Diego K Kersting

IATS-CSIC

Anomalous warming of the upper ocean is increasingly being observed in the Mediterranean Sea. Extreme events, known as marine heatwaves (MHWs), can have a profound impact on marine ecosystems, and their correct detection and characterization are crucial to define future impact scenarios. Here, we analyze MHWs observed over the last 41 years (1982-2...

The introduction of alien species is a major threat tothe maintenance of biodiversity in ecosystems andposes a serious menace to their correct functioningwhen they become invasive. The Mediterranean is ahotspot of biological invasions, particularlythroughout its eastern part, having the highestnumber of introduced species than any other searegion i...

Information on the distribution, population traits and conservation status of the endangered coral Cladocora caespitosa is still missing for most of its distribution area. As prompted throughout conservation assessments and red lists, obtaining such information is a priority in the current context of generalized decline of benthic communities in th...

Coralline algae play important ecological roles throughout the photic zone of the world's oceans. Recent studies have shown that attached-living coralline algae can contain records of past climate variability. So far, algal-based paleo-reconstructions are mainly available from mid-to high-latitudes, while in low latitude and temperate regions only...

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,64...

Extreme and prolonged increases in the sea temperature, a marine heatwave (MHW), are detected by comparison with historical values at each location and time of year. Thus, the correct estimation of reference values is key in detecting marine heatwaves. In temporally separated epochs comparison, it is necessary to consider two contributions to the e...

Editorial: Co-management – the formal sharing of management roles and responsibilities between two or more partners – is a set of approaches to protected area governance that has been used extensively around the world to address a suite of management goals. But within co-management approaches, the degree of involvement of stakeholders in decision-m...

Climate change is causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves (MHWs) and mass mortality events (MMEs) of marine organisms are one of their main ecological impacts. Here, we show that during the 2015–2019 period, the Mediterranean Sea has experienced exceptional thermal conditions resulting in the onset of five consecutive...

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the world regions most affected by anthropogenic climate change. Developing climate archives in this sea is essential to reconstruct past environmental and ecological conditions, especially during the last decades which are characterized by a sharp increase in summer heat waves and widespread ecological impacts. We u...

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/133142/165739749

Understanding the resilience of temperate reefs to climate change requires exploring the recovery capacity of their habitat-forming species from recurrent marine heatwaves (MHWs). Here, we show that, in a Mediterranean highly enforced marine protected area established more than 40 years ago, habitat-forming octocoral populations that were first aff...

Mediterranean coralligenous outcrops are a biodiversity hotspot where cryptobenthic and epibenthic fish species conform an important proportion of the inhabiting fish ssemblages. We investigated the distribution of epibenthic fish assemblages in coralligenous outcrops, the contiguous detritic bottoms and the margin where coralligenous outcrops meet...

Among the most worrisome threats to Mediterranean Sea habitats are the range expansions of invasive species and declines of native species. An ongoing (disease‐related) mass mortality event has brought the native Mediterranean fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) to the brink of extinction. Using nylon‐mesh collectors, we assessed larval P nobilis recruitmen...

Until the late 2010s, the spiny fan-mussel Pinna rudis shared its habitat in many Mediterranean sites with the Mediterranean endemic Pinna nobilis, which used to be dominant, but has recently become locally extinct in most of its distribution areas due to a widespread disease outbreak. In the Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve (NW Mediterranean), b...

Canopy-forming macroalgae are amongst the main competitors of corals by affecting coral recruitment, growth of recruits and adults, fecundity and in the worst-case scenario causing coral bleaching and necrosis. However, potentially reef-building coral Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1767) and canopy-forming macroalgae of the order Fucales (Cystosei...

The fan mussel (or pen shell), Pinna nobilis, is an emblematic large bivalve, endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. Due to various anthropogenic impacts, its populations had substantially decreased the last century, which led to its strict protection by international and national legislative instruments since the 1990s. Since 2016, P. nobilis has been...

Being able to demonstrate whether a Marine Protected Area (MPA) is achieving its objectives is essential to be able to refine the management measures adopted and to reinforce their legitimacy. After several years of focusing on the surface area covered by MPAs, institutions at all levels are now turning to a more qualitative aspect that aims to ass...

This dataset compiles data on geographic and depth distribution, demography, population and mortality, of different habitat-forming invertebrate species dwelling the Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages. This dataset gathers published scientific papers, as well as grey literature and technical reports. We used different search strategies in the...

Determining the drivers of key ecological processes of commercial marine species is important to acquire basic and essential knowledge for fisheries management and conservation. Here we report on a long‐term monitoring of the settlement of the European spiny lobster, Palinurus elephas, the most commercially important spiny lobster species in the Me...

Mar Menor is one of the largest coastal lagoons in the Mediterranean basin. Over the years, Mar Menor has suffered a significant environmental degradation due to multiple factors with anthropogenic origin. The transformation from a rain-fed basin to intensive irrigated agriculture has led to an rise in the water inflow and nutrients in the basin, w...

