Assessing the performance and sensitivity of benthic indicators under low-level anthropogenic pressures in the eastern Mediterranean Irini Tsikopoulou, Irida Maina, Nadia Papadopoulou, Ioannis Karakassis, Anastasios Tselepides, Chris Smith Ecological Indicators, 2026 Understanding how benthic communities respond to human-induced pressures is fundamental for successful ecosystem management. However, the effectiveness of benthic indicators in detecting multiple disturbances varies significantly, particularly in areas with relatively low disturbance levels such as the Eastern Mediterranean. This study evaluates the performance and sensitivity of various benthic indicators, including taxonomic diversity, ecological status, risk-based indices and functional diversity metrics, in relation to two human-induced pressures: trawling intensity and organic enrichment. Using effect size analysis and machine-learning approaches, we evaluated first how different indicators respond to changes in total organic carbon and trawling intensity and then assessed the relative importance of predictors under low-disturbance conditions. The results revealed that none of the tested indicators adequately captured simultaneously the effects of both pressures. In addition, the environmental covariates had a stronger influence on predicting the indicators than the two pressures. The findings demonstrate that no single indicator can fully capture the response to multiple stressors, especially under low-level pressures and underscore the importance of natural covariates, such as depth and/or sediment characteristics, in the interpretation of benthic indicators.
A new framework for measuring community diversity in temporal ecological networks Zakariya Ghalmane, Pascal Poncelet, Roberto Interdonado, Dino Ienco, Pierluigi Carbonara, Angelo Cau, Antonio Esteban, Maria Teresa Farriols, Maria Cristina Follesa, Cristina Garcia-Ruiz, Germana Garofalo, Gioacchino Bono, Taha Imzilen, Igor Isajlović, Stefanos Kavadas, Irida Maina, Porzia Maiorano, Chiara Manfredi, Jurgen Mifsud, Panagiota Peristeraki, Mario Sbrana, Maria Teresa Spedicato, Ioannis Thasitis, Nedo Vrgoc, Bastien Mérigot Ecological Informatics, 2026 Assessing changes in community diversity is a central issue with regard to many fundamental and applied aspects in ecology, biogeography and conservation. However, some important features for the assessment of community by diversity measures still need to be considered to quantify spatio-temporal variation, notably their explicit variation through time while integrating network structure and species differences. Here we introduce a new framework based on complex network analysis and on an extension of Hill numbers. It encompasses three main aspects: i) the differences/distances between species (e.g., co-occurrence, function, phylogeny, taxonomy), ii) the topological properties of the network, and iii) the variability along the time dimension by introducing three measures quantifying the overall temporal dynamics of the network. To illustrate how the new framework reveals complementary patterns beyond those identified by traditional approaches in previous studies, we analyze two data sets that vary in both their temporal extent and the types of communities they represent: (i) Mediterranean exploited fish communities sampled during 25 years, (ii) Amazonian bat communities surveyed during 4 years. Our results showed that the fish communities could be classified into five different clusters according to their spatio-temporal behaviors, as well as environmental and fishing forcings. Bat community diversity has higher values in larger forest fragment areas, while habitats with small areas exhibit very high changes through time mainly due to species turnover. By simultaneously incorporating essential features of communities, the new framework enhances identification of their spatio-temporal trends, and helps to identify priority zones of interest for management and conservation.
