Reef Check Med - key Mediterranean marine species 2001-2020

• Main Authors: Ponti M, Turicchia E, Rossi G, Cerrano C
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Marine; Climate change; Ecosystem engineers; Human activities; Non-indigenous species; Overfishing; Protected species; Mediterranean Region; Aplidium Savigny; 1816; Aplysina Nardo; 1834; Arca noae Linnaeus; 1758; Astroides calycularis (Pallas; 1766); Axinella Schmidt; 1862; Balanophyllia Wood; 1844; Caulerpa cylindracea Sonder; 1845; Caulerpa taxifolia (M.Vahl) C.Agardh; 1817; Centrostephanus longispinus (Philippi; 1845); Chromis chromis (Linnaeus; 1758); Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus; 1767); Conger conger (Linnaeus; Corallium rubrum (Linnaeus; Diplodus Rafinesque; 1810; Epizoanthus Gray; 1867; Eunicella cavolini (Koch; 1887); Eunicella singularis (Esper; 1791); Eunicella verrucosa (Pallas; Geodia cydonium (Linnaeus; Hippocampus Rafinesque; Homarus gammarus (Linnaeus; Homarus gammarus
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11585/820993; https://doi.org/10.14284/468; https://www.emodnet-biology.eu/data-catalog?module=dataset&dasid=6454

The dataset consists of abundance records of 43 marine species in the Mediterranean Sea from 2001 to 2020. Selected species include some protected and non-indigenous species, ecosystem engineers, species sensitive to climate change, and/or threatened by human activities. Taken together, these taxa represent key ecological aspects of Mediterranean subtidal habitats (Cerrano et al., 2017) and can be used to calculate the MedSens, an index of the environmental status of subtidal rocky coastal habitats based on species sensitivity (Turicchia et al., 2021). Observations were carried out by the EcoDivers (trained scuba divers, freedivers and snorkelers) according to a rigorous protocol (RCMed U-CEM) developed by the association Reef Check Italia onlus. more Observations were carried out by the EcoDivers (trained scuba divers, freedivers and snorkelers) according to a rigorous protocol (RCMed U-CEM) developed by the association Reef Check Italia onlus. Records include geographic coordinates (decimal degrees, WGS84), site name, date, survey depth range (min and max, in metres), prevailing habitat (from an options list), the sampling size in term of searching time (minutes), taxon name, abundance category (coded from 0 to 6), occurrence depth range (min and max, in metres) and the name of the EcoDiver who made the identification. The Reef Check Med Underwater Coastal Environment Monitoring (RCMed U-CEM) protocol is a Citizen Science initiative, developed by the Italian non-profit association Reef Check Italia onlus, aimed to assess the ecological status of the Mediterranean marine coastal habitats (Cerrano et al., 2017; Turicchia et al., 2021). Taxa were selected based on a combination of criteria including identification easiness and being key indicators of the shifts Mediterranean subtidal habitats may undergo under local pressures and climate change. When it is not easy to discriminate between species, genus level or higher was chosen, as in the case of the two protected Mediterranean seahorses. Before diving, each ...