RISCALDAMENTO GLOBALE E IMPATTI ANTROPICI: EFFETTI SULLA BIODIVERSITÀ MARINA BENTONICA

GLOBAL WARMING AND ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS: EFFECTS ON BENTHIC MARINE BIODIVERSITY

Abstract

In recent decades, the progressive increase in surface water temperatures has led to significant changes in Mediterranean biodiversity, characterised by species replacements—sometimes accompanied by mass mortalities—along with modifications in their bathymetric and seasonal distributions, as well as in their reproductive strategies. Despite the large amount of data available, these effects are certainly underestimated for those groups of organisms that are difficult to identify taxonomically and for which a general lack of baseline information exists. In addition to ocean warming, numerous anthropogenic impacts, mainly related to habitat loss and overfishing, negatively affect marine biodiversity. A particularly significant impact, whose full extent is still difficult to assess today, concerns the harvesting of red coral with towed gear. Practised for centuries, this activity has affected every stretch of rocky coastline in the Western Mediterranean Sea, between depths of 40 meters and more than 100 meters.