Assessment of Bottom Trawl Impacts on the Status of Seabed Communities in European Seas Jan Geert Hiddink, Sebastian Valanko, Luke Batts, Esther D. Beukhof, Mats Blomqvist, Stefan Bolam, Belén Calero, Michele Casini, Marina Delgado, Jochen Depestele, Joanna Desmidt, Gabriele Di Bona, Bianca Di Lorenzo, Grete E. Dinesen, Gianfranco D'Onghia, Josefine Egekvist, Emanuela Fanelli, Maria Teresa Farriols, Gianluca Franceschini, Juan Gil, José Manuel González‐Irusta, Pascal Laffargue, Irida Maina, Porzia Maiorano, Renato Mamede, Maria Cristina Mangano, Alessandra Nguyen Xuan, Nadia Papadopoulou, Marina Penna, Andrea Pierucci, Marina Pulcini, Sasa Raicevich, Arnold Rakaj, Sofia Reizopoulou, Giada Riva, Tommaso Russo, Antonello Sala, Gianluca Sarà, Alice Sbrana, Giuseppe Scarcella, Marija Sciberras, Mattias Sköld, Chris J. Smith, Ignacio Sobrino, Maria Teresa Spedicato, Valentina Todorova, Irini Tsikopoulou, Karin J. van der Reijden, Sandrine Vaz, Cristina Vina‐Herbon, Nedo Vrgoc, Katherine Wright, Wenyan Zhang, Walter Zupa, Gert van Hoey, Ole Ritzau Eigaard, Tobias van Kooten, P. Daniël van Denderen Fish and Fisheries, 2026 Bottom trawling affects seabed habitats, but its large‐scale impacts remain poorly quantified. Assessment of trawling impacts is essential to support monitoring and achieving sustainability objectives under international conventions, sustainable development goals, and seafood certification programs. We present a Europe‐wide quantitative assessment of bottom trawling impacts, accounting for regional seabed‐community sensitivity drivers, across the Baltic, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea continental shelves. Using two risk‐based indicators of seabed status—Relative Benthic Status determined as benthic community biomass relative to seabed fauna carrying capacity (RBS tot ) and RBS sen (biomass of the 10% most sensitive fauna relative to carrying capacity)—we found substantial regional and habitat differences. The Black, Baltic and Aegean‐Levantine Seas showed low trawling intensity and high seabed status across habitats. In contrast, the Western Mediterranean, Ionian and Central Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas were the most severely impacted. Trawling affected the sensitive species biomass fraction more strongly than the total community biomass. RBS tot was in good condition (here chosen as RBS > 75% for epifauna) for over 79% of habitat‐ecoregion combinations. In contrast, RBS sen met this threshold in only 46% of these. A strong correlation emerged between the mean trawling intensity and RBS tot and RBS sen , allowing the use of SAR to estimate ecosystem status. This relationship can support decisions on where, and by how much, SAR reductions are needed to achieve good environmental status in regions where no detailed assessment is available. Our approach provides a quantitative framework to balance fishery production with ecosystem sustainability, offering tools for environmental and fisheries management in Europe.
Integrating benthic ecological status and spatial planning to guide sustainable bottom-contacting fisheries in the Eastern Mediterranean Irini Tsikopoulou, Irida Maina, Nadia Papadopoulou, François Bastardie, Chris J. Smith Frontiers in Marine Science, 2026 To inform ecosystem-based fisheries management in line with the EU legislation objectives for marine fisheries, we evaluated the ecological outcomes of alternative spatial management scenarios to fisheries that consider the ecological impact of bottom trawling on the benthic ecosystem in the Eastern Ionian Sea. Trawling intensity in terms of swept area ratio (SAR) and benthic community sensitivity were combined to estimate the relative benthic status (RBS). Then, five management scenarios were tested. The scenarios include four static closure scenarios (below 800 m, below 600 m, the least-trawled 10% of fishing grounds, and areas shallower than 150 m), where trawling is completely excluded without fishing effort redistribution, and one with a trawl ban in all marine protected areas, where fishing effort displacement is modelled dynamically. Baseline RBS was high (>0.9 on a scale of 0 to 1 where 1 is unaffected benthic community) in all habitats, reflecting relatively low benthic degradation due to bottom trawling. Excluding bottom trawling from areas shallower than 150 m in depth produced the greatest improvements, while thresholds at 600 or 800 m depth, and the closure of the 10% least-trawled grounds, had no significant effects on benthic ecological status. Closure of trawling in the marine protected areas produced mixed outcomes, with improvements in some habitats but localized declines due to displaced effort in others. Our study demonstrates the value of including benthic indicators in spatial management strategies to guide adaptive, evidence-based fisheries governance, balancing conservation objectives with socio-economic sustainability.
