Chapter Monitoring and assessment of the ecological status of coralligenous cliffs by a standardized protocol

Abstract

Coralligenous reefs are the main biogenic construction of the Mediterranean Sea and one of the most sensitive habitats for which European legislation requires monitoring and quality assessment plans. The heterogeneity of reefs however requires the use of standardized habitat-specific methods allowing comparability of data over wide scale. Coralligenous cliffs are the reef type most widespread in shallow waters and are monitored by several ecological indices based on different approaches. This contribution summarizes the results of multi-year studies carried out on wide spatial scale with the aim of comparing and integrating the different methods into a single standardized sampling and data collection protocol. Downstream of a literature review, the STAndaRdized coralligenous evaluation procedure (STAR) was proposed and tested on subregion scale under different human pressures. Results confirmed the validity of descriptors chosen and the effectiveness of the protocol in assessing the ecological quality of coralligenous cliffs. STAR represents the first methodological guidelines proposed for the evaluation of the ecological quality of coralligenous cliffs in the Mediterranean Sea