The Management of Mediterranean Coastal Habitats: A Plea for a Socio-ecosystem-Based Approach

Boudouresque, Charles F.; Astruch, Patrick; Bănaru, Daniela; Blanchot, Jean; Blanfuné, Aurelie; Carlotti, François; Changeux, Thomas; Faget, Daniel; Goujard, Adrien; Harmelin-Vivien, Mireille; Diréach, Laurence Le; Pagano, Marc; Perret-Boudouresque, Michèle; Pasqualini, Vanina; Rouanet, Élodie; Ruitton, Sandrine; Sempéré, Richard; Thibault, Delphine; Thibaut, Thierry

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-43484-7_20

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…This question of the real cost and benefits balance of seagrass restoration operations is in fact insufficiently addressed by the authors. The myth of man as superior to nature, developed by 18th and 19th century authors (see Boudouresque et al [269]), is still alive and well present in the 21st century.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the seagrass transplant operations in the Mediterranean have been carried out in habitats where the transplanted species was not naturally present. The promoters of these transplants are far from following an ecosystem-based approach (see Boudouresque et al [269]); they consider that there are "noble" ecosystems (such as P. oceanica meadows) and ecosystems of minor importance (for example, sandy bottom ecosystems). Transplanting was done (i) in natural P. oceanica sandy intermattes, such as P. oceanica in the Bay of Piombino (Italy) [124,242], in the Bay of Calvi (Corsica) [270], near Toulon (Provence) [196], and in the Valencia region (Spain) [235]; (ii) on sandy infralittoral bottoms, such as P. oceanica at Larvotto (Monaco) [236] and in Sicily [271], Tuya et al [22] even proposed surrounding transplanted seedlings with artificial seagrass leaves (a non-natural feature) and showed that this reduced grazing (although obviously a natural feature) and improved the survival rate; (iii) in mud infralittoral habitats not previously colonized, such as Z. noltei at Martigues-Ponteau (western Provence); transplants initially proliferated before being extirpated after three months by a winter storm [229]; (iv) on infralittoral reefs, such as P. oceanica at Fonvieille (Monaco) [236] and in Sicily [202]; (v) in natural C. nodosa meadows, such as P. oceanica at Cannes (French Riviera) and in Sicily [271]; both C. nodosa and P. oceanica are protected species in France; replacing one protected species with another protected species is not a very coherent restoration strategy [183].…”

Section: Seagrass Restoration: Where?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Restoration of Seagrass Meadows in the Mediterranean Sea: A Critical Review of Effectiveness and Ethical Issues

Boudouresque

Blanfuné

Pergent

et al. 2021

Water

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Some species of seagrasses (e.g., Zostera marina and Posidonia oceanica) have declined in the Mediterranean, at least locally. Others are progressing, helped by sea warming, such as Cymodocea nodosa and the non-native Halophila stipulacea. The decline of one seagrass can favor another seagrass. All in all, the decline of seagrasses could be less extensive and less general than claimed by some authors. Natural recolonization (cuttings and seedlings) has been more rapid and more widespread than was thought in the 20th century; however, it is sometimes insufficient, which justifies transplanting operations. Many techniques have been proposed to restore Mediterranean seagrass meadows. However, setting aside the short-term failure or half-success of experimental operations, long-term monitoring has usually been lacking, suggesting that possible failures were considered not worthy of a scientific paper. Many transplanting operations (e.g., P. oceanica) have been carried out at sites where the species had never previously been present. Replacing the natural ecosystem (e.g., sandy bottoms, sublittoral reefs) with P. oceanica is obviously inappropriate in most cases. This presupposes ignorance of the fact that the diversity of ecosystems is one of the bases of the biodiversity concept. In order to prevent the possibility of seagrass transplanting from being misused as a pretext for further destruction, a guide for the proper conduct of transplanting is proposed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Seagrass Restoration: Where?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoration of Seagrass Meadows in the Mediterranean Sea: A Critical Review of Effectiveness and Ethical Issues

Boudouresque

Blanfuné

Pergent

et al. 2021

Water

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“…The EBQI is a suitable tool to broadly assess the functioning of an ecosystem (Boudouresque et al, 2020a;Boudouresque et al, 2020b). It aims at providing a first integrated insight with a general notation and status per compartment, useful at the scale of a sampling site or in the frame of a monitoring network at larger scale.…”