Anticipating how spatial fishing restrictions in EU waters perform to protect marine species, habitats, and dependent fisheries François Bastardie, Amaia Astarloa, Logan Binch, Isabella Bitetto, Dimitrios Damalas, Jochen Depestele, Pierre-Yves Hernvann, Sigrid Lehuta, Jonas Letschert, Irida Maina, Stéphanie Mahévas, Georgia Papantoniou, Miriam Püts, Giovanni Romagnoni, Maria Teresa Spedicato, Klaas Sys, Irini Tsikopoulou, Gert Van Hoey, Walter Zupa, Anna Rindorf Frontiers in Marine Science, 2025 This study investigates the implications of spatial management strategies on fish populations and fisheries across EU waters, particularly focusing on establishing potential areas for fishing closures to protect nurseries, benthic communities, and biodiversity hotspots in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. The research addresses the effectiveness of prohibiting certain fishing practices in the context of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). We investigate spatial- and effort-based fisheries management strategies based on spatial ecosystem modelling, which provides insights into species interactions and distribution shifts, and bioeconomic fisheries models which incorporate finely defined fishing fleets and economic dynamics. Our findings emphasize that redistributing fishing effort without reducing overall effort and catches may negate intended decreases in mortality rates of sensitive marine species or restoration of vulnerable marine habitats to the status targeted by the European marine legislation (EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive MSFD). We highlight the complex interplay of social, economic, ecological, and institutional factors influencing fishers’ decision-making in effort displacement. As the proportion of closed regions increases, potential effects on marine ecosystems can even be damaging in the short term to some sensitive species (such as the endangered, threatened and protected species ETP) and vulnerable habitats (with currently high relative benthic status RBS). This emphasizes the importance of the placement of closed areas and of combining area-based management with other fishery management measures. Findings from case studies in the North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Bay of Biscay indicate that prohibiting certain fishing practices in designated areas will likely induce short-term economic losses on specific fishing fleets. Where the prohibitions contribute to improved selectivity or productivity of the fish stocks, these losses may be regained in the long term. Finally, the long-term benefits for marine life that are expected through the spatial protection of vulnerable life stages and habitats will rely on the extent to which climate change affects ocean productivity and distribution of species and habitats.
Ten Years of Mediterranean Monk Seal Stranding Records in Greece under the Microscope: What Do the Data Suggest? Maria Solanou, Aliki Panou, Irida Maina, Stefanos Kavadas, Marianna Giannoulaki Animals, 2024 This paper presents the results of an analysis of stranding events of the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus over a decade. The analysis involved categorization according to the cause of stranding and seasonality, the identification of hotspot stranding areas and an assessment of possible correlations between stranding events and environmental/climatic patterns using time series analysis. Moreover, Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were applied to explore the effects of the size of small-scale fishing grounds, the number of species sightings, and the occurrence of reproduction sites on “human-related” strandings. Finally, special focus was put on the central part of the eastern Ionian Sea for the assessment of stranding hotspot areas by means of the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach, based on different kinds of spatial information such as anthropogenic pressures and the location of breeding sites and feeding grounds. Time series analysis results revealed that oscillation indices, during the first half of the year, and sea surface temperature (SST) in the Mediterranean from October to December were positively correlated with monk seal stranding events. GAMs underlined that areas combining extended small-scale fishery grounds and a higher number of sightings were more likely to cause more strandings. Regarding spatial analyses, the central Aegean Sea was highlighted as a hotspot for “human-related strandings”, while the MCDA approach emphasized that the southern coasts of Cephalonia and the gulf between Lefkada and mainland Greece were susceptible to subadult strandings.
Relating benthic sensitivity and status to spatial distribution and intensity of trawling in the Eastern Mediterranean Christopher J. Smith, Nadia K. Papadopoulou, Irida Maina, Stefanos Kavadas, P. Daniel van Denderen, Nikolaos Katsiaras, Sofia Reizopoulou, Ioannis Karakassis, Anastasios Tselepides, Irini Tsikopoulou Ecological Indicators, 2023 The ecosystem approach to fisheries management needs information of not just where bottom trawlers operate but also on their impact on the seabed, which is also highly relevant to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Descriptor D6, seafloor integrity. In this study, we assess the benthic impact of bottom trawling in the Eastern Mediterranean in areas primarily fished by the Greek fleet. Seabed habitat sensitivity was modelled using macrofaunal longevity and biomass relationship based on data from more than 800 locations, representing 9 MSFD benthic habitats, and benthic status was assessed using the relative benthic status indicator. The pressure of seabed trawling was higher in circalittoral mud and circalittoral sand habitats showing a heterogeneous distribution pattern with intensive trawling in localized areas mainly coastal. Benthic status was high for all habitats reflecting the low trawling intensity and impact in most of the study area compared to other regions of Mediterranean or European waters. The results constitute the benchmark for benthic status in relation to trawling intensity in Eastern Mediterranean allowing to identify regions that are most at risk, and to prioritize management actions.
