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Cold-water coral (CWC) habitats dwell on continental shelves, slopes, seamounts, and ridge systems around the world’s oceans from 50 to 4000 m depth, providing heterogeneous habitats which support a myriad of associated fauna. These highly diverse ecosystems are threatened by human stressors such as fishing activities, gas and oil exploitation, and...
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The Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR; 14.7 to 13 thousand years ago; ka) phase of the last deglaciation saw a pause in the rise of atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic temperature, that contrasted with warming in the North. A reexpansion of sea ice and a northward shift in the position of the westerly winds in the Southern Ocean are well‐documented, but the r...
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... Active restoration has been implemented in many marine ecosystems, frequently focused on corals and gorgonians as ecosystem engineers, from shallow to deep coral species (e.g. Montero-Serra et al. 2018;Boström-Einarsson et al. 2020;Montseny et al. 2021a). Studies have reported more than 50% average annual survival and a positive growth rate of restored colonies during the study periods (Yoshioka & Yoshioka 1991;Fava et al. 2010;Montero-Serra et al. 2018), suggesting that transplantation actions could enhance the recovery of impacted populations Montseny et al. 2021b;Casoli et al. 2022). ...
Corals and gorgonians play an important role as ecosystem engineers in many sublittoral communities worldwide. However, coral populations are being increasingly impacted by human activities. Active ecological restoration is a popular conservation tool nowadays, widely used to revert degradation in natural populations. Several studies have reported survival and growth success in actively restored corals, but few have studied the long‐term effect of transplantation on coral reproduction. We investigated survival and sexual reproduction of transplanted colonies of the Mediterranean gorgonian Eunicella singularis up to 3 years after being recovered from fishery bycatch and transplanted back to their habitat. Three different colony sizes were tested to explore possible effects of fragmentation on survival and reproduction. Results showed that transplanted colonies suffered a significant mortality during the first 4–5 months (30–35%), independently of fragment size. However, larger fragments showed high survival despite other disturbances, as a bloom of ephemerons filamentous algae occurred during the study. Results also showed that reproductive capacity is negatively affected by transplantation in female colonies. Conversely, male colonies were not directly affected by transplantation but showed an unexpectedly reduced number of spermary sacs both in transplanted and natural control colonies. The trade‐off between investment in reproduction and mortality of transplants highlights that large colony size could be the most appropriate for the active restoration of E. singularis . This study emphasizes the need to explore the long‐term viability and the reproduction investment in transplanted corals as indicators of restoration success, whose populations are sustained by sexual reproduction.
... Methods for active cold-water coral restoration include transplantation techniques and the utilization of artificial structures (Table 5.1; Montseny et al. 2021). Transplantation involves the attachment of cold-water coral fragments to either natural or artificial substrates. ...
ICES workshop on status of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the NEAFC Regulatory Area for 5-year review (WKVMESTAT) was formed as part of the formal ICES advisory process in response to requests from the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC). These requests were for advice on relevant scientific issues for the NEAFC five year review of the effectiveness of the NEAFC Recommendation 19:2014 on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) in the NEAFC Regulatory Area.
WKVMESTAT reviewed and summarised ICES advice to NEAFC on VME and identified two issues to be considered by NEAFC and ICES.
To address changes to scientific understanding on evidence for VME and for Significant Adverse Impacts (SAI) of bottom fishing, WKVMESTAT reviewed relevant policy instruments, technical guidance and supporting documents at the global as well as regional levels. In relation to VME, the Workshop focused on definitions/descriptions/criteria, the use of the term VME in different fora, how the science to identify VMEs has been reflected in these instruments, and other scientific processes that may relate to VMEs but that utilize different terminologies. Regarding significant adverse impacts (SAI) of bottom fishing activities on VMEs the Workshop focused on the assessment of those impacts, as well as on the use of thresholds related to VME encounters.
