• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close

This upload contains three datasets in CSV files and a PDF file with the specific description of the CSV files. These data was used for the analysis of the mass mortality events reported during the period 2015-2019 across the Mediterranean. The datasets are 1) a CSV file with the data used for the description of the spatial-temporal, depth and biological patterns of mortality observed in the Mediterranean Sea in the 2015-2019 period; 2) a CSV file with the data used to conduct the analyses on the relationship between marine heatwaves (MHW) days found on the surface (averaged per monitored area and year) and the corresponding mass mortality incidence of benthic organisms; 3) a CSV file with the data used to conduct the analyses on the relationship between in-situ MHW days (averaged per monitored area, depth and year) and the corresponding mass mortality incidence. Data were obtained through benthic community field surveys conducted by 33 research teams from 11 Mediterranean countries. Surveys covered thousands of kms of coastline, spanning 13º of latitude (32 °S to 45 °N) and 40º of longitude (-5°W to 35°E) in the Mediterranean Sea. The dataset provides the most updated inventory of mass mortality events records for benthic species between 2015-2019 in the region. The surveys were conducted in 142 monitoring areas. Monitoring areas were considered as geographic areas (10-25 km coastline, e.g., a marine protected area and the nearby coast) sharing common environmental features. In situ temperature conditions datasets base consists of high frequency (hourly) time series obtained using HOBO data loggers (accuracy ± 0.21°C) set-up at standard depths along rocky walls by divers, generally every 5 m from the surface to 40 m depth.This dataset as in the case of the mortality was assembled under the T-MEDNet initiative (www.t-mednet.org). Satellite derived sea surface temperature (SST) across the Mediterranean Sea was obtained from CMEMS (https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/?option=com_csw&view=details&product_id=SST_MED_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_021). The data consists of daily (night-time), gap free, optimally interpolated foundation SST at ~4 km resolution from AVHRR with improved accuracy and stability over the 1982-2019 period

AbstractGiven the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss, the need to prioritize marine areas for protection represents a major conservation challenge. The three‐dimensionality of marine life and ecosystems is an inherent element of complexity for setting spatial conservation plans. Yet, the confidence of any recommendation largely depends on shifting climate, which triggers a global redistribution of biodiversity, suggesting the inclusion of time as a fourth dimension. Here, we developed a depth‐specific prioritization analysis to inform the design of protected areas, further including metrics of climate‐driven changes in the ocean. Climate change was captured in this analysis by considering the projected future distribution of >2000 benthic and pelagic species inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea, combined with climatic stability and heterogeneity metrics of the seascape. We identified important areas based on both biological and climatic criteria, where conservation focus should be given in priority when designing a three‐dimensional, climate‐smart protected area network. We detected spatially concise, conservation priority areas, distributed around the basin, that protected marine areas almost equally across all depth zones. Our approach highlights the importance of deep sea zones as priority areas to meet conservation targets for future marine biodiversity, while suggesting that spatial prioritization schemes, that focus on a static two‐dimensional distribution of biodiversity data, might fail to englobe both the vertical properties of species distributions and the fine and larger‐scale impacts associated with climate change.

As climate-related impacts threaten marine biodiversity globally, it is important to adjust conservation efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Translating scientific knowledge into practical management, however, is often complicated due to resource, economic and policy constraints, generating a knowledge-action gap. To develop potential solutions for marine turtle conservation, we explored the perceptions of key actors across 18 countries in the Mediterranean. These actors evaluated their perceived relative importance of 19 adaptation and mitigation measures that could safeguard marine turtles from climate change. Of importance, despite differences in expertise, experience and focal country, the perceptions of researchers and management practitioners largely converged with respect to prioritizing adaptation and mitigation measures. Climate change was considered to have the greatest impacts on offspring sex ratios and suitable nesting sites. The most viable adaptation/mitigation measures were considered to be reducing other pressures that act in parallel to climate change. Ecological effectiveness represented a key determinant for implementing proposed measures, followed by practical applicability, financial cost, and societal cost. This convergence in opinions across actors likely reflects long-standing initiatives in the Mediterranean region towards supporting knowledge exchange in marine turtle conservation. Our results provide important guidance on how to prioritize measures that incorporate climate change in decision-making processes related to the current and future management and protection of marine turtles at the ocean-basin scale, and could be used to guide decisions in other regions globally. Importantly, this study demonstrates a successful example of how interactive processes can be used to fill the knowledge-action gap between research and management.

