1. Explorations of the Mediterranean deep sea using remotely operated vehicles have shown that the sea bed hosts rich habitats, supporting high biodiversity.However, there have been only a few studies dealing with the southern part of the basin, leading to limited protection and conservation efforts in this area.2. This study aimed to explore the sea bed off Linosa Island (Sicily Channel, southern Mediterranean Sea), which is considered a 'sentinel area' for alien species and global environmental changes owing to its geographic position, thus deserving special attention. 3. Remotely operated vehicle surveys, carried out in 2016 and 2017, were analysed to provide the first ecological characterization of benthic assemblages at depths −19 -−384 m around Linosa Island. 4. Communities were dominated by three priority habitats, amounting to 39% of the almost 5 km of the sea floor that was surveyed. These are represented in the euphotic zone by Posidonia oceanica meadows and, at greater depth, by newly discovered dense coral forests and extended rhodolith/maërl beds. Sixteen habitat-forming species included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (e.g. gorgonians Eunicella cavolini and Paramuricea clavata, and black corals Antipathella subpinnata and Leiopathes glaberrima) were recorded, as well as individuals of Sargassum sp. at −100 m depth.5. The volcanic island of Linosa represents a small, naturally preserved area, with very limited human pressure, hosting rich marine benthic biodiversity. Given the high species and habitat richness, we recommend its inclusion in the Special Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance project (United Nations Environment Programme) and suggest a redefinition of the existing marine protected area extension.
Marine infrastructures are increasing, generating a variety of impacts and introducing artificial habitats which have low ecological value and support assemblages that differ significantly from those on natural rocky coasts. While in the past there was little ecological consideration as to how artificial structures were built, now the trend is to look for “greener” designs inspired by or mimicking nature. These greening efforts have had a strong focus on enhancing physical habitat structure to support more diverse assemblages, driven by the untested assumption that artificial habitats lack the physical structure proper to natural habitats. We tested this assumption by comparing five descriptors of physical structure (inclination; exposure; roughness; abundance, and diversity of surface morphological microelements) across a combination of natural and artificial habitats of regular and irregular morphologies (seawalls = artificial regular; cliffs = natural regular; breakwaters = artificial, irregular; and boulder fields = natural irregular) in the North Adriatic Sea. Most structural descriptors were similar between artificial and natural habitats. Only inclination was consistently steeper in the artificial than in the natural habitats. Other minor differences in roughness or in the abundance of some surface microelements were related to the general morphology (regular or irregular) of the habitat rather than to its artificial or natural identity. The outcomes challenge the widespread assumption that artificial habitats lack the physical structure proper to natural habitats and stimulate renewed consideration about other structural and non-structural elements that could enhance the performance and sustainability of artificial marine structures, such as construction material, environmental setting or maintenance. They also encourage a wider reflection about what makes an artificial building surface “greener”: structural complexity is an important ecological parameter, and its deliberate increase will lead to responses in the biota, however, this may not necessarily match “more natural” conditions.
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