The use of the term VME in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Sustainable Fisheries Resolution of 2003 (58/14) was a major impetus for deep-sea research to provide the evidence base to support policy decisions on VMEs. Much of the early work was focused on identification of VME indicator taxa and documenting their presence in areas beyond national jurisdiction. More recently, there have been significant relevant scientific developments in the information available to decision-makers to meet the more recent UNGA resolutions (i.e., 71/123, 77/118, and 78/68) and those of other international policies (e.g., Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Sustainable Development Goals). WKVMESTAT identified eleven areas of research where a body of relevant science has been published. For each, this report provides a description of the research subject, the relevance to VME policy, and give some insights into the future direction of that research.
Recommendation 19:2014 divides NEAFC’s regulatory areas into three categories: bottom fishing areas, areas closed for protection of VMEs and restricted bottom fishing areas. Previous ICES advice, addressing the effectiveness of the VME closures and the regulation of fisheries in the protected bottom fishing areas in protecting VMEs, support the conclusion that the measures have been effective in protecting VMEs. For the bottom fishing areas WKVMESTAT does not have the evidence to assess the effectiveness of NEAFC Recommendation in protecting VMEs.
WKVMESTAT also reviewed the list of “VME indicators” in Annex 5 to the NEAFC recommendation and provide suggestions for additions and changes to the list.
... Salah satu teknologi yang diajukan adalah pembangunan terumbu karang buatan (artificial coral reef). Terumbu karang buatan yang dirancang dengan baik dapat menarik spesies ikan komersial tertentu untuk menjadikannya area makan, perlindungan, dan pemijahan (Montseny et al., 2021;Pondella et al., 2022). Salah satu alternatif material yang efektif untuk pembuatan terumbu buatan adalah plastik, dengan penggunaan tali rafia dan pita polypropylene sebagai atraktor. ...
This research aimed to investigate the impact of attractor materials on the species composition and presence of fish around fish houses. The study took place in Teluk Ambon Dalam, specifically in Rumah Tiga Village, Teluk Ambon Dalam District (Figure 1), over a period of 2 months from September to November 2022. The visual method was employed, involving direct observations of fish houses equipped with either raffia rope or Polypropylene Ribbon attractors. The most commonly associated fish species were Apogon moluccensis, with 172 found on raffia ropes and 153 on Polypropylene ribbons; followed by Aeoliscus strigatus, with 129 on raffia ropes and 110 on Polypropylene ribbons. The least associated species were Abudefduf lorenzi, with 15 found on raffia ropes and 14 on Polypropylene ribbons. The study concluded that the choice of attractor material did not significantly affect the composition or presence of fish
... have investigated the characteristics of deep-sea corals, including their long lifespans, slow growth rates, complex physical construction, and ecological importance within deep-sea environments [5][6][7][8][9]. A study has provided a hypothesis that the steep topography of the upper bathyal zone creates a significant environmental gradient that may drive adaptive divergence through depth differences, serving as a key source of coral biodiversity [10]. ...
The utility of the mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) in analyzing the evolutionary history of animals has been proven. Five deep-sea corals (Bathypathes sp.1, Bathypathes sp.2, Schizopathidae 1, Trissopathes sp., and Leiopathes sp.) were collected in the South China Sea (SCS). Initially, the structures and collinearity of the five deep-sea coral mitogenomes were analyzed. The gene arrangements in the five deep-sea coral mitogenomes were similar to those in the order Antipatharia, which evidenced their conservation throughout evolutionary history. Additionally, to elucidate the slow evolutionary rates in Hexacorallia mitogenomes, we conducted comprehensive analyses, including examining phylogenetic relationships, performing average nucleotide identity (ANI) analysis, and assessing GC-skew dissimilarity combining five deep-sea coral mitogenomes and 522 reference Hexacorallia mitogenomes. Phylogenetic analysis using 13 conserved proteins revealed that species clustered together at the order level, and they exhibited interspersed distributions at the family level. The ANI results revealed that species had significant similarities (identity > 85%) within the same order, while species from different orders showed notable differences (identity < 80%). The investigation of the Hexacorallia mitogenomes also highlighted that the GC-skew dissimilarity was highly significant at the order level, but not as pronounced at the family level. These results might be attributed to the slow evolution rate of Hexacorallia mitogenomes and provide evidence of mitogenomic diversity. Furthermore, divergence time analysis revealed older divergence times assessed via mitogenomes compared with nuclear data, shedding light on significant evolutionary events shaping distinct orders within Hexacorallia corals. Those findings provide new insights into understanding the slow evolutionary rates of deep-sea corals in all lineages of Hexacorallia using their mitogenomes.