A devastating mass mortality event (MME) very likely caused by the protozoan Haplosporidium pinnae first detected in 2016 in the Western Mediterranean Sea, is pushing the endemic bivalve Pinna nobilis to near extinction. Populations recovery, if possible, will rely on larval dispersal from unaffected sites and potential recolonization through recru...

The calcareous (CaCO3) skeleton of massive scleractinian corals represents a reliable archive for environmental proxy data. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope records built from series of powder samples drilled along the axis of maximum growth represent the backbone of most coral sclerochronologies. Because isotope analyses require a certain minimum...

• Areas were no uses are allowed (no take, no go) are essential for an effective MPA, especially in the context of ecosystem degradation and climate change impact. • Full protection provides many payoffs, from ecological to socioeconomic outcomes: conservation increases exponentially, spillover benefits neighboring areas, increased resilience again...

Shallow Mediterranean rocky environments are usually dominated by macroalgae, but the stony colonial zooxanthellate coral Cladocora caespitosa is able to build extensive banks in some particular areas. Although zooxanthellate corals and benthic macroalgae are expected to compete for light and space when overlapping in the same habitat, there is pre...

Anthropogenic drivers and global warming are altering the occurrence of infectious marine diseases, some of which produce mass mortalities with considerable ecosystemic and economic costs. The Mediterranean Sea is considered a laboratory to examine global processes, and the fan mussel Pinna nobilis a sentinel species within it. Since September 2016...

This long-lived bivalve is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, where it has a range from Spain to Turkey along the northern and southern coasts and coasts of the Mediterranean islands. Since 2016, a devastating and geographically widespread mass mortality event (MME) has impacted P. nobilis populations throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Previous to th...

This long-lived bivalve is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, where it has a range from Spain to Turkey along the northern and southern coasts and coasts of the Mediterranean islands. Since 2016, a devastating and geographically widespread mass mortality event (MME) has impacted P. nobilis populations throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Previous to th...

Marine highly mobile species endure long migrations in relation to their life-history phases. During these long journeys, these species are exposed to a wide range of threats that makes many of them rank amongst the most threatened animals in the world. Efficient conservation and protection of MHMS needs the implementation of diverse but complemen...

Anthropogenic climate change, and global warming in particular, has strong and increasing impacts on marine ecosystems (Poloczanska et al., 2013; Halpern et al., 2015; Smale et al., 2019). The Mediterranean Sea is considered a marine biodiversity hotspot contributing to more than 7% of world’s marine biodiversity including a high percentage of ende...

Climate change is affecting reef-building corals worldwide, with little hope for recovery. However, coral fossils hint at the existence of environmental stress-triggered survival strategies unreported in extant colonial corals. We document the living evidence and long-term ecological role of such a survival strategy in which isolated polyps from co...

A mass mortality event is devastating the populations of the endemic bivalve Pinna nobilis in the Mediterranean Sea from early autumn 2016. A newly described Haplosporidian endoparasite (Haplosporidium pinnae) is the most probable cause of this ecological catastrophe placing one of the largest bivalves of the world on the brink of extinction. As a...

The ling Molva molva is a widespread gadid in the Northeast Atlantic and one example of a poorly studied species of particular interest, being its distribution affected by climate warming. The ling supposedly occurs in the cold waters of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea, where it used to be commonly fished, but to our best knowledge, records of M...

Despite shallow coral reefs are mainly restricted to tropical and subtropical marine environments, relict reef-builder corals can be also found in temperate seas like the Mediterranean Sea. The aim of this presentation is to show the preliminary results of an ongoing interdisciplinary project studying the Mediterranean endemic coral Cladocora caesp...

Understanding the combined effects of global and local stressors is crucial for conservation and management, yet challenging due to the different scales at which these stressors operate. Here, we examine the effects of one of the most pervasive threats to marine biodiversity, ocean warming, on the early life stages of the habitat‐forming macroalga...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are key tools to mitigate human impacts in coastal environments, promoting sustainable activities to conserve biodiversity. The designation of MPAs alone may not result in the lessening of some human threats, which is highly dependent on management goals and the related specific regulations that are adopted. Here, we d...

The objective of this issue of «Science for MPA Management» is to explore the process of the ecosystem approach adopted in 2008 by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the European Union. In this context, Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are identified as a key element in the...

The endemic Mediterranean zooxanthellate scleractinian reef-builder Cladocora caespitosa is among the organisms most affected by warming-related mass mortality events in the Mediterranean Sea. Corals are known to contain a diverse microbiota that plays a key role in their physiology and health. Here we report the first study that examines the micro...

Marine ecosystems make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and ensuring the natural storage of carbon in biomass and sediments. Vegetated coastal ecosystems in particular have a very large storage capacity. This issue of «Science for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Management» explores th...

The objective of this issue of «Science for MPA Management» is to explore the process of the ecosystem approach adopted in 2008 by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the European Union ... In this context, Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are identified as a key element in t...

