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author Millot, Jade
Vaz, Sandrine
Hattab, Tarek
Smith, Christopher J
Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos
Guijarro, Beatriz
Certain, Grégoire
Gerovasileiou, Vasilis
Georges, Vincent
Stamouli, Caterina
Casini, Michele
Manfredi, Chiara
Fanelli, Emanuela
Garofalo, Germana
Fabri, Marie-Claire
Massi, Daniela
Jadaud, Angélique
Profeta, Adriana
Carbonara, Pierluigi
Lefkaditou, Evgenia
Petović, Slavica
Evangelopoulos, Athanasios
Kamidis, Nikolaos
Thasitis, Ioannis
Mifsud, Jurgen
Camilleri, Kelly
Lauria, Valentina
author_facet Millot, Jade
Vaz, Sandrine
Hattab, Tarek
Smith, Christopher J
Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos
Guijarro, Beatriz
Certain, Grégoire
Gerovasileiou, Vasilis
Georges, Vincent
Stamouli, Caterina
Casini, Michele
Manfredi, Chiara
Fanelli, Emanuela
Garofalo, Germana
Fabri, Marie-Claire
Massi, Daniela
Jadaud, Angélique
Profeta, Adriana
Carbonara, Pierluigi
Lefkaditou, Evgenia
Petović, Slavica
Evangelopoulos, Athanasios
Kamidis, Nikolaos
Thasitis, Ioannis
Mifsud, Jurgen
Camilleri, Kelly
Lauria, Valentina
Millot, Jade
Vaz, Sandrine
Hattab, Tarek
Smith, Christopher J
Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos
Guijarro, Beatriz
Certain, Grégoire
Gerovasileiou, Vasilis
Georges, Vincent
Stamouli, Caterina
Casini, Michele
Manfredi, Chiara
Fanelli, Emanuela
Garofalo, Germana
Fabri, Marie-Claire
Massi, Daniela
Jadaud, Angélique
Profeta, Adriana
Carbonara, Pierluigi
Lefkaditou, Evgenia
Petović, Slavica
Evangelopoulos, Athanasios
Kamidis, Nikolaos
Thasitis, Ioannis
Mifsud, Jurgen
Camilleri, Kelly
Lauria, Valentina
collection PubMed - marine biology
contents Characterizing soft-bottom epibenthic megainvertebrate communities of the Mediterranean continental shelf: a biogeographic approach. Millot, Jade Vaz, Sandrine Hattab, Tarek Smith, Christopher J Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos Guijarro, Beatriz Certain, Grégoire Gerovasileiou, Vasilis Georges, Vincent Stamouli, Caterina Casini, Michele Manfredi, Chiara Fanelli, Emanuela Garofalo, Germana Fabri, Marie-Claire Massi, Daniela Jadaud, Angélique Profeta, Adriana Carbonara, Pierluigi Lefkaditou, Evgenia Petović, Slavica Evangelopoulos, Athanasios Kamidis, Nikolaos Thasitis, Ioannis Mifsud, Jurgen Camilleri, Kelly Lauria, Valentina Mediterranean Sea Animals Ecosystem Environmental Monitoring Invertebrates Biodiversity Conservation of Natural Resources Aquatic Organisms Partitioning of the Mediterranean basin has so far mainly focused on surface waters, relying on biogeochemical and hydrological data while the Mediterranean seafloor has received much less attention. Bioregions are essential units for conservation planning, as they provide a framework for designing representative networks of protected areas. Therefore, seafloor-specific bioregions are needed to support the management and conservation of benthic ecosystems. While benthic habitat mapping is generally based on macrofaunal patterns, we propose the first mesoscale partitioning of the Mediterranean seabed based on epibenthic megainvertebrate communities. Benthic records from the MEDITS programme (International Mediterranean Bottom Trawl Survey) were used to partition the Mediterranean soft bottoms. Using k-means clustering combined with Random Forest modelling, we grouped sites according to similarities in biotic composition and predicted their distribution in relation to environmental variables. The analysis was conducted independently across four sub-basins: the Western Mediterranean, the Central Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, and the Aegean Sea. This approach identified 16 distinct bioregions, each characterized by unique epibenthic megainvertebrate communities. The partitioning revealed a pronounced bathymetric gradient, with deep-sea bioregions showing a more homogeneous set of indicator taxa and greater similarity across regions compared to the more distinct communities found on the shelf and slope. These coherent bioregions can serve as spatial units to enhance the representativeness of conservation priority networks and provide a valuable complement to the existing EUNIS seabed habitat classification, which does not explicitly account for vulnerable epibenthic megainvertebrate communities.
