This video, produced by the project POSBEMED, highlights the value of Posidonia oceanica for the Mediterranean. The POSBEMED project in one of the 9 thematic initiatives under the umbrella of the EU Interreg Med PANACeA project on Biodiversity Protection. POSBEMED is led by the Entente Interdépartementale de Démoustication Méditerranée (EID-Med, Montpellier) in France and involves partners from three more Mediterranean countries: the International Union for Conservation of Nature - Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN, Malaga, Spain), the International Marine Centre Foundation (IMC, Sardinia, Italy), ECO-logica srl (Bari, Italy) and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR, Anavissos, Greece). Other associated partners are the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature (Greece), Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment (Cyprus), Larnaka Municipality (Cyprus), Regional Government of the Balearic Islands (Spain), French Agency for Biodiversity (France), and the Municipality of Giovinazzo (Italy). POSBEMED is an Interreg-Med project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

Medbiolitter database summarises results of scientific studies on biodiversity and marine litter interactions in the Mediterranean Sea. To this end, information is collected from different data sources, such as institutions or projects, as well as peer-reviewed publications. The main source of data currently is LITTERBASE/AWI, including only the coverage within the Mediterranean. The database currently comprises 393 records on interactions. Interaction refers to encounters between wildlife and litter items and are classified in four categories: 1) Ingestion, which is the most frequently observed interaction, followed by 2) entanglement, which affects motility, often with fatal consequences, 3) colonization, which occurs when many species settle on floating litter, and 4) others, including different types of less frequent interaction. The database includes among others the location, the type of interaction and litter, marine realm (beach, sea surface, water column, seafloor), habitat, species, whether it occurs in a marine protected area and the type in such case, as well as references to the publication from which the data are extracted. The layer is represented in different ways in the MED Biodiversity platform: 1) Marine litter and biodiversity interactions: it shows the database by type of interaction (ingestion, entanglement, colonization and other) and marine realm (pelagic or benthic). 2) Knowledge update from Nov 2008: changes in the number of records since the last update. It tries to represent the efforts of the PANACeA project to gather additional information on the Mediterranean Sea. 3) Marine litter knowledge from 1988 to 2019: shows the years of publication of the source of the records in the database. In recent dates, especially since 2015, there has been a notable increase in the number of publications related to marine litter.

Medbiolitter database summarises results of scientific studies on biodiversity and marine litter interactions in the Mediterranean Sea. To this end, information is collected from different data sources, such as institutions or projects, as well as peer-reviewed publications. The main source of data currently is LITTERBASE/AWI, including only the coverage within the Mediterranean. The database currently comprises 393 records on interactions. Interaction refers to encounters between wildlife and litter items and are classified in four categories: 1) Ingestion, which is the most frequently observed interaction, followed by 2) entanglement, which affects motility, often with fatal consequences, 3) colonization, which occurs when many species settle on floating litter, and 4) others, including different types of less frequent interaction. The database includes among others the location, the type of interaction and litter, marine realm (beach, sea surface, water column, seafloor), habitat, species, whether it occurs in a marine protected area and the type in such case, as well as references to the publication from which the data are extracted. The layer is represented in different ways in the MED Biodiversity platform: 1) Marine litter and biodiversity interactions: it shows the database by type of interaction (ingestion, entanglement, colonization and other) and marine realm (pelagic or benthic). 2) Knowledge update from Nov 2008: changes in the number of records since the last update. It tries to represent the efforts of the PANACeA project to gather additional information on the Mediterranean Sea. 3) Marine litter knowledge from 1988 to 2019: shows the years of publication of the source of the records in the database. In recent dates, especially since 2015, there has been a notable increase in the number of publications related to marine litter.

The Marine Protected Area Protection Framework (MaPAF; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al., 2016) was adapted to update progress on the protection of Pelagos Sanctuary marine biodiversity. Accordingly, protection was conceived as an additive process entailing two complementary factors: 1. Legal protection and 2. Managerial protection. Legal protection was assessed through two indicators: 1.1. Legal designation, contributing to protection coverage targets, and 1.2. Regulation stringency, contributing to strict protection targets. Managerial protection was assessed via two indicators: 2.1. Existence of a management authority for the site (this layer), and 2.2. Existence of a management plan that is fully implemented. Both indicators are expected to contribute to effective Marine Protected Areas & Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) management targets. Thus, a site can be legally protected (typically, an MPA), by management measures (e.g. an OECM), attaining different degrees of conservation to their biodiversity. Therefore, a site that has been endowed a stringent legal designation category which has an appointed managerial authority that fully implements the site’s management plan is assumed to have greater protection than a site with opposite characteristics.

