Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 114, Issue 1, Pages 528-538Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.10.022
Keywords
Historical data; Baselines; Ecosystem shifts; Sessile macrobenthos; Rocky reefs; Mediterranean Sea
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The dearth of long-time series hampers the measurement of the ecosystem change that followed the global marine climate shift of the 1980-90s. The sessile communities of Portofino Promontory reefs (Ligurian Sea, NW Mediterranean) have been discontinuously studied since the 1950s. Collating, information from various sources, three periods of investigations have been distinguished: 1) 1950-70s; 2) 1980-90s; 3) 2000-10s. A cooler phase in time I was followed by a rapid warming in time 2, to stabilize at about 0.5 degrees C higher in time 3. Human pressure grew impressively, especially after the establishment of a MPA in 1999. Multivariate analyses evidenced a major change of community composition in time 2. Some species disappeared or got rarer, many found refuge at depth, and among the newcomers there were recently introduced alien species. This study demonstrated the importance of descriptive historical data to understand magnitude and pattern of change in the long term evolution of marine ecosystems. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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