Gone with the stream: Functional connectivity of a cold-water coral at basin scale

• Main Authors: Matos, Fábio L., Aguzzi, Jacopo, Company, Joan B., Cunha, Marina R.
• Other Authors: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), Autoridade de Gestão do Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (Portugal), European Commission, Tecnoterra, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography 2024
• Subjects: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans; seas and marine resources for sustainable development; Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/351563; https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12444; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033

15 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12444.-- Data availability statement: The daily data about ocean conditions used in the biophysical simulations are available from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (https://data.marine.copernicus.eu/products). Information about the locations with Lophelia pertusa is provided in the Supporting Information. The raw data from the outputs of biophysical simulations are available on request from the authors Lophelia pertusa reefs are vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems and their ecological integrity partly depends on the connectivity and availability of suitable habitat. Moreover, connectivity is a guiding principle in marine conservation planning, particularly for spatial prioritization and for the design of networks of marine protected areas. We estimated the functional seascape connectivity of L. pertusa in the Mediterranean Sea and provide a framework for prioritizing habitat areas for the species conservation. These goals were achieved by simulating transport and potential dispersal of virtual larvae using biophysical modeling and assessing habitat availability based on the suitability and spatial arrangement of the seascape and inter-annual climatological variability. Habitat availability was estimated using a network analysis and accounting for the attributes of habitat areas (i.e., size and quality). The connectivity among Mediterranean ecoregions was weak and an increase in the frequency of climate-driven events (e.g., dense shelf water cascading) may worsen this scenario. However, the potential exchange of larvae between patches within the same ecoregion was high, favoring populations resilience to local disturbances. The analysis of habitat availability allowed identifying important habitat areas for the connectivity of the L. pertusa including the Gulf of Lion, the Apulian and Sicily Island continental margin. Some of the habitat areas identified as important for the connectivity of the L. pertusa are exposed ...