A mesoscale analysis of relations between fish species richness and environmental and anthropogenic pressures in the Mediterranean Sea

8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2022.105702Although there is a great knowledge about individual anthropogenic threats to different fish species in the Mediterranean Sea, little is known about how these threats accumulate and interact to affect fish species richness in conjunction with environmental dynamics. This study assesses the role of these threats in the fish richness component and identifies the main areas where the interaction between fish species richness and threats is highest. Our results show that fish richness seems to be higher in saltier and colder areas where the chlorophyll-a and phosphate concentrations are lower. Among the anthropogenic threats analyzed, the costal impact and the fishing effort seems to be the more relevant ones. Overall areas with high fish richness are mainly located along the western and northern shores, with lower values in the south-eastern regions. Areas of potential high cumulative threats are widespread in both the western and eastern basins, with fewer areas located in the south-eastern region. By describing the spatial patterns of the fish richness and which drivers explain these patterns we can also identify which anthropogenic activities can be managed more effectively to maintain and restore marine fish biodiversity in the basinMGP to the project IMPRESS (RTI2018-099868-B-I00), ERDF, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities - State Research Agency. MC acknowledges partial funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869300 (FutureMares project) and the Spanish project ProOceans (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Proyectos de I + D + I (RETOS-PID2020-118097RB-I00). MC acknowledges the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S). D.C. would like to thank the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación - Agencia Estatal de Investigación for grant PID2019-106341 GB-I00 (jointly financed by the European Regional Development Fund, FEDER). J.M.-M. would like to thank the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for PID2020-115882RB-I00 research projectPeer reviewe