Vulnerability is calculated based on the coverage of Posidonia oceanica and the cumulative tourism pressure in the Mediterranean Sea waters. Pressure points were overlapped with Posidonia habitats polygons and reclassified into vulnerability classes according to a vulnerability matrix. The resulting point layer represents the ecological vulnerability in marine areas in five categories from very low to very high.

Data represents the percentage of change in the intensity of sailing vessels and pleasure craft traffic in the Mediterranean Sea between years 2019 and 2022. The map is based on AIS data aggregated at 1km2 by EMODnet and expressed as total time with presence of vessels in each cell throughout the year.

Data represents the degree of pressure based on the intensity of sailing vessels and pleasure craft traffic in the Mediterranean Sea (year 2022). The map is based on AIS data aggregated at 1km2 by EMODnet and expressed as total time with presence of vessels in each cell throughout the year. The indicator provides an estimate of the amount of pollution vessels produce (via fuel leaks, oil discharge, waste disposal, etc.), under the assumption that traveling ships primarily affect their immediate waters.

The Marine Protected Area Protection Framework (MaPAF; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al., 2016) was adapted to update progress on the protection of Pelagos Sanctuary marine biodiversity. Accordingly, protection was conceived as an additive process entailing two complementary factors: 1. Legal protection and 2. Managerial protection. Legal protection was assessed through two indicators: 1.1. Legal designation (this specific layer), contributing to protection coverage targets, and 1.2. Regulation stringency, contributing to strict protection targets. Managerial protection was assessed via two indicators: 2.1. Existence of a management authority for the site, and 2.2. Existence of a management plan that is fully implemented. Both indicators are expected to contribute to effective Marine Protected Areas & Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) management targets. Thus, a site can be legally protected (typically, an MPA), by management measures (e.g. an OECM), attaining different degrees of conservation to their biodiversity. Therefore, a site that has been endowed a stringent legal designation category which has an appointed managerial authority that fully implements the site’s management plan is assumed to have greater protection than a site with opposite characteristics.

Medbiolitter database summarises results of scientific studies on biodiversity and marine litter interactions in the Mediterranean Sea. To this end, information is collected from different data sources, such as institutions or projects, as well as peer-reviewed publications. The main source of data currently is LITTERBASE/AWI, including only the coverage within the Mediterranean. The database currently comprises 754 records on interactions. Interaction refers to encounters between wildlife and litter items and are classified in four categories: 1) Ingestion, which is the most frequently observed interaction, followed by 2) entanglement, which affects motility, often with fatal consequences, 3) colonization, which occurs when many species settle on floating litter, and 4) others, including different types of less frequent interaction. The database includes among others the location, the type of interaction and litter, marine realm (beach, sea surface, water column, seafloor), habitat, species, whether it occurs in a marine protected area and the type in such case, as well as references to the publication from which the data are extracted. The layer is represented in different ways in the MED Biodiversity platform: 1) Marine litter and biodiversity interactions: it shows the database by type of interaction (ingestion, entanglement, colonization and other) and marine realm (pelagic or benthic). 2) Knowledge update: changes in the number of records in each database version. It tries to represent the efforts of the PANACeA project to gather additional information on the Mediterranean Sea. 3) Marine litter knowledge from 1988 to present date: shows the years of publication of the source of the records in the database. In recent dates, especially since 2015, there has been a notable increase in the number of publications related to marine litter.

Vulnerability is calculated based on the percentage of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and the cumulative tourism pressure in each region. Percentage of KBAs not protected, with respect to the region, are classified into five groups, from very low to very high, according to the following thresholds: lower than 10%, 10 to 17%, 17 to 30%, 30 to 50% and higher than 50%. Theses classes and those of cumulative pressure are combined into a weighted sum and then reclassified in five vulnerability categories, from very low to very high.