Abstract
In the Mediterranean Sea, the coralligenous is an extremely important habitat for its biodiversity and role in carbon sequestration. However, coralligenous biocenosis is sensitive to many anthropogenic impacts, among which one of the major threats is the marine litter. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the marine litter present in the coralligenous habitat of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) Isole Ciclopi (Sicily, Italy). Through the analysis of frames obtained by Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) videos, data on the type of marine litter, grade of organisms’ coverage, litter-organism interactions, and seabed coverage of items were gained. Through ROV surveys, a low number of marine litter items was observed and most of them were fishing gears. On the found items there was a high degree of organisms’ coverage, which suggests that probably the marine litter was abandoned or lost since a long time. Overall, it was observed that in recent years the fishing activity in the MPA has not affected the coralligenous habitat. The present study represents a baseline for future monitoring programmes, which will be useful to develop protection measures and sustainable fishing, in order to preserve the coralligenous habitat of the MPA.
Highlights
Coralligenous are habitats of biogenic origin, principally constituted by Rhodophyta macroalgae belonging to the order Corallinales [1]
The coralligenous biocenosis is subjected to anthropic impacts, being maintained by a delicate balance between bioconstruction and bioerosion, which can be disturbed by environmental changes [6]
Fishing gears and marine litter produce an impact when they are abandoned in the environment, with a large variety of marine organisms damaged by entanglement and ingestion [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
Summary
Coralligenous are habitats of biogenic origin, principally constituted by Rhodophyta macroalgae belonging to the order Corallinales [1]. Coralligenous assemblages are important in the Mediterranean Sea for their extent, biodiversity, and role in carbon dynamics [1,3,4] These structurally complex and permanent bioconstructions provide heterogeneous habitats and attractive substrate for the settlement of many invertebrate species and sessile organisms [3,5]. Fishing gears and marine litter produce an impact when they are abandoned in the environment, with a large variety of marine organisms damaged by entanglement and ingestion [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] For this reason, the pollution of marine waters by anthropogenic litter has been identified as a serious global environmental problem. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the source, distribution, and possible impact of the marine litter in a Marine Protected Area (MPA), located along the Ionian coast of Sicily, in order to provide a baseline for future monitoring programmes
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