A geoportal of data and tools for supporting Maritime Spatial Planning in the Adriatic-Ionian Region Stefano Menegon, Amedeo Fadini, Luisa Perini, Alessandro Sarretta, Daniel Depellegrin, Elisabeth De Maio, Giulio Farella, Marica Landini, Carlo Fava, Christian Ferrarin, Michol Ghezzo, Elisabetta Manea, Erika M.D. Porporato, Roberto Pastres, Olga Sedioli, Dimitris V. Politikos, Irida Maina, Stefanos Kavadas, Raffaella Matarrese, Andrea Barbanti Environmental Modelling and Software, 2023
Marine spatial plans focusing on biodiversity conservation: The case of the Aegean Sea Vasiliki Markantonatou, Sylvaine Giakoumi, Nikoletta Koukourouvli, Irida Maina, Genoveva Gonzalez‐Mirelis, Maria Sini, Kostas Maistrelis, Mavra Stithou, Eleni Gadolou, Dimitra Petza, Stefanos Kavadas, Vasiliki Vassilopoulou, Lene Buhl‐Mortensen, Stelios Katsanevakis Aquatic Conservation Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2021
Sea Area Monitoring and Analysis of Fishing Vessels Activity: The i4sea Big Data Platform Panagiotis Tampakis, Eva Chondrodima, Aggelos Pikrakis, Yannis Theodoridis, Kostis Pristouris, Harry Nakos, Eleni Petra, Theodore Dalamagas, Andreas Kandiros, Georgios Markakis, Irida Maina, Stefanos Kavadas Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management, 2020
Large-scale distribution of a deep-sea megafauna community along mediterranean trawlable grounds Ulla Fernandez-Arcaya, Isabella Bitetto, Antonio Esteban, M. Teresa Farriols, Cristina García-Ruiz, Luis Gil de Sola, Beatriz Guijarro, Angélique Jadaud, Stefanos Kavadas, Giuseppe Lembo, Giacomo Milisenda, Irida Maina, Slavica Petovic, Letizia Sion, Sandrine Vaz, Enric Massutí Scientia Marina, 2019
Size-dependent survival of european hake juveniles in the Mediterranean sea Manuel Hidalgo, Alessandro Ligas, José María Bellido, Isabella Bitetto, Pierluiggi Carbonara, Roberto Carlucci, Beatriz Guijarro, Angelique Jadaud, Giuseppe Lembo, Chiara Manfredi, Antonio Esteban, Germana Garofalo, Zdravko Ikica, Cristina García, Luis Gil de Sola, Stefanos Kavadas, Irida Maina, Letizia Sion, Stefania Vittori, Nedo Vrgoc Scientia Marina, 2019
New mediterranean biodiversity records (November, 2016) CH. MYTILINEOU, E.H.Kh. AKEL, N. BABALI, P. BALISTRERI, M. BARICHE, Y.Ö. BOYACI, L. CILENTI, C. CONSTANTINOU, F. CROCETTA, M. ÇELİK, H. DERELI, C. DOUNAS, F. DURUCAN, A. GARRIDO, V. GEROVASILEIOU, K. KAPIRIS, T. KEBAPCIOGLU, P. KLEITOU, A. KRYSTALAS, L. LIPEJ, I. MAINA, P. MARAKIS, B. MAVRIČ, R. MOUSSA, L. PEÑA-RIVAS, D. POURSANIDIS, W. RENDA, S.I. RIZKALLA, A. ROSSO, T. SCIROCCO, F. SCIUTO, G. SERVELLO, F. TIRALONGO, S. YAPICI, A. ZENETOS Mediterranean Marine Science, 2016
