CIGESMED: Coralligenous based indicators to evaluate and monitor the "good environmental statut" of the Mediterranean coastal waters, a SeasEra project

International audienceCoralligenous is one the main shallow Mediterranean milieu generating structural complexity and biodiversity. It produces goods and services for several sectors. Pollution, anchors and trawling may cause its degradation, whilst traditional fishing as well as angling mainly affect target species. Diver frequentation is another cause of degradation. Coralligenous may also be susceptible to invasive alien species. These habitats, which are of great ecological, socioeconomic and patrimonial importance, are also under the pressures caused by the global warming. CIGESMED's (2013-2016) goal is to understand the links and consequences of natural and anthropogenic pressures to the functioning of these habitats and to define and maintain their Good Environmental Status (GES) in the Mediterranean Sea. Indexes, specific to coralligenous habitat, will be co-constructed and collectively tested by scientists, marine natural parks and reserves, through the implementation of a " citizen science " network. Among other methods, trees of knowledge will be experimented as tools to sort, organize and illustrate very large heterogeneous sets of data. CIGESMED outcome will be an integrative assessment of the GES within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. CIGESMED gathers scientists from France, Greece and Turkey, making it possible to access to sites and to work on the same issues in both the northwestern Mediterranean basin and the Aegean-Levantine one. Ten trained (scientific diving and ROV) laboratories of marine ecology are involved. A Committee of External Advisors (scientists, stakeholders and policy-makers), meeting at an annual basis, and aiming at providing advice on all aspects of the execution of the project is helping the scientific steering committee and is ensuring CIGESMED to meet its objectives