engleski

The next step in biodiversity conservation-active restoration of marine habitats

Today, human impact on the living world in the sea manifests through significant loss of marine habitats and species. Besides increasing biodiversity loss, degraded marine habitats can no longer provide goods and services important for the biosphere and the mankind. The MERCES project ("Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas”, http://www.merces- project.eu/), approved under the EU Horizon 2020 “Research and Innovation action" program, is the first European project focused on the development of tools and solutions for the restoration of degraded marine habitats, especially seagrass meadows, habitats on shallow hard bottoms, mesophotic habitats and deep-sea ecosystems, and the recovery of their biodiversity and functions. The Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb (PMF Zagreb), as one of the partners in the Project, is involved in the design, testing and improvement of marine habitat restoration protocols and here we will present our work on the settlements of protected engineering species (seagrasses and the noble pen shell) on infralittoral sedimentary bottom and their interaction through two transplant pilot projects as well as the research on the restoration of mesophotic habitats, especially the coralligenous community and characteristic species within (e.g. gorgonians) in the northern and central Adriatic.

marine habitats ; active restoration ; Adriatic Sea ; Pinna nobilis ; seagrass ; coralligenous

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