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This is a report from the EU project Green Bubbles RISE, summarising results from field work about marine biology students at the Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy) in academic year 2015-2016. The report has been published as a peer-reviewed publication entitled: " "Generation Nemo": motivations, satisfaction and career goals of marine biology students" (see alternate identifiers below). ; This report has received funding from the European Union (EU)'s H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 643712 to the project Green Bubbles RISE for sustainable diving (Green Bubbles). This report reflects only the authors' view. The Research Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

ABSTRACT Citizen Science (CS) strengthens the relationship between society and science through education and engagement, with win-win benefits. Marine Citizen Science (MCS) is increasingly popular, thanks to society's growing interest in marine environments and marine issues. Scuba diving significantly increases the potential of MCS, thanks to the skills and behavioural properties of people who participate in the sport. To be able to exploit this potential, however, MCS needs to face challenges related to CS, to scuba diving activities and to the broader scuba diving industry. In particular, engagement and recruitment of potential volunteers, as well as retention of active participants, represent key milestones. In order to reach these milestones, information is required on current participation levels of scuba divers in MCS, as well as the motivations behind participation, and the opinions held by potential participants in MCS. This study explored different case studies and methods of data collection to provide an overview of actual and potential participation in MCS by the scuba diving community. The results show that scuba divers, whether active or potential marine citizen scientists, are well disposed towards MCS. Some barriers, however, prevent the full participation of scuba divers as marine citizen scientists. Certain barriers extend beyond the control of both divers and MCS projects, while others, such as limited access to MCS projects and poor feedback after participation, can and should be addressed. The recommendations of this research provide strategic direction to MCS, so that the broad scuba diving community can be successfully integrated into MCS. These recommendations acknowledge the important role played by stakeholders in the scuba diving industry, as well as professional intermediaries and hired experts. ; This paper has received funding from the European Union (EU)'s H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 643712 to the project Green Bubbles ...

ABSTRACT Marine biology is an increasingly preferred study major and career among youth. This is particularly the case of countries with extensive coastlines, such as Italy. In order to understand what exactly is fuelling this trend, and whether it culminates in the successful absorption of marine biologists as valued workforce by society, this study investigated the motivations, satisfaction and career goals of marine biology undergraduate students in Italy. Although it was expected that scientific literacy in formal education plays an important role in motivating marine biology students, the results showed that intrinsic motivations and informal education play a more crucial role. The students consider realistic career options, although these imply having to leave the country. The results of this study were used to make recommendations on the importance of marine and ocean literacy in the formal educational system in Italy, and the general improvement of scientific literacy in formal school education. Recommendations were also made on the potential improvements that can be made by higher education institutions, to better equip marine biologists with the skills required by emerging sectors in society. Finally, considerations were made regarding the dimensioning of supply, offer and marketing of employment opportunities for marine biologists in Italy ; This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Biological Education on 17 October 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00219266.2017.1385509 An embargo period of 18 months applies to this Journal. This paper has received funding from the European Union (EU)'s H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 643712 to the project Green Bubbles RISE for sustainable diving (Green Bubbles). This paper reflects only the authors' view. The Research Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. © 2017. ...