... Coral farming, as one restoration method, is being considered to address mass coral mortality and illegal utilization (Montseny et al., 2021). Planning how to use resources best for aquaculture projects to cultivate corals for large-scale coral reef restoration is essential to efficiently and sustainably utilize growing corals (Matorres et al., 2023); (Lippmann et al., 2023). ...
Indonesian waters have potential ornamental coral resources in South Sulawesi waters, especially in Karanrang Island, which still need to be optimally utilized by the fishing community. The main objective of this community service is to increase the understanding and skills of the community in managing coral transplantation in situ and caring for them in an environmentally friendly modular system aquarium based on re-circulation. Adopting the ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development) method, this approach begins with the identification of local assets, including the expertise and skills of the karanrang island community. Subsequently, capacity building is carried out by utilizing these assets, and the community is actively involved in the planning and implementation process. Results included increased community knowledge on technological innovations of modular circulation systems holding aquarium design at the household scale and post-harvesting of coral transplant farming products for holding in aquariums. This process contributed to the development of the local ornamental coral sector, empowered the community, and opened up product marketing opportunities at both local and international levels.
... Baums et al., 2019;Voolstra, Peixoto & Ferrier-Pagès, 2023), as well as temperate and cold-water MAFs (e.g. Ounanian et al., 2017;Montseny et al., 2021), have been proposed in several reviews and studies. However, as Ladd & Shantz (2020) highlighted, restoration efforts often overlook fundamental ecology concepts and only 15% of reef restoration publications consider trophic interactions as a potential contributing factor to restoration success. ...
Marine animal forests (MAFs) are benthic ecosystems characterised by biogenic three-dimensional structures formed by suspension feeders such as corals, gorgonians, sponges and bivalves. They comprise highly diversified communities among the most productive in the world's oceans. However, MAFs are in decline due to global and local stressors that threaten the survival and growth of their foundational species and associated biodiversity. Innovative and scal-able interventions are needed to address the degradation of MAFs and increase their resilience under global change. Surprisingly , few studies have considered trophic interactions and heterotrophic feeding of MAF suspension feeders as an integral component of MAF conservation. Yet, trophic interactions are important for nutrient cycling, energy flow within the food web, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and MAF stability. This comprehensive review describes trophic interactions at all levels of ecological organisation in tropical, temperate, and cold-water MAFs. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of available tools for estimating the heterotrophic capacities of the foundational species in MAFs. It then discusses the threats that climate change poses to heterotrophic processes. Finally, it presents strategies for improving trophic interactions and heterotrophy, which can help to maintain the health and resilience of MAFs.
... Furthermore, the influence of climate change on the frequency and intensity of various ocean processes (e.g., dense shelf water cascading events) may complicate this scenario even more (Chapron et al. 2020). Despite the international efforts to protect cold-water corals through legislation (Armstrong et al. 2014) and coordinated programs for marine ecosystems restoration (e.g., United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration), their effects in Mediterranean Sea are still deficient (Matos et al. 2021;Montseny et al. 2021). ...
Lophelia pertusa reefs are vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems and their ecological integrity partly depends on the connectivity and availability of suitable habitat. Moreover, connectivity is a guiding principle in marine conservation planning, particularly for spatial prioritization and for the design of networks of marine protected areas. We estimated the functional seascape connectivity of L. pertusa in the Mediterranean Sea and provide a framework for prioritizing habitat areas for the species conservation. These goals were achieved by simulating transport and potential dispersal of virtual larvae using biophysical modeling and assessing habitat availability based on the suitability and spatial arrangement of the seascape and inter-annual climatological variability. Habitat availability was estimated using a network analysis and accounting for the attributes of habitat areas (i.e., size and quality). The connectivity among Mediterranean ecoregions was weak and an increase in the frequency of climate-driven events (e.g., dense shelf water cascading) may worsen this scenario. However, the potential exchange of larvae between patches within the same ecoregion was high, favoring populations resilience to local disturbances. The analysis of habitat availability allowed identifying important habitat areas for the connectivity of the L. pertusa including the Gulf of Lion, the Apulian and Sicily Island continental margin. Some of the habitat areas identified as important for the connectivity of the L. pertusa are exposed to intense anthropo-genic pressures, that may act synergistically with climate change imposing greater challenges to species conservation. These habitat areas may be prioritized in future management and conservation actions targeting L. pertusa.
