Food from the Depths of the Mediterranean: The Role of Habitats, Changes in the Sea-Bottom Temperature and Fishing Pressure

Mapping the habitat refugia of Isidella elongata under climate change and trawling impacts to preserve Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in the Mediterranean

The bamboo-coral Isidella elongata is a key habitat-forming species in the deep Mediterranean Sea. This alcyonacean is listed as an indicator of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) and as Critically Endangered due to bottom trawling impacts. In this work, a modeling approach was used to predict and map the habitat suitability of I. elongata in the Mediterranean Sea under current environmental conditions. Occurrence data were modeled as a function of environmental parameters. Using climate change scenarios and fishing effort data, the risk of climate change and fisheries impacts on habitat suitability were estimated, and climate refugia were identified. A drastic loss of habitat is predicted, and climate change scenarios suggest a loss of 60% of suitable habitats by 2100. In the central Mediterranean, climate refugia overlapped with active fishing grounds. This study represents the first attempt to identify hot spots for the protection of soft bottom Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems for the entire Mediterranean Sea, and highlights areas most at risk from trawling. This work is relevant to the objectives of the EU Marine Strategy Framework and Maritime Spatial Planning Directives, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 regarding priority areas for conservation.

Special Issue “Innovations in the Food System: Exploring the Future of Food”

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2018 provided a definition of “food systems” highlighting that they “encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry or fisheries, and food industries, and the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which they are embedded” [...]