Challenges facing a network of representative marine protected areas in the Mediterranean: prioritizing the protection of underrepresented habitats

Abdulla, Ameer; Gomei, Marina; Hyrenbach, David; Sciara, Giuseppe Notarbartolo di; Agardy, Tundi

doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn164

Cited by 83 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Conditions in the Mediterranean basin on the one hand facilitate a coordinated multinational approach to marine conservation, i.e., the physical proximity of countries, recent international commitments to MSP efforts (Olsen et al 2011) and the fact that the Mediterranean Sea is wellstudied (Abdulla et al 2009). But there are difficulties in the Mediterranean including political instabilities within countries and conflict among them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Levant to Gibraltar: A Regional Perspective for Marine Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea

Portman¹,

Nathan²,

Levin³

2012

AMBIO

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are critical to the well-being of threatened ecosystems and thus can be highly beneficial to humans, especially to those residing nearby. We explore the qualities of 117 MPAs in the Mediterranean basin and develop a taxonomy of their characteristics. We relate the spatial distribution of the MPAs to the various characteristics of the taxonomy (size, distance from shore, protection levels, management regimes, etc.) and to areas of high human impact and influence levels. To do this we use information on biogeographic regions and information from two different human influence models; one model developed for the marine environment and one covering the littoral terrestrial environment. Our analysis provides insights to planners and managers working in a regional capacity and trying to build MPA networks. Generally, current MPAs have not been established in high impact areas despite their being close to shores containing intense human activity. Decision-makers wishing to design and establish new MPAs may seek out areas of high cumulative human impacts (near the marineterrestrial interface) or avoid them depending on marine conservation objectives, including the desire to vary types of MPAs within a network. Limitations of our analysis and methodology indicate areas for further research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Levant to Gibraltar: A Regional Perspective for Marine Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea

Portman¹,

Nathan²,

Levin³

2012

AMBIO

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“…However, these MPAs cover only 0.4% of this sea (Abdulla et al, 2009), meaning that further work has been urgently demanded by the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (Perrings et al, 2010) to achieve the goal of protecting a minimum of 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. David Mouillot et al (2011) have argued that, despite its relatively small size, the Mediterranean MPA system is spatially congruent with hot spots of taxonomic fish diversity, although this system completely misses verified hot spots of functional diversity.…”

Section: The Application Of Soundscape Ecology To Protect the Meditermentioning

confidence: 99%

The Soundscape Approach for the Assessment and Conservation of Mediterranean Landscapes: Principles and Case Studies

Farina

Buscaino

Ceraulo

et al. 2014

Journal of Landscape Ecology

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The fine-grained mosaic of natural and human-modified patches that characterizes the Mediterranean region has created a multifaceted system that is difficult to investigate using traditional ecological techniques. In this context, sounds have been found to be the optimum model to provide indirect and timely information about the state of ecosystems. The sonic nature of the environment (the soundscape) represents an important component of the landscape, and the new discipline of soundscape ecology has recently been shown to have appropriate tools for investigating the complexity of the environment. In the last decade, technological advances in the acoustic field have led researchers to carry out wide-scale and long-term ecological research using new and efficient tools, such as digital low cost sound recorders, and autonomous software and metrics. Particularly in the Mediterranean region, where land transformation occurs at a very rapid rate, soundscape analysis may represent an efficient tool with which to:1) track transformations in the community balance, 2) indicate the most acoustically complex parts (bioacoustic hotspots) of the land mosaic, 3) prevent environmental degradation, and 4) decide whether protection or restoration actions are most appropriate.Conserving the quality of Mediterranean sounds means preserving the natural dynamics of its animal populations and also involves maintaining the cultural heritage, human identity, and the spiritual values of the area.

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“…Recognising the difficulty of defining 'significant adverse impacts', New Zealand has implemented measures which instead attempt to provide for 'adequate and representative protection' from trawling impacts. While this requires functional definitions of 'adequate' and 'representative' to be adopted, there has recently been substantial international development of approaches, guidelines and best practice in defining these concepts as they pertain to designing spatial protection measures for marine ecosystems (see Davies et al 2008, Rogers et al 2008, Abdulla et al 2009, Williams et al 2009). An approach based on implementing spatial protection measures representative of the bio-and geodiversity of the area also inevitably requires that such measures need to be designed and implemented at an ecosystem, biotype or biome level (sensu Williams et al 2009), and not at an individual feature or organism level.…”

Section: Prevention Of Significant Adverse Impacts On Vmesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is an emerging literature on the design of effective deep-water closures for the representative protection of deep-sea biodiversity (e.g. Davies et al 2008, Rogers et al 2008, Abdulla et al 2009, Williams et al 2009), and we explain to what extent the guiding principles emanating from this work have been applied to the design of interim protection measures, and what further information or work is required for these principles to be more rigorously applied in the design of future longterm spatial protection measures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protection measures implemented by New Zealand for vulnerable marine ecosystems in the South Pacific Ocean

Penney¹,

Parker²,

Brown³

2009

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Interim measures for bottom fisheries adopted by the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) require participants to limit bottom fishing to currently fished areas and prevent significant adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). The New Zealand bottom trawl footprint consists of two hundred 20 min latitude × 20 min longitude blocks trawled over the period [2002][2003][2004][2005][2006] within which New Zealand flagged vessels reported 11 425 tows, primarily targeting orange roughy Hoplostethus atlanticus. Past effort and seabed impact levels differ substantially between these blocks, ranging from lightly (< 3 tows block -1 ) to heavily trawled (> 50 tows block -1 ), with a maximum of 1417 tows in the most heavily trawled block. Effort data were used to stratify the bottom trawl footprint into 3 effort tiers as the basis for a management approach tailored to levels of past impact: (1) adequate and representative spatial closure of areas likely to support VMEs, with emphasis on less impacted areas; (2) a move-on rule in areas where likelihood of encounter with a VME is unknown; and (3) constraining fishing effort to remaining open areas most impacted by past fishing. Sixty-two lightly trawled blocks were closed to prevent impact in these areas; 69 moderately trawled blocks were subjected to a move-on rule; and 69 heavily trawled blocks were designated as open to fishing. A further 20 blocks were closed to provide representative protection within the moderately and heavily trawled tiers. In the absence of seabed biodiversity data, biologically important physical factors, primarily depth range and topography, were used to select interim precautionary closures and to evaluate representativity

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Challenges facing a network of representative marine protected areas in the Mediterranean: prioritizing the protection of underrepresented habitats

Cited by 83 publications

References 27 publications

From the Levant to Gibraltar: A Regional Perspective for Marine Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea

From the Levant to Gibraltar: A Regional Perspective for Marine Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea

The Soundscape Approach for the Assessment and Conservation of Mediterranean Landscapes: Principles and Case Studies

Protection measures implemented by New Zealand for vulnerable marine ecosystems in the South Pacific Ocean

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