Adaptation, survival and decline proceses in the Mediterranean scleractinian Cladocora caespitosa and its use as a proxy for past temperature and ecology

A long-term experimental approach was undertaken to assess viability and resilience of the endangered Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis. Artificial and natural recruitment, mortality, population traits and juvenile growth were assessed in seasonal and annual surveys. In the Columbretes Islands, P. nobilis thrives in differing substrate types,...

A mass mortality event (MME) impacting the bivalve Pinna nobilis was detected across a wide geographical area of the Spanish Mediterranean Sea (Western Mediterranean Sea) in early autumn 2016. Underwater visual censuses were conducted across several localities separated by hundreds of kilometers along the Spanish Mediterranean coasts and revealed w...

Nodular morphology is typical of free-living coralline algae (Rhodophyta), which form extensive rhodolith beds worldwide over broad latitudinal and depth ranges (Foster 2001). Strikingly, under certain environmental conditions, coral colonies may also be able to live unattached to the substratum, as has been reported in the Atlantic, Indian and Pac...

Overexploitation leads to the ecological extinction of many oceanic species. The depletion of historical abundances of large animals, such as whales and sea turtles, is well known. However, the magnitude of the historical overfishing of exploited invertebrates is unclear. The lack of rigorous baseline data limits the implementation of efficient man...

The Mediterranean endemic scleractinian coral Cladocora caespitosa (L., 1767) has been recently included in the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. In this context, information on the species is urgently required to further assess its status and to determine its distribution area. This study reports on the main traits of a recently discovered C...

This report presents the conservation status of the anthozoans occurring in the Mediterranean Sea, based on the assessment of 136 species using the IUCN Red List methodology. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level to guide appropriate conservation actions in order to improve their status.

In our crowded and popular Mediterranean coastline, people are almost always somehow connected to Marine Protected Areas. Local populations, tourists, businesses, tourism operators... all can be impacted by conservation measures. The success of our MPAs then directly depends on how well socio economic realities are taken into account. In return, th...

The European Red List of Habitats provides an overview of the risk of collapse (degree of endangerment) of marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats in the European Union (EU28) and adjacent regions (EU28+), based on a consistent set of categories and criteria, and detailed data and expert knowledge from involved countries1. A total of 257 benthi...

The European Red List of Habitats provides an overview of the risk of collapse (degree of endangerment) of marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats in the European Union (EU28) and adjacent regions (EU28+), based on a consistent set of categories and criteria, and detailed data and expert knowledge from involved countries. A total of 257 benthic...

In the current global climate change scenario, stressors overlap in space and time, and knowledge on the effects of their interaction is highly needed to understand and predict the response and resilience of organisms. Corals, among many other benthic organisms, are affected by an increasing number of global change-related stressors including warmi...

Ocean acidification is receiving increasing attention because of its potential to affect marine ecosystems. Rare CO2 vents offer a unique opportunity to investigate the response of benthic ecosystems to acidification. However, the benthic habitats investigated so far are mainly found at very shallowwater (less than or equal to 5 m depth) and theref...

Although recruitment is considered an essential process regulating populations of many marine species, there is still a lack of knowledge about the ultimate factors that influence it. This is especially true for seaweeds, where population dynamics studies are also lacking. The main objective of this study was to investigate the main mechanisms driv...

Although recruitment is considered an essential process regulating populations of many marine species, there is still a lack of knowledge about the ultimate factors that influence it. This is especially true for seaweeds, where population dynamics studies are also lacking. The main objective of this study was to investigate the main mechanisms driv...

Cladocora caespitosa is the only reef-forming zooxanthellate scleractinian in the Mediterranean Sea. This endemic coral has suffered severe mortality events at different Mediterranean sites owing to anomalous summer heat waves related to global climate change. In this study, we assessed genetic structure and gene flow among four populations of this...

T-MedNet initiative (www.t-mednet.org) is devoted to spread the acquisition of high resolution temperature series in Mediterranean coastal waters, as well as to facilitate data sharing and analysis. In the Mediterranean, shifts in species’ distribution and mass mortality events (MME) reported during the last decades have been related to significant...

Coralligenous outcrops are an important "hot spot" of Mediterranean biodiversity. Most of the benthic species inhabiting these outcrops are long-lived and slow-growing, thus making them especially vulnerable. The interaction between the climatic changes projected for the 21 st century and other ongoing human-induced stressors, presents a major chal...

Global change is one of the major concerns for the conservation of the rich biodiversity of coralligenous assemblages. In the Mediterranean Sea, there is a strong likelihood of increasing frequencies of mass mortality events linked to global warming and the spread of invasive species. Gorgonian forests, one of the most emblematic facies of corallig...

Cladocora caespitosa is the only zooxanthellate reef-building scleractinian coral endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. Today, living banks of this long-lived structural species appear to be restricted to few locations. The population of C. caespitosa in the Illa Grossa Bay (Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve, NW Mediterranean) has been studied and mon...