Interpreting changes in the marine environment: the missing ingredient

• Published in: Biologia marina mediterranea Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 130 - 133
• Main Author: Fraschetti, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Marine; MED, Italy
• ISSN: 1123-4245

Biodiversity data are time-consuming and expensive to collect. Funding is often too scarce to allow for proper interpretation of changes in the marine environment, requiring the optimization of efforts to fulfill the commitments from recent international frameworks, in order to investing in reliable, cost-effective monitoring programs able to distinguish between natural and human induced changes. In the last thirty years, a large amount of information on marine biodiversity in terms of patterns of distribution, associated processes and effects of single threats has been achieved. However, interpreting changes caused by the compound effects of multiple anthropogenic disturbances is still a challenge. Posing a solid base for effective assessment of the effects of human disturbances to investigate both structural and functional biodiversity changes requires sufficient taxonomic expertise, long-term data sets in biodiversity research and monitoring, the combined use of rigorously designed correlative and experimental approaches at large spatial scales, and the recognition that, independently from the level of biodiversity considered, human threats cannot be studied and managed in isolation.