Structure and dynamics of marine rocky benthic communities: Reactions and perspectives facing the global change (MAREA)

Marine benthic communities have suffered long-term decline due to a range of anthropogenic disturbances and threat from climate change. The need to collect long-term data sets has been stressed by marine ecologists because such data provide baselines to verify trends in the structure and dynamics of marine communities. Long-term approaches produce meaningful data, essential for the successful management of marine ecosystems and their conservation. Therefore, the aim of this project is to study the ecological structure and dynamics of Mediterranean littoral rocky benthic communities highly diverse and characterized by sessile long-lived species and low dynamics. These communities are considered particularly sensitive to climate change. This project attempts to integrate complementary approaches to enhance our ecological knowledge on marine benthos and their potential changes triggered by climate change. The project focuses on:

• the analysis of structure and dynamics of benthic communities over long-term periods by analysing demographic traits of representative species and applying landscape ecology,
• the study of population genetics of these species and the correlation of genetic frequencies with the spatial distances within the current landscape.

The combination of photographic series, spatial statistics, geographical information systems and molecular markers enables a better understanding on processes at finer spatial scales. The scientific knowledge gained in this project substantially helps to understand and predict trajectories of benthic littoral communities at different temporal and spatial scales driven by global warming and contributes to better inform and advice strategies for biological conservation.