Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development is one of the sustainable development goals (SDG 14) set by the United Nations, and has among its specific targets the conservation of coastal and marine areas.

Coastal marine ecosystems harbour high levels of biodiversity, provide a range of ecosystem functions and services key to human societies, and are threatened by a variety of stressors. Under the effects of overfishing, Mediterranean rocky reef ecosystems can shift from a healthy state, characterized by forests of erect macroalgae and high fish biomass and diversity, to a degraded state, characterized by barrens with low fish abundance and diversity. Climate change may favour thermophilic/invasive species, possibly further altering community structure and ecosystem functioning.

MARECO is a project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the PRIN 2020 research programme and aims to forecast the synergistic effects of fishing pressure and climate change on marine biodiversity and ecosystem services under different management scenarios.

In particular, the project will focus on the development of spatially explicit models describing the dynamics of the system formed by primary producers (algae), herbivores (sea urchins and fish) and they predators. The models will be used to assess the effect of environmental change on the stability and resilience of different states of the system, as well as their ability to deliver key ecosystem services. The final purpose is to provide guidelines to adapt the strategic planning and management of Mediterranean rocky reef ecosystems to the challenges posed by climate change and to preserve their biodiversity and the associated benefits to human societies.