Marine forests at risk: solutions to halt the loss and promote the recovery of Mediterranean canopy-forming seaweeds

Along Mediterranean coasts, canopy-forming seaweeds used to form diverse, productive and valuable “forest” habitats, but in the past decades conspicuous declines, sometimes to local extinction, have been reported in many regions. Canopies are retracting particularly close to urban areas, and are replaced by turf-forming and ephemeral algae or barrens. The persisting forests are under continued threat, and current protection measures are insufficient. We provide evidence that declines of canopy algae are dramatically extensive, and are driven by multiple local (nutrient enrichment and high sediment loads, fishing, heavy metal pollution) and global stressors (increasing temperature, high wave exposure). We also show that the combined management of local stressors (such as nutrients and sediments) would increase significantly the resilience of canopy algae to future climatic stressors, preventing their further deterioration. Finally, we discuss restoration prospects in areas where these systems have been lost. We conclude identifying the main needs to understand, guide and motivate effective conservation actions in these valuable ecosystems.