Abstract Coral reefs play a key role in coastal protection and habitat provision. They are also well known for their recreational value. Attempts to protect these ecosystems have not successfully stopped large-scale degradation. Significant efforts have been made by government and research organizations to ensure that coral reefs are monitored systematically to gain a deeper understanding of the causes, the effects and the extent of threats affecting coral reefs. However, further research is needed to fully understand the importance that sampling design has on coral reef characterization and assessment. This study examines the effect that sampling design has on the estimation of seascape metrics when coupling semi-autonomous underwater vehicles, structure-from-motion photogrammetry techniques and high resolution (0.4 cm) underwater imagery. For this purpose, we use FRAGSTATS v4 to estimate key seascape metrics that enable quantification of the area, density, edge, shape, contagion, interspersion and diversity of sessile organisms for a range of sampling scales (0.5 m × 0.5 m, 2 m × 2 m, 5 m × 5 m, 7 m × 7 m), quadrat densities (from 1–100 quadrats) and sampling strategies (nested vs. random) within a 1655 m2 case study area in Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (Mozambique). Results show that the benthic community is rather disaggregated within a rocky matrix; the embedded patches frequently have a small size and a regular shape; and the population is highly represented by soft corals. The genus Acropora is the more frequent and shows bigger colonies in the group of hard corals. Each of the seascape metrics has specific requirements of the sampling scale and quadrat density for robust estimation. Overall, the majority of the metrics were accurately identified by sampling scales equal to or coarser than 5 m × 5 m and quadrat densities equal to or larger than 30. The study indicates that special attention needs to be dedicated to the design of coral reef monitoring programmes, with decisions being based on the ...

Coral reefs play a key role in coastal protection and habitat provision. They are also well known for their recreational value. Attempts to protect these ecosystems have not successfully stopped large-scale degradation. Significant efforts have been made by government and research organizations to ensure that coral reefs are monitored systematically to gain a deeper understanding of the causes, the effects and the extent of threats affecting coral reefs. However, further research is needed to fully understand the importance that sampling design has on coral reef characterization and assessment. This study examines the effect that sampling design has on the estimation of seascape metrics when coupling semi-autonomous underwater vehicles, structure-from-motion photogrammetry techniques and high resolution (0.4 cm) underwater imagery. For this purpose, we use FRAGSTATS v4 to estimate key seascape metrics that enable quantification of the area, density, edge, shape, contagion, interspersion and diversity of sessile organisms for a range of sampling scales (0.5 m × 0.5 m, 2 m × 2 m, 5 m × 5 m, 7 m × 7 m), quadrat densities (from 1–100 quadrats) and sampling strategies (nested vs. random) within a 1655 m2 case study area in Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (Mozambique). Results show that the benthic community is rather disaggregated within a rocky matrix; the embedded patches frequently have a small size and a regular shape; and the population is highly represented by soft corals. The genus Acropora is the more frequent and shows bigger colonies in the group of hard corals. Each of the seascape metrics has specific requirements of the sampling scale and quadrat density for robust estimation. Overall, the majority of the metrics were accurately identified by sampling scales equal to or coarser than 5 m × 5 m and quadrat densities equal to or larger than 30. The study indicates that special attention needs to be dedicated to the design of coral reef monitoring programmes, with decisions being based on the seascape metrics and statistics being determined. The results presented here are representative of the eastern South Africa coral reefs and are expected to be transferable to coral reefs with similar characteristics. The work presented here is limited to one study site and further research is required to confirm the findings.

In the Mediterranean, habitat-forming corals often characterize essential fish habitats. While their distribution is sufficiently known for the western basin, few data are available from the Central-Eastern Mediterranean Sea (CEM). This study fills this gap supplying the largest dataset ever built on the geographical and bathymetric distribution of the most relevant habitat-forming corals (Eunicella cavolini, Eunicella verrucosa, Eunicella singularis, Leptogorgia sarmentosa, Paramuricea clavata, Corallium rubrum and Savalia savaglia) of the CEM. Information collected from different sources such as literature, citizen science, and from the World Wide Web (WWW) was combined. Videos published on the WWW provided additional information on the presence of fishing lines and signs of damage, as well as on the distribution of purple and yellow-purple colonies of Paramuricea clavata. The study highlighted the impressive amount of information that the WWW can offer to scientists, termed here as Web Ecological Knowledge (WEK). The WEK is constantly fuelled by internauts, representing a free, refreshable, long-term exploitable reservoir of information. A quick and easy method to retrieve data from the WWW was illustrated. In addition, the distribution of corals was overlapped to marine protected areas and to the distribution of environmental conditions suitable for coralligenous habitats, fragile biogenic Mediterranean structures hosting complex assemblages in need of strict protection. The collected data allowed identifying priority areas with high species diversity and sites that are impacted by fishing activities. Supplied data can correctly address conservation and restoration policies in the CEM, adding an important contribution to ecosystem-based marine spatial planning. ; This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Biodiversity and Conservation on 23 December 2017 (First Online). The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-017-1492-8 ...

