Document of bibliographic reference 396688

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Protected Mediterranean invertebrates: The known and the unknown

Abstract

The Barcelona Convention (BC) aims at biodiversity conservation in the Mediterranean Sea, including in its Annex II a list of threatened species that need protection. This study aimed to assess existing scientific effort and knowledge on the invertebrate species of BC Annex II, through a systematic literature review. For the 52 in?vertebrates of Annex II, 1285 relevant articles were included in the review. Georeferenced records were retrieved from 183 additional articles and online databases (GBIF and WoRMS). For thirty species, <10 articles were retrieved; three species were not included in any study. The dominant research topic in the literature was ‘physiology/growth’ (22.5 %), followed by ‘ecology’ (20.1 %) and ‘distribution/habitat’ (17.1 %); only 6.6 % of the studies focused on ‘population assessment’. Research focus substantially varied by phylum and species. Fisheries were the main threat reported, followed by natural impacts, pollution, climate change, and coastal development. An evident lack of records from the southern Mediterranean coastline was attributed to the low research effort. Population trends were reported for only 23 species. A declining trend was commonly reported (148 cases), with only three studies reporting an increase and another three reporting stable populations. The critically endangered bivalve Pinna nobilis was the species with the most records of declining populations. No conservation action was proposed for most (31) BC Annex II species. Our analyses further revealed significant coverage gaps in several species within the current marine protected areas. Despite increasing regional collab?oration, most of the BC Annex II invertebrate species are understudied, with knowledge gaps compromising conservation efforts.

Bibliographic citation

Stranga, Y.; Mazaris, A.D.; Katsanevakis, S. (2024). Protected Mediterranean invertebrates: The known and the unknown. Biol. Conserv. 297: 110740. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110740

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true