format Artículo científico
id pubmed_41795394
institution PubMed
language en
publishDate 2026
publisher Marine environmental research
record_format pubmed
spellingShingle Characterizing soft-bottom epibenthic megainvertebrate communities of the Mediterranean continental shelf: a biogeographic approach.
Millot, Jade
Vaz, Sandrine
Hattab, Tarek
Smith, Christopher J
Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos
Guijarro, Beatriz
Certain, Grégoire
Gerovasileiou, Vasilis
Georges, Vincent
Stamouli, Caterina
Casini, Michele
Manfredi, Chiara
Fanelli, Emanuela
Garofalo, Germana
Fabri, Marie-Claire
Massi, Daniela
Jadaud, Angélique
Profeta, Adriana
Carbonara, Pierluigi
Lefkaditou, Evgenia
Petović, Slavica
Evangelopoulos, Athanasios
Kamidis, Nikolaos
Thasitis, Ioannis
Mifsud, Jurgen
Camilleri, Kelly
Lauria, Valentina
Mediterranean Sea
Animals
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring
Invertebrates
Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources
Aquatic Organisms
Characterizing soft-bottom epibenthic megainvertebrate communities of the Mediterranean continental shelf: a biogeographic approach. Millot, Jade Vaz, Sandrine Hattab, Tarek Smith, Christopher J Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos Guijarro, Beatriz Certain, Grégoire Gerovasileiou, Vasilis Georges, Vincent Stamouli, Caterina Casini, Michele Manfredi, Chiara Fanelli, Emanuela Garofalo, Germana Fabri, Marie-Claire Massi, Daniela Jadaud, Angélique Profeta, Adriana Carbonara, Pierluigi Lefkaditou, Evgenia Petović, Slavica Evangelopoulos, Athanasios Kamidis, Nikolaos Thasitis, Ioannis Mifsud, Jurgen Camilleri, Kelly Lauria, Valentina Mediterranean Sea Animals Ecosystem Environmental Monitoring Invertebrates Biodiversity Conservation of Natural Resources Aquatic Organisms Partitioning of the Mediterranean basin has so far mainly focused on surface waters, relying on biogeochemical and hydrological data while the Mediterranean seafloor has received much less attention. Bioregions are essential units for conservation planning, as they provide a framework for designing representative networks of protected areas. Therefore, seafloor-specific bioregions are needed to support the management and conservation of benthic ecosystems. While benthic habitat mapping is generally based on macrofaunal patterns, we propose the first mesoscale partitioning of the Mediterranean seabed based on epibenthic megainvertebrate communities. Benthic records from the MEDITS programme (International Mediterranean Bottom Trawl Survey) were used to partition the Mediterranean soft bottoms. Using k-means clustering combined with Random Forest modelling, we grouped sites according to similarities in biotic composition and predicted their distribution in relation to environmental variables. The analysis was conducted independently across four sub-basins: the Western Mediterranean, the Central Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, and the Aegean Sea. This approach identified 16 distinct bioregions, each characterized by unique epibenthic megainvertebrate communities. The partitioning revealed a pronounced bathymetric gradient, with deep-sea bioregions showing a more homogeneous set of indicator taxa and greater similarity across regions compared to the more distinct communities found on the shelf and slope. These coherent bioregions can serve as spatial units to enhance the representativeness of conservation priority networks and provide a valuable complement to the existing EUNIS seabed habitat classification, which does not explicitly account for vulnerable epibenthic megainvertebrate communities.
title Characterizing soft-bottom epibenthic megainvertebrate communities of the Mediterranean continental shelf: a biogeographic approach.
topic Mediterranean Sea
Animals
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring
Invertebrates
Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources
Aquatic Organisms
url https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41795394/