The aim is to provide scientific knowledge and practical tools to unlock the 3 barriers that prevented the development of marine monitoring networks for benthic habitats in general (barriers 1 and 3), and for hard bottoms in particular (also barrier 2) by: (1) establishing rationale rules based on connectivity patterns to determine the network of sites to be monitored, (2) finding solutions to standardize the sampling of hard bottoms, and (3) finding solutions to automatize and standardize species composition assessment. The partners will combine physical oceanography, population genetics and community ecology to monitor 27 sites and compare methods for connectivity estimation, standardized sampling structures and species composition. Based on this, cost-effective protocols for long-term monitoring will be developed.
SEAMoBB is funded by the MarTERA partners French National Research Agency (ANR), Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) and Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and co-funded by the European Union.
Coordinator
Dr Anne Chenuil, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, France
Consortium
Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Research institute, France
Aix Marseilles University, University, France
University of Bologna, University, Italy
STARESO, SME, France
TAXON Estudios Ambientales S.L., SME, Spain