... Restoration techniques are not widely practiced in the deep sea because of the current projected costs and uncertainty over success. The potential use of active restoration has been suggested in the deep sea (Da Ros et al. 2019) and the techniques and challenges explored (Montseny et al. 2021). Van Dover et al. (2014) costed a conceptual deep-sea restoration project for CWCs, suggesting that, although costly, it would be highly valuable for facilitating the recovery of these ecosystems and the services they deliver. ...
Cold‐water corals (CWCs) are important species that provide habitat for other taxa but are sensitive to mechanical damage from bottom trawling. CWC conservation has been implemented in the form of marine protected areas (MPAs), but recovery from impact may be particularly slow in the deep‐sea environment; consequently, the use of restoration techniques has been considered. To gain some insight into CWC recruitment and growth, in 2011 we deployed small seabed moorings in the Darwin Mounds MPA (~1,000 m water depth). This site hosts hundreds of CWC mounds, that had previously (until 2003) been impacted by deep‐water trawling. In 2019, we carried out in situ visual surveys of these moorings and the surrounding seabed environment, then recovered two of the moorings. The mooring buoys, glass floats with plastic covers, were extensively colonized by a diverse epifauna that included the CWCs Desmophyllum pertusum and D. dianthus . The presence of coral recruits indicated that environmental conditions, and larval supply, remained favorable for the settlement and growth of CWCs within the MPA. Based on our observations, we consider four possible restoration methods, together with a “do‐nothing” option, for the Darwin Mounds CWCs that have shown little, if any, natural recovery despite 16 years of protection. We conclude that seabed emplacement of high‐relief artificial substrata is likely to be the most efficient and cost‐efficient means of promoting enhanced recovery of the CWCs.
... With the increasing recognition of their uniqueness and importance for the deep sea, the susceptibility of CWC communities to anthropogenic disturbances and climate change has been also a cause of concern in recent years (Chapron et al., 2021;Du Preez et al., 2020;Fosså et al., 2002). The recovery from damage may take many decades, centuries or even longer due to their slow growth rates, extreme longevity and low recruitment life history strategies (Angiolillo et al., 2021;Chapron et al., 2020;Clark et al., 2016a;Montseny et al., 2021). Considering their ecological significance, environmental sensitivity, and protection urgency of this Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME), in-depth studies of scleractinian CWCs have been conducted in several regions (Cunha et al., 2017;Freiwald and Roberts, 2005;Hebbeln et al., 2019b;Orejas and Jiménez, 2019;Roberts et al., 2009). ...
... Through a review of available literature and interviewing fishermen, Fosså et al. (2002) estimated that between 30 and 50% of the D. pertusa reefs in Norwegian waters had been impacted or destroyed by bottom trawling, and destruction of these habitats due to trawling might have also indirectly result in the loss of local biodiversity and altered community structure and function (Althaus et al., 2009). Due to their uniqueness, functional role and susceptibility to anthropogenic disturbances, CWC assemblages are considered vulnerable marine ecosystems (FAO, 2009 (Montseny et al., 2021). Trawling is the main fishing gear in the northern South China Sea, which accounts for 40% of the total annual landings in recent years (Zou, 2021). ...
