Authors
Yanis Zentner, Joaquim Garrabou, Pol Capdevila, Daniel Gómez-Gras, Graciel la Rovira, Alba Medrano, Frederic Zuberer, Jean-Baptiste Ledoux, Diego K Kersting, Mikel Zabala, Cristina Linares
Published in
Global change biology. Volume 32. Issue 8. Pages e71052.
Abstract
Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are driving mass mortalities of coastal foundation species globally, threatening their persistence and the ecosystems they support. However, long-term demographic evidence of these impacts at regional scales is scarce. Accordingly, whether ongoing conservation actions, mainly marine protected areas (MPAs), mitigate the impact of MHWs is still an open question. Here, we address these gaps by analysing over two decades of demographic monitoring data from 49 shallow (< 40 m depth) populations of the foundation gorgonian Paramuricea clavata paired with in situ temperature records across the north-western Mediterranean (38°-43° N, 0°-8° E). Using hierarchical Bayesian models, we estimated regional-scale trends and assessed the combined influence of MHW exposure and protection status. We found that increasingly frequent extreme thermal events have caused widespread mass mortality, resulting in a 45% median decline in biomass at the regional scale over the past two decades. Within this context of extensive decline, protection temporarily buffered MHW impacts by sustaining higher overall biomass, despite protected populations experiencing greater absolute losses. Taken together, these findings indicate that local protection alone cannot offset climate-driven mortality and underscore the urgent need to integrate conservation measures with global climate action to preserve shallow marine ecosystems.
PMID:
42596567
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Aug 2026.
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