Section: An Original Ecosystem-based Quality Index For Coastal Detrit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indicators are currently used to underpin guidelines for managers and stakeholders. In this context, the ecosystem-based approach should be deployed (Laffoley et al, 2004;Boudouresque et al, 2020a), with the aim of achieving a better understanding of ecosystem functioning as a basis for more suitable management strategies. Ecosystem-Based Quality Indices (EBQIs) have been already defined for a number of coastal marine ecosystems, namely Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows (Personnic et al, 2014), coralligenous reefs (Ruitton et al, 2014), undersea caves (Rastorgueff et al, 2015) and rocky reefs (Thibaut et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem-based assessment of a widespread Mediterranean marine habitat: The Coastal Detrital Bottoms, with a special focus on epibenthic assemblages

et al. 2023

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IntroductionCoastal detrital bottoms (CDB) are one of the most extensive habitats of the continental shelf worldwide, in the upper levels of the circalittoral zone. Hosting a diverse community structured by sediment grain size, trophic interactions and calcified organisms, CDB exhibit important ecological functions. In the Mediterranean Sea, CDB are constituted by recent elements partly provided by adjacent infralittoral and circalittoral ecosystems. Since the 2010s, the offshore extension of many Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has resulted in the incorporation of vast areas of CDB, raising the issue of their management. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) has embraced the concept of an ecosystem-based approach involving taking into account the functioning of marine habitats and their related ecosystem services. The purpose of this paper is to propose an ecosystem-based quality index (EBQI) tested on CDB from the north-western Mediterranean Sea, focusing mainly on epibenthic assemblages.MethodsThe first step has been to define a conceptual model of the CDB functioning, including the main trophic compartments and their relative weighting, then to identify appropriate assessment methods and potential descriptors. Twenty-nine sites were sampled along the coast of Provence and French Riviera (Southern France). Study sites were chosen with a view to encompassing a wide range of hydrological conditions and human pressures.ResultsVery well-preserved sites were found in Provence in areas without trawling and terrigenous inputs, while impacted and low-ES sites were located in the vicinity of urbanized areas. The cover of rhodoliths characterizes the seascape and might be an indicator of the good ES of CDB and reduced human pressure. However, the absence of rhodoliths may also be induced by natural phenomena.DiscussionThe EBQI designed for CDB proved representative and useful for a functional assessment based on epibenthic assemblages. However, some descriptors have shown their limitations and should be further explored. We highlight here the priority of establishing an index corresponding to a societal demand (e.g., European Directives, Barcelona convention) as a basis for a broad and large-scale assessment, for practical reasons. We stress the need to better apprehend the role of the macro-infauna and to extend this index over a wider geographical scale.

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“…The effective management of coastal zones often consists in a non-fair trade-off between destructive or impacting human activities (harbor and marina constructions, sewage and industrial outflow, etc.) and efforts for environmental protection mainly represented by the implementation of marine protected areas 107,108 . A pernicious consequence of the current awareness of the economic value of ecosystems and their ecological services to human populations 109 often resides in a hierarchical view of ecosystems or habitats depending on the intended goals of users.…”

Section: Importance Of the Mosaic Of Habitats For Coastal Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Typology of fish nurseries in shallow Mediterranean coastal zones: all habitats matter

Cheminée¹,

Diréach²,

Rouanet³

et al. 2020

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Coastal zones are ecosystems of high economic value but exposed to numerous disturbances, while they represent nurseries for many fish species, raising the issue of the preservation of their functions and services. In this context, the juvenile fish assemblages of all types of habitats present in shallow coastal zones were studied on the south-east coast of France using underwater visual censuses. The abiotic and biotic descriptors of the 14 habitat types individualized did not vary with time, except for a higher cover percentage and canopy height of macrophytes in the warm period, which increased the three-dimensional structure of some habitats. The taxonomic composition and density of juvenile fish assemblages were analyzed using both multivariate and univariate descriptors, after grouping the 57 fish species recorded into 41 well-individualized taxa. Juvenile fishes were recorded in all habitat types, with higher mean species richness and abundance during the warm than the cold period. The richest habitats in terms of both species richness and abundance were the natural rocky substrates and the interfaces between Posidonia beds and the other habitats. Although juvenile fish assemblages differed among habitat types and between periods, the most abundant fish species (Atherina sp., Sarpa salpa, Gobiidae, Symphodus spp., Pagellus spp. and several Diplodus species) colonized different habitat types (from 7 to 14) during their juvenile life. This study provided evidence of the role of all types of shallow coastal habitats as fish nurseries and their varying pattern of occupation in space and time by the different juvenile stages. It highlighted the importance of the mosaic of habitats and interfaces for the complete development of all juvenile life stages of fishes, and for the preservation of a high diversity of coastal fish assemblages and fisheries resources in the Mediterranean Sea.

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The Management of Mediterranean Coastal Habitats: A Plea for a Socio-ecosystem-Based Approach

Cited by 7 publications

References 75 publications

Restoration of Seagrass Meadows in the Mediterranean Sea: A Critical Review of Effectiveness and Ethical Issues

Restoration of Seagrass Meadows in the Mediterranean Sea: A Critical Review of Effectiveness and Ethical Issues

Ecosystem-based assessment of a widespread Mediterranean marine habitat: The Coastal Detrital Bottoms, with a special focus on epibenthic assemblages

Typology of fish nurseries in shallow Mediterranean coastal zones: all habitats matter

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