Scleractinian cold-water corals (CWCs) are one of the most important habitat engineers of the deep sea. Although the South China Sea (SCS) abuts the biodiversity center of scleractinian CWCs in the western Pacific, only a few sporadic records are available. We discovered new CWC sites by means of trawl sampling and video observation along the continental shelf of the northwestern SCS. All trawled scleractinian CWC specimens were identified to species level according to skeleton morphology and structure. The living CWCs and associated fauna recorded in the video were -identified to a higher level of classification. Scleractinian corals were identified to genus level, while non-scleractinian CWCs were identified to family level and given general names such as gorgonian corals, bamboo corals and black corals. Associated benthic dwellers were divided into major categories. A total of 28 scleractinian CWC species were identified to 7 families, 15 genera, and 1 additional subgenus. Among them, 13 species were colonial, including important habitat-forming species in the genera Eguchipsammia, Dendrophyllia and Cladopsammia. Non-scleractinian CWCs were identified to 7 families, including 4 families gorgonian corals, 1 family bamboo corals, and 2 families black corals. Gorgonian corals were the most abundant non-scleractinian CWCs in this region. Meanwhile, starfish, sea anemones, fish, gastropods, echinoderms, and other associated benthic fauna were recorded in the CWC habitats, with starfish belonging to the order Brisingida being most common. New scleractinian CWC assemblages were discovered along the continental seabed mounds in the northwestern SCS. This study highlights the remarkable diversity of cold-water scleractinian corals in the whole SCS, and shows the potential widespread distribution and conservation prospect of CWC habitats in this region.
... Furthermore, high resolution monitoring efforts focused on CWC mounds within MPAs reported that colonies that had previously been impacted due to human activities exhibit low levels of re-growth . Thus, the slow growth rate of these organisms makes them vulnerable to environmental pressures and emphasises the need to understand the environmental processes that drive their success (Montseny et al., 2021). ...
Increasing anthropogenic pressures on marine ecosystems due to the reliance on marine resources and the intense development of the marine realm within the last 10 years has threatened the effective functioning of many unique and fragile marine habitats. These environmental stresses warrant effective monitoring and management practices to ensure the preservation of good environmental status. In situ monitoring of marine environmental processes, such as current flow analysis through Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers, provide data with a high temporal resolution at distinct points on the seafloor. However, extensive spatial coverage of seafloor environmental requires a more efficient strategy to quantify these processes. Seabed mapping has long been established as an essential implement in the effective administration of marine ecosystems. Furthermore, in recognition of the significance of seabed mapping in the successful governance of the marine realm, several international seabed mapping initiatives and national seabed mapping programmes have been established with the goal to achieve complete mapping coverage of the seafloor by 2030. Such a significant volume of data evokes the necessity for an objective and repeatable approach to extract meaningful information from the seabed. Geomorphological seafloor features, including current induced seabed sedimentary bedforms (SSBs), are important indicators of habitat, and are readily apparent in seabed mapping data. Moreover, SSBs are common to many marine habitats and spatial scales and are the physical expression of seafloor hydrodynamics, thus these features are appropriate for a standardised approach designed to ascertain objective information on seabed hydrodynamics. This thesis develops a scale robust object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach that is created to classify SSBs as depicted in multibeam echosounder (MBES) bathymetry and derive hydrodynamic information from their morphometrics. This OBIA approach was applied to SSBs occurring in two spatial resolutions of MBES data. Here, four machine learning classifiers support vector machines, two multi-layer perceptrons, and voting ensemble were assessed on their ability to classify SSBs in these two resolutions of data. The results show that the voting ensemble classifier provided the most accurate results for both datasets. The OBIA framework was applied to SSBs depicted in MBES data acquired in a cold-water coral (CWC) habitat in the “downslope Moira Mounds” in the Porcupine Seabight. The SSB attributes of wave height and wavelength were derived from the classified SSBs classified in theseis data were used as an input to a multiple linear regression that predicted the seabed current velocity. These predictions illustrated the variable influence of topographic steering occurring at regional-, local-, and micro-spatial scales on regional hydrodynamics. This workflow presented the first estimation of current flow velocity and direction from SSBs in MBES data. Finally, this OBIA approach was used to assess SSBs occurring in multiple resolutions of data within the same region, altering the resolution of observation to evaluate the effect of spatial resolution on the temporal resolution of seabed current hydrodynamics. Moreover, this study determined that the coarse spatial resolution MBES data prevented the assessment of short-term variations in seabed benthic habitats hydrodynamics.