Rising ocean temperature impacts the functionality and structure of ecosystems, further triggering the redistribution of biodiversity. Still, the magnitude and anticipated impacts of ocean warming are not expected to be uniform across marine space. Here, we developed a two-fold index-based approach to provide an integrated climatic vulnerability assessment of the marine surfaces which are enclosed within protected areas in the Mediterranean Sea. We first built a climatic stability index, based on metrics of analog-based velocity of climate change over a 120-year period (1950-2069), to assess patterns of climate dynamics within the marine protected surfaces. To provide a vulnerability ranking of protected surfaces under climate change, we combined this climate-related index with an index of community stability, reflecting the projected distribution shifts of 71 species of high conservation value. Our analyses revealed a highly heterogeneous and dynamic climatic space, with increasing but spatially inconsistent patterns of climate change velocities over successive 30-year periods. We found that about 62% of the protected marine surface might be subjected to low/very low climatic stability. About 70% of the protected waters were also found to be of limited community stability. Thus, protected surfaces across the Mediterranean basin were characterized by high vulnerability under changing climatic conditions, while only 5.7% of them exhibited high and very high stability based on both indices. Our findings suggest that combining information on climate change dynamics and biotic stability could offer spatially explicit insights which cannot be obtained based simply on the ecological dimensions of conservation planning.

Incorrect Affiliation In the published article, there was an error regarding the affiliation for Jasper Van Vlasselaer. Instead of: 13 Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) (Palma), Ecosystem Oceanography Group (GRECO), Palma de Mallorca, Spain, he should have: 11 Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Fisheries and Aquatic Production, Oostende, Belgium. In the published article, there was an error regarding the affiliation for Luc Van Hoof. Instead of: 14 Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece he should have 3 Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, Ijmuiden, Netherlands The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.

European islands are hotspots of biological and cultural diversity, which, compared to mainland, are more vulnerable to climate change, tourism development, uncontrolled land-use changes and the consequences of financial crisis. These drivers of change have increasingly resulted in severe impacts on socio-economic and environmental parameters. Projected climate, land-use and socio-economic change will impact on islands’ biodiversity, ecosystem services and, in turn, on the quality of life of island inhabitants. Even if the existing methods can adequately predict the abovementioned changes of the larger islands, this is not the case for small and medium-size islands, where there is a need for refinement. Although ecosystem services (ES) assessments have been carried out worldwide in different geographical areas, islands are still under-represented. Despite the recognised islands’ importance and vulnerability, efforts to date have focused solely on the pressures they face. Still, we know little about ES supply, flow and demand and their spatio-temporal variability, whilst integrated approaches that consider ES cross-island realms (terrestrial, marine and their interface) remain scarce. Even more under-represented are studies that explore the telecoupled relationship amongst islands and their mainland counterparts. Moreover, the current conceptual approaches guiding ES mapping and assessment need further refinement to account for the complex manifestations of nature and culture arising from peoples’ interaction with island spaces. This paper discusses the creation of a platform for coordinated interdisciplinary research on several aspects of mapping and assessment of ES in small and medium European islands in order to synthesise and strengthen the knowledge base for conservation of island realms and contribute to their sustainable development.

This registration contains the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist for the scoping review protocol entitled: "Current practices in marine systematic conservation planning: protocol for a global scoping review".

Global change is striking harder and faster in the Mediterranean Sea than elsewhere, where high levels of human pressure and proneness to climate change interact in modifying the structure and disrupting regulative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. Rocky reefs are particularly exposed to such environmental changes with ongoing trends of degradation being impressive. Due to the variety of habitat types and associated marine biodiversity, rocky reefs are critical for the functioning of marine ecosystems, and their decline could profoundly affect the provision of essential goods and services which human populations in coastal areas rely upon. Here, we provide an up-to-date overview of the status of rocky reefs, trends in human-driven changes undermining their integrity, and current and upcoming management and conservation strategies, attempting a projection on what could be the future of this essential component of Mediterranean marine ecosystems.