric and geoarcheological research in the central Mediterranean region.

The uneven mapping of the Maltese continental shelf precludes a full assessment of its marine habitats, important for their monitoring and conservation in line with the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and local initiatives. From 2009 to 2012, high-resolution multibeam echosounder (MBES) surveys offshore the NW and E coasts of the Maltese archipelago were carried out, covering a total area of 1408.3 km(2) with a maximum resolution of 1 m, at depths from 1.5 to 263 m. The types of benthic habitats occurring on the continental shelf often showed subtle acoustic variations. This article aims at 1) integrating analyses of the bathymetry and acoustic textures with ground-truthing (grab samples) in key areas; 2) validating this combined approach by rewriting an existing benthic habitat map of the eastern continental shelf of Malta; 3) exploiting this ground-truthed classification to calibrate an unsupervised classification of a dataset acquired with a different sonar. The main results obtained from these analyses are i) a sediment map of the continental shelf of NW Malta and east of the Maltese archipelago - classifying in detail bedrock, rocky blocks, coarse sand and gravel, fine to medium sand and maerl, sand and gravel - that supports the geomorphological interpretation of the seabed features; ii) an automatic classification of the seafloor morphology, highlighting a very gentle sloping seabed crossed by the shelf break and by palaeo-river valleys; iii) the first full benthic habitat map of the continental shelf offshore E and NW coast of Malta obtained with a semi-automatic classification. In this work, we highlight and explain the main differences in seafloor sediment coverage, its morphology and the relative occurrences of benthic habitats between the NW and E sides of the Maltese archipelago. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract. The development of offshore wind farms (OWFs) and the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) comprise two main elements for the production of clean energy, and the simultaneous maintenance and protection of biodiversity in the Mediterranean and Black seas. Successful, efficient, and sustainable coupling of these two aspects presumes that the criteria for selecting suitable locations for the deployment of OWFs should not only include technical-engineering terms (e.g. high wind energy efficiency, bottom suitability, inland infrastructures) but also ecological–environmental considerations (e.g. the least possible impact on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning) and socio-economic aspects (e.g. effects on coastal and marine activities, development of marine spatial planning). In the context of the FP7 CoCoNet project, the integration between OWFs and MPAs is based on four main steps: (i) the identification of existing (networks of) MPAs focusing on the biodiversity distribution patterns and current legislation, (ii) the coupling of offshore wind potential within networks of MPAs, (iii) the evaluation of the knowledge gained up to date and the theoretical approaches at the two pilot sites of the Mediterranean and Black sea basins, and (iv) the development of the "Smart Wind Chart", a convenient and rational tool addressed to scientists and policy makers for the evaluation of maritime policy management schemes. The latter step comprises the core of this work.