Marine forests at risk: solutions to halt the loss and promote the recovery of Mediterranean canopy-forming seaweeds
2014
Along Mediterranean coasts, canopy-forming seaweeds used to form diverse, productive and
valuable "forest" habitats, but in the past decades conspicuous declines, sometimes to local
extinction, have been reported in many regions. Canopies are retracting particularly close to
urban areas, and are replaced by turf-forming and ephemeral algae or barrens. The persisting
forests are under continued threat, and current protection measures are insufficient. We provide
evidence that declines of canopy algae are dramatically extensive, and are driven by multiple
local (nutrient enrichment and high sediment loads, fishing, heavy metal pollution) and global
stressors (increasing temperature, high wave exposure). We also show that the combined
management of local stressors (such as nutrients and sediments) would increase significantly the
resilience of canopy algae to future climatic stressors, preventing their further deterioration.
Finally, we discuss restoration prospects in areas where these systems have been lost. We
conclude identifying the main needs to understand, guide and motivate effective conservation
actions in these valuable ecosystems.
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