Abstract
Mediterranean ecosystems support important processes and functions that bring direct benefits to human society. Yet, marine ecosystem services are usually overlooked due to the challenges in identifying and quantifying them. This paper proposes the application of several biophysical and ecosystem modelling approaches to assess spatially and temporally the sustainable use and supply of selected marine ecosystem services. Such services include food provision, water purification, coastal protection, lifecycle maintenance and recreation, focusing on the Mediterranean region. Overall, our study found a higher number of decreasing than increasing trends in the natural capacity of the ecosystems to provide marine and coastal services, while in contrast the opposite was observed to be true for the realised flow of services to humans. Such a study paves the way towards an effective support for Blue Growth and the European maritime policies, although little attention is paid to the quantification of marine ecosystem services in this context. We identify a key challenge of integrating biophysical and socio-economic models as a necessary step to further this research.
Highlights
Mediterranean ecosystems support important processes and functions that bring direct benefits to human society
The results shown in this paper provide a general overview of the Mediterranean Ecosystem services (ES), more detailed analysis at management scale and development of future scenarios using such modelling approaches are needed for decision making
The sustainability of marine and coastal ecosystem services (ES) provided by the Mediterranean Sea can be analysed through indicators that quantify capacity, flow and, if available, demand of service through time and space
Summary
Mediterranean ecosystems support important processes and functions that bring direct benefits to human society. This paper proposes the application of several biophysical and ecosystem modelling approaches to assess spatially and temporally the sustainable use and supply of selected marine ecosystem services. Such services include food provision, water purification, coastal protection, lifecycle maintenance and recreation, focusing on the Mediterranean region. Evaluating ES spatially and temporally is essential for highlighting where the benefits for maritime economic sectors (and more generally for society) are, and how they might have changed in time These are necessary steps needed to support and guide current regulations like the EU Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (Directive 2014/89/EU) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (Directive 2008/56/EC), these regulations do not explicitly tackle ES. Such models have considerably evolved in the last decade driven by a worldwide movement towards www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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