Marine Conservation and Restoration

Chair Mark John Costello:

• 09:00 – 09:50 Invited talk: Emily Darling (Director Wildlife Conservation Society)
  Tropical coral reefs provide local communities with livelihoods, food security, cultural significance, and coastal protection, making them one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on our planet. As global warming and extreme heat stress accelerate, coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent and severe, triggering the world’s Fourth Global Bleaching Event this past year. In the face of multiple pressures from climate change and human activities, urgent strategic decisions for coral reef conservation and restoration are necessary for the nearly one billion people who rely on these ecosystems and are on the frontlines of climate change. Here, I will share examples from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) long-term conservation programs worldwide to protect climate refugia, and demonstrate how these efforts are scaling up to a global strategy that prioritizes the conservation, connectivity, and monitoring of climate-resilient coral reefs. Key insights include: fostering collaborations among governments, scientists, NGOs, local communities, philanthropies, and multilateral donors around a shared vision; connecting to international policy action through the Global Biodiversity Framework and the UNFCCC Convention on Climate Change; and building new technologies like MERMAID—a cloud-native, offline, free, and open-source coral reef data platform – to connect monitoring efforts around the world for rapid assessment of coral reef ecosystems and future forecasting of climate refugia.
• 09:50 – 10:00 Speaker: Mark John Costello “Marine Protected Areas: myths, misunderstandings, cons and opportunities.”
  Authors: M. J. Costello.
• 10:00 – 10:10 Speaker: Luca Appolloni “Impacts hampering reserve and spill-over effects of two Marine Protected Areas: spatial variation of fish communities in the overcrowded Gulf of Naples.”
  Authors: L. Appolloni, A. Pagliarani, A. Cocozza di Montanara, G. Di Pace, L. Donnarumma, R. Sandulli, M. Simeone, G. F. Russo.
• 10:10 – 10:20 Speaker: Torcuato Pulido Mantas “Mesophotic zone as a buffer for biodiversity conservation: a promising opportunity to enhance MPA climate-change resilience.”
  Authors: T. Pulido Mantas, C. Roveta, B. Calcinai, C. Campanini, M. Coppari, P. Falco, C. Gambardella, C. Gregorin, C.G. Di Camillo, T. Marrocco, F. Memmola, C. Cerrano.
• 10:20 – 10:30 Speaker: Fabio Rindi “New approaches for the conservation and restoration of Mediterranean algal forests.”
  Authors: F. Rindi, G. Bellanti, S. Bianchelli, S. de Caralt, E. Cebrian, O.A. Cipolloni, F. Crocetta, I. D’Aniello, O. De Clerck, B. Derijard, E. Fabbrizzi, S. Fraschetti, L. Mangialajo, M. Mehiri, G. Marletta, I. Moro, M. Munari, J. Neiva, S. Orfanidis, V. Papathanasiou, S. Peeters, C. Sabourault, E. Serrão, C. Sitjà, W. Stock, S. Tsioli, J. Verdura, A. Vergés, R. Danovaro.
• 10:30 – 10:40 Speaker: Mariachiara Chiantore “Towards the restoration of Ericaria forests in the Mediterranean Sea: major challenges and wins.”
  Authors: A. Valentina, R. Clausing, C. Pezzilli, J. Cimini, L. Meroni, M. Monserrat, A. Falace, M. Chiantore.
• 10:40 – 10:50 Speaker: Dimitrios Michalakoglou “Copepod contribution in the pelagic food web in the oligotrophic waters of Eastern Mediterrenean Sea: Implications for MSFD Implementation.”
  Authors: D. Michalakoglou, M. Protopapa, S. Zervoudaki.
• 10:50 – 11:00 Speaker: Érica Moura “Will-o’-the-wisps on sea turtle nesting beaches – will light pollution prevent new colonization of the Western Mediterranean?”
  Authors: E. Moura, F. Maffucci, C. Roncari, M. Farina, R. Teti, Hochscheid.
• 11:00 – 11:20 Coffee Break
• 11:20 – 11:30 Speaker: Miriam Ferretti “Impacts of Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) on the locomotor activity of Paracentrotus lividus along the Northwestern Mediterranean coast.”
  Authors: M. Ferretti, A. Bellucci, L. Benedetti-Cecchi, F. Chisci, P. Domenici, F. Rossi, E. Maggi.
• 11:30 – 11:40 Speaker: Valentina Caradonna “Shipping noise causes fin whale songs to shift to lower frequencies and reduces fitness.”
  Authors: V. Caradonna, J. F. Borsani, G. Pedrazzi, D. S. Pace.
• 11:40 – 11:50 Speaker: Angela Landolfi “Tracking down ecosystem vulnerability to multiple threats: the Cumulative Hazard Index.”
  Authors: R. Droghei, I. Vona, F. Serva, F. Falcini, G. Volpe, M. Bellacicco, E. Organelli, R. Santoleri, A. Landolfi.
• 11:50 – 12:00 Speaker: Tjisse van der Heide“Engineering emergent trait-based mimics to restore coastal ecosystems shaped by habitat- forming species”
  Authors: T. van der Heide.