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Title: | Seagrass meadows (Posidonia oceanica) distribution and trajectories of change |
Authors: | Telesca, Luca Belluscio, Andrea Criscoli, Alessandro Ardizzone, Giandomenico Apostolaki, Eugenia Fraschetti, Simonetta Gristina, Michele Knittweis, Leyla Martin, Corinne Sophie Pergent, Gerard Alagna, Adriana Badalamenti, Fabio Garofalo, Germana Gerakaris, Vasilis Pace, Marie Louise Pergent-Martini, Christine Salomidi, Maria |
Keywords: | Posidonia oceanica -- Mediterranean Region Posidonia -- Mediterranean Region Seagrasses -- Mediterranean Region Marine biodiversity -- Mediterranean Region Marine ecology -- Mediterranean Region Crustacea -- Mediterranean Region |
Issue Date: | 2015-07-28 |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Citation: | Telesca, L., Belluscio, A., Criscoli, A., Ardizzone, G., Apostolaki, E. T., Fraschetti, S.,... Alagna, A. (2015). Seagrass meadows (Posidonia oceanica) distribution and trajectories of change. Scientific Reports, 5, 12505. |
Abstract: | Posidonia oceanica meadows are declining at alarming rates due to climate change and human activities. Although P. oceanica is considered the most important and well-studied seagrass species of the Mediterranean Sea, to date there has been a limited effort to combine all the spatial information available and provide a complete distribution of meadows across the basin. The aim of this work is to provide a fine-scale assessment of (i) the current and historical known distribution of P. oceanica, (ii) the total area of meadows and (iii) the magnitude of regressive phenomena in the last decades. The outcomes showed the current spatial distribution of P. oceanica, covering a known area of 1,224,707 ha, and highlighted the lack of relevant data in part of the basin (21,471 linear km of coastline). The estimated regression of meadows amounted to 34% in the last 50 years, showing that this generalised phenomenon had to be mainly ascribed to cumulative effects of multiple local stressors. Our results highlighted the importance of enforcing surveys to assess the status and prioritize areas where cost-effective schemes for threats reduction, capable of reversing present patterns of change and ensuring P. oceanica persistence at Mediterranean scale, could be implemented. |
URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/25087 |
Appears in Collections: | Scholarly Works - FacSciBio |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Telesca et al. (2015).pdf | Main article | 1.68 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
srep12505-s1.pdf | Supplementary information 1 | 635.82 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
srep12505-s2.xls | Supplementary information 2 | 98 kB | Microsoft Excel | View/Open |
srep12505-s3.docx | Link to GIS dataset | 11.52 kB | Microsoft Word XML | View/Open |
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