Portugal will lead two coral protection projects in the Mediterranean | Biodiversity

The Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research (Ciimar), in Matosinhos, will lead two new projects for the conservation and restoration of marine gardens. corals affected by heat waves in the Mediterranean Sea. “It was unexpected, I was very happy”, says Jean-Baptiste Ledoux, researcher on the Ciimar evolutionary genomics team, who received the news of the two financings in the same week.

These are two different projects, focused on different species (red coral and chameleon gorgonian), but with the same objective: to use population genetics to protect corals in protected areas specific to the Mediterranean Sea – both in the Marseille region, in France, and in Catalonia, in Spain. The Mediterranean basin is particularly threatened by the climate crisis, as it is home to vast gardens of heat-sensitive corals and is simultaneously warming faster than other oceanic regions.

Until now, the genetics and genomics of biodiversity were not scientific areas that were highly considered in conservation and restoration policies, he explains to the PUBLIC Jean-Baptiste Ledoux. “This is changing and this is good news”, says the French scientist, living in Portugal, smiling, who has just raised funding which, according to him, totals around 120 thousand euros.

The projects have dual objectives that complement each other. On the one hand, scientists want to identify areas with greater genetic diversity that will be able to better respond to the challenges of the climate crisis – be it rising temperatures or another type of environmental pressure. On the other hand, the team aims to identify genetic factors in coral communities that give certain individuals greater tolerance to heat.

In an ideal world, everything would be preserved. But there are no resources to protect all coral populations. “We have to choose which populations we are going to conserve or not. Let’s help with this choice, we have to create priorities within the marine protected areas”, explains Jean-Baptiste, highlighting that populations that are genetically more diverse are more capable of resisting climate change.

Red corals in Catalonia

One of the approved projects is dedicated to the conservation and management of stock of red corals (Corallium rubrum) in the Mediterranean. These corals are very popular in the jewelry sector and are therefore the target of overfishing in the region. – uper kilogram of this merchandise can cost up to one thousand euros.

The work will be divided into two parts. In a first phase, the objective is to contribute to the evaluation of the stock of red coral fishing throughout the Mediterranean basin. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations​ (FAO) supports the project, as the international agency is also working on evaluating existing red coral.

In a second part, scientists intend to study the population genetics of the coral community in two Spanish natural parks: Montgrí and the Cap in Creusboth in Catalonia. The objective of this step is to check whether the species Corallium rubrum presents genetic factors of resistance to marine heat waves.

“Individuals who have this genetic heritage can be used for local population restoration. If we can identify these factors, these individuals can be used for local population restoration. These are solutions based on nature”, explains the Ciimar scientist. This approach will be used in the two projects led by Ledoux with different species of corals.

​Funding for both parts of the red coral project was provided by the European Biodiversity Genomics program (Biodiversity Genomics Europein English), an initiative that focuses on the use of genomics to improve the understanding of biodiversity on the continent and reverse its loss.

Chameleon Gorgonians in Marseille

The other project led by Jean-Baptiste Ledoux focuses on the species Paramuricea clavata, It will be developed in partnership with scientists from the Calanques National Park, in France, and will be funded by the organization Pure Ocean Fund. “We will be focused on the Marseille area, where, in 2022, there was an episode of massive mortality of P. clavata [gorgónia-camaleão]”, says the scientist.

In September 2022, water temperatures on the Mediterranean coast were between 4 and 5 degrees Celsius above average. In some parts of the basin, thermometers reached 30 degrees Celsius. Entire coral gardens withered away. It was like a “fire under water”, Solène Basthard-Bogain, director of an association specialized in the conservation of marine environments, told AFP at the time.

Jean-Baptiste Ledoux recalls that, although the 2022 episode was particularly tragic, rising water temperatures have been a recurring problem in Marseille and the region. “We see an intensification and acceleration of these marine heat waves and this is bad news for many species in the Mediterranean sea”, warns the Ciimar scientist. Not only corals can die, but also algae, sponges and bivalves, for example.

A Paramuricea clavata is a family of soft corals that offers ecological services crucial to the proper functioning of the ecosystem, ensuring habitat and refuges for different species. If the chameleon gorgonia disappears, we not only put at risk the local existence of a species, but also that of many other organisms that depend on it.

The two projects coordinated by Ciimar – in which researchers from other entities are involved, including the University of Barcelona and the Center for Marine Sciences at the University of Algarve – pave the way for the recovery of coral gardens in the Mediterranean, but expectations of recovery of biodiversity must be moderated.

“It will be very difficult to return to the original state of biodiversity, as it was 100 years ago. Now, at the local level, I am hopeful that we can do many things in protected areas. This is what we are going to try to do with these projects: we work with marine protected areas in Marseille (France) and Catalonia (Spain) and here, yes, we are going to try to put all our energy into developing conservation measures based on genomics to try to conserve these species in these areas”, promises the French researcher.