Identifying conservation priorities for gorgonian forests in Italian coastal waters with multiple methods including citizen science and social media content analysis

Liconti, Arianna; Pittman, Simon J.; Rees, Siân E.; Mieszkowska, Nova

doi:10.1111/ddi.13553

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 81 publications

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“…Moreover, despite being still insufficient, the declaration of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) aims to protect marine benthic ecosystems. Several MPAs have been established to safeguard gorgonian-dominated ecosystems as well as to other relevant marine habitats (Liconti et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An urgent call for more ambitious ocean literacy strategies in marine protected areas: a collaboration project with small-scale fishers as a case study

Salazar,

Gómez,

Vendrell-Simón

et al. 2024

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Cold-Water Corals play a paramount role in marine benthic ecosystems, increasing their complexity and providing spawning and nursery habitats to many species. However, due to their sessile lifestyle and ramified shape they are commonly entangled in nets and even by-caught during the practice of bottom-contact fishing, which includes impacts from both large-scale activities such as trawling and small-scale fishing (e.g., trammel nets or pots). In this context, passive and active restoration measures are crucial to avoid their damage and disappearance, which might cause the consequent loss of complexity and biodiversity of marine benthic communities. With the aim of modifying these fishing practices in the Marine Protected Area of Cap de Creus (North-Western Mediterranean), small-scale fishers and scientists (marine biologists) started a Participatory Process in which they agreed to develop a joint marine conservation program combining two distinct projects: a restoration project of the Cold-Water Corals incidentally captured on fishing nets for their subsequent reintroduction at sea (RESCAP project) and also a project on mitigation of fishing impacts on marine benthic communities (MITICAP project). Collaborative actions were carried out including interviews and exchanges of information with the purpose of collecting all the knowledge required for conducting the actions of the projects. This study shows the results of the assessment throughout five years (2017-2022) of cooperative work and highlights how crucial it is to develop long-term and revisable ocean literacy strategies for ensuring a sustainable ocean governance. An ocean literacy test evaluated the scientific knowledge of fishers at the end of the projects and revealed that despite all the efforts applied, still more work is needed, which reinforces the importance of improving the strategies of knowledge transfer for MPA management. Under the coordination of marine social anthropologists, a Cultural Consensus Analysis was conducted with the fishers. Results revealed a protoculture that should be characterized and considered when developing management strategies in the area. Additionally, the Personal Network Analysis showed that fishers have become agents of change and transmitted the learnings of the projects to their communities, fishers from nearby guilds, local educational centers and even the press. Furthermore, a list of recommendations is provided to optimize the multisector opportunities emerging from collaborative projects with marine scientists and fishers in MPAs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An urgent call for more ambitious ocean literacy strategies in marine protected areas: a collaboration project with small-scale fishers as a case study

Salazar,

Gómez,

Vendrell-Simón

et al. 2024

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Modeling the effects of climate change on the habitat suitability of Mediterranean gorgonians

Bellin,

Rossi

2024

Biodivers Conserv

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Multiple stressors including global warming increasingly threaten the distribution and abundance of gorgonian forests. We built species distribution models (SDM) combined with machine learning algorithms, to compare the ecological niche of three Mediterranean gorgonian species (Paramuricea clavata, Eunicella cavolinii and Eunicella singularis) and distribution response to climate change under the worst IPCC scenario RCP8.5. Three Machine Learning models, XGBoost, Random Forest and the Knearest neighbour, 23 physico-chemical and 4 geophysical environmental variables were used to obtain the potential habitat suitability and future projections (2040-2050) of their distribution in the Mediterranean Sea. The global sensitivity and uncertainty analysis was used to identify the most important environmental variables shaping the habitat suitability of the species and to disentangle the interaction terms among different environmental variables. For all species, bathymetry was the main variable in uencing habitat suitability, with higher interactions with silicate, salinity and concavity. In future climatic conditions, P. clavata was expected to shift its habitat suitability from lower to higher latitudes, mainly in the Adriatic Sea. For both E. cavolinii and E. singularis, a general habitat reduction was predicted. In particular, E. cavolinii was expected to reduce the occupancy area of 49% suggesting that the sensitivity of the symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) may not be the main responsible of the corresponding susceptibility of the holobiont to thermal stresses and climate change.

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Surveillance of coastal biodiversity through social network monitoring

Otero,

Velasco,

Valeiras

2024

Ecological Informatics

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Identifying conservation priorities for gorgonian forests in Italian coastal waters with multiple methods including citizen science and social media content analysis

Cited by 6 publications

References 81 publications

An urgent call for more ambitious ocean literacy strategies in marine protected areas: a collaboration project with small-scale fishers as a case study

An urgent call for more ambitious ocean literacy strategies in marine protected areas: a collaboration project with small-scale fishers as a case study

Modeling the effects of climate change on the habitat suitability of Mediterranean gorgonians

Surveillance of coastal biodiversity through social network monitoring

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