A first survey on the status of the Posidonia oceanica meadow in Calpe Bay (Alicante, Spain).


Autoria(s): Scanu, Martina
Contribuinte(s)

Abbiati, Marco

Garcia-March, Jose Rafael

Data(s)

14/12/2017

Resumo

Posidonia oceanica, endemic seagrass of the Mediterranean Sea, forms extensive meadows. It is included among the Mediterranean protected habitats by the Habitat Directive (92/43/EEC). P. oceanica meadows are exposed to anthropogenic impacts that are more evident in areas close to cities, ports or areas with a large coastal tourism development. Mean exponential decline rate of 5 % yr-1 is estimated for the Spanish meadows. If this trend is maintained, most of the meadows are predicted to halve in shoot density over the next 20 years. The meadows regression can give way to a new regime, which supposes the loss of the multiple services that the meadows provided. It is necessary to recognize situations of stress in time, before irreversible damages and changes towards alternative regimes are evident. This study has been carried out in Calpe Bay, Alicante (Spain), during May and June 2017, with the aim of assessing, for the first time, the status of the P. oceanica meadows providing a baseline data for the future monitoring scheme. The features and status of the seagrass beds have been assessed by physical, physiographical, structural and functional descriptors. The results showed that the health status classification of P. oceanica meadows in Calpe Bay vary between “equilibrium” and “disturbed”. The “disturbed” conditions were observed in a shaded area where it is probably due to the low solar radiance. In a lower limit in a shallow meadow, where it could be due to the combined effect of substrate structure and hydrodynamic regime. Finally in a touristic area where patchy impacts could be attributed to direct human disturbance (e.g. anchoring). Overall the status of P. oceanica meadows in Calpe bay is not worrying. However, it is important to develop monitoring plans to assess the dynamics of the seagrass detecting any early decline symptom in order to act, as soon as possible because, when a regression of a meadow is produced, it could not be recovered at human scales.

Formato

application/pdf

Identificador

http://amslaurea.unibo.it/14655/1/Scanu_Martina_tesi.pdf

Scanu, Martina (2017) A first survey on the status of the Posidonia oceanica meadow in Calpe Bay (Alicante, Spain). [Laurea magistrale], Università di Bologna, Corso di Studio in Biologia marina [LM-DM270] - Ravenna <http://amslaurea.unibo.it/view/cds/CDS8857/>

Idioma(s)

en

Publicador

Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Relação

http://amslaurea.unibo.it/14655/

Direitos

cc_by_nc_nd

Palavras-Chave #Posidonia oceanica, first survey, health status, monitoring plan, descriptors #Biologia marina [LM-DM270] - Ravenna
Tipo

PeerReviewed

info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis