Project: Coralligenous based indicators to evaluate and monitor the "good ecological status" of the Mediterranean coastal waters
CIGESMED main objectives are (1) to fulfill the key gaps in the current scientific knowledge of the coralligenous habitats that make it difficult to make recommendations for protecting them by developing barcoding to enhance reliable identification for conservation and protection purposes (invasive and cryptic species?), and by studying genetic structuring and effective dispersal potential of keystone/habitat? species (2) to enhance the knowledge on coralligenous populations by deciding on reference states and setting up a network of Mediterranean experts (long term series), (3) to monitor networks, locally managed and coordinate them on a regional scale, standardizing protocols that could be applied to the entire Mediterranean and testing indices and indicators, specific to coralligenous, (4) to test population genetic criteria as tools to monitor the GES? of the coastal Mediterranean Sea, (5) to implement a “citizen science” network and (6) to use trees of knowledge as tools to sort, organize and illustrate the large heterogeneous sets of produced data and as a tool of dissemination towards scientists, decision makers, environmental managers and general public. By working on coralligenous, a typical milieu from the Mediterranean Sea, which houses a tremendous biodiversity creating a lot of ecosystems and seascapes, and of ecological, patrimonial and socio-economical importance, CIGESMED challenges to assess its good state and functioning, to construct operational indicators usable to assess the good state of the Mediterranean coastal waters and to create the structure which will permit to carry on with monitoring after the end of the project.
| Acronym | CIGESMED |
| Duration | 01/01/2013 - 29/02/2016 |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | SEAS ERA |
| Call | SEAS-ERA Joint Call in the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions – 2012 |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ege University | Türkiye | ||
| French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea | France | ||
| Hellenic Centre for Marine Research | Greece | ||
| National Centre for Scientific Research | Coordinator | France | |
| National Marine Park of Zakynthos | Greece |