Recurrent marine heatwaves threaten the resilience and viability of a key Mediterranean octocoral species

Orenes Salazar, Víctor; Navarro Martínez, Pedro Clemente; Ruiz, Juan Manuel; García Charton, José Antonio

Publication:
Recurrent marine heatwaves threaten the resilience and viability of a key Mediterranean octocoral species

dc.contributor.author	Orenes Salazar, Víctor
dc.contributor.author	Navarro Martínez, Pedro Clemente
dc.contributor.author	Ruiz, Juan Manuel
dc.contributor.author	García Charton, José Antonio
dc.contributor.department	Ecología e Hidrología
dc.date.accessioned	2026-01-21T09:59:20Z
dc.date.available	2026-01-21T09:59:20Z
dc.date.copyright	© 2023 The Authors
dc.date.issued	2023-07-12
dc.description.abstract	1. Long-term ecological studies are essential for understanding the resilience of temperate reefs to ocean warming and the response of their habitat-forming species to recurrent marine heatwaves (MHWs). 2. This study evaluated the long-term response (2005–2021) of the habitat-forming octocoral Eunicella singularis (Esper, 1791) to recurrent MHWs in a Mediterranean marine protected area established more than 25 years ago, where restrictions on fishing and diving activities are well enforced. 3. During the study period, there were two mass-mortality events (MMEs), in 2007 and 2018, that dramatically disrupted the local gorgonian population. The MMEs were triggered by different temperature dynamics, which ultimately led to differential patterns in mortality rates. 4. The record-breaking MHW in 2018 prompted one of the largest MMEs ever recorded in the Mediterranean Sea, which affected 75% of the individuals in the gorgonian population and killed 12.5% of colonies. 5. Furthermore, MHWs were detected in all years from 2014 to 2021, preventing injured tissues from fully recovering, leading to significant accumulated damage at the end of the study period (30 times higher than the levels prior to the first MME), and a marked decrease in resilience that threatens the population viability of this long-lived species. 6. The octocoral studied is one of the most important structural and biomass contributors to one of the most diverse Mediterranean communities. These results underscore the great risk that annual MHWs pose to the long-term integrity of the circalittoral rocky bottoms of the Mediterranean coasts. 7. In the face of climate change, MPAs must provide areas of reduced anthropic stress for gorgonian populations, enabling the restoration and maintenance of natural processes. Additionally, MPAs should serve as sentinel areas to test the effectiveness of coral restoration actions, which can help managers and scientists to estimate the usefulness of these techniques.
dc.format	application/pdf
dc.format.extent	14
dc.identifier	1052-7613
dc.identifier.citation	Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2023, Vol. 33, Issue 11, pp. 1161-1174
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3997Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
dc.identifier.eissn	1099-0755
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10201/189949
dc.language	eng
dc.publisher	Wiley
dc.relation	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Grant Number: RTI2018-094187-B-100. Regional Fisheries and Aquaculture Service—Autonomous Community of Murcia
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.3997
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	*
dc.subject	Eunicella singularis
dc.subject	Long term ecological study
dc.subject	Marine heatwaves
dc.subject	Mass mortality events
dc.subject	Mediterranean Sea
dc.subject	Climate change
dc.subject.ods	Objetivo 14: Océanos
dc.title	Recurrent marine heatwaves threaten the resilience and viability of a key Mediterranean octocoral species
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dspace.entity.type	Publication	es
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