Este artículo contiene 11 páginas, 5 figuras, 6 tablas. ; In the Mediterranean Sea, the symbiosis between the gorgonian Paramuricea clavata (Risso, 1826) and the polychaete Haplosyllis chamaeleon Laubier, 1960 (Annelida, Syllidae, Syllinae) has only been documented from the western basin. Our findings extend its geographic distribution to the north-central basin and represent the first record of H. chamaeleon in Italy and Croatia. Periodic observations from the Ligurian Sea allowed establishing that the symbiont occurs on P. clavata almost throughout the year, showing a reproductive period longer than previously reported. Morphometric comparisons of three Mediterranean populations, from Portofino Promontory (Ligurian Sea), Cape of Creus (Catalan Sea) and Chafarinas Archipelago (Alboran Sea) proved that there were no significant differences in body measurements, whilst the observed differences in dorsal cirri length pattern could be consider intra-specific. Our behavioural observations confirmthat the species had (i) a kleptoparasitic behaviour, (ii) did not cause injuries to the host and (iii) did not induce the host to generate any malformation. ; Open access funding provided by Università Politecnica delle Marche within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. This research has been performed within the frame of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, as part of the project MERCES: Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas (grant agreement No. 689518) and is a contribution of Daniel Martin to the Consolidated Research Group on Marine Benthic Ecology of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR378) and to the Research Project PopCOmics (CTM2017-88080), funded by the 'Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades' of Spain (MICINU), the 'Agencia Española de Investigación' (AEI) and the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER). ; Peer reviewed

Dive computers have an important potential for citizen science projects where recreational SCUBA divers can upload the depth temperature profile and the geolocation of the dive to a central database which may provide useful information about the subsurface temperature of the oceans. However, their accuracy may not be adequate and needs to be evaluated. The aim of this study is to assess the accuracy and precision of dive computers and provide guidelines in order to enable their contribution to citizen science projects. Twenty-two dive computers were evaluated during real ocean dives for consistency and scatter in the first phase. In the second phase, the dive computers were immersed in sufficient depth to initiate the dive record inside a precisely controlled sea aquarium while using a calibrated device as a reference. Results indicate that the dive computers do not have the accuracy required for monitoring temperature changes in the oceans, however, they can be used to detect thermoclines if the users follow a specific protocol with specific dive computers. This study enabled the authors to define this protocol based on the results of immersion in two different sea aquarium tanks set to two different temperatures in order to simulate the conditions of a thermocline. ; This paper has received funding from the European Union (EU)'s H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 643712 to the project Green Bubbles RISE for sustainable diving (Green Bubbles). This paper reflects only the authors' view. The Research Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Authors would like to express their gratitude to Ali Ethem Keskin who shot the underwater pictures. Authors would like to thank ...

Authors' Copy. HIGHLIGHTS The scuba diving tourism industry's sustainability is affected by various problems. These problems were investigated by engaging scuba diving operators in two MPAs. Relations with other elements in the Scuba Diving Tourism System were assessed. Operators felt the potential of the scuba diving industry, yet limited support. General and ad hoc measures to enhance the industry's sustainability were advanced. ; This document is the accepted Authors' Copy of the paper published in Tourism Management 59: 385-403. DOI:10.1016/j.tourman.2016.09.004. The original manuscript was received on 19 April 2016, revised on 2 September 2016, accepted on 3 September 2016, made available online on 12 September 2016. An embargo period of 36 months applies to this Journal. This paper has received funding from the European Union (EU)'s H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 643712 to the project Green Bubbles RISE for sustainable diving (Green Bubbles). This paper reflects only the authors' view. The Research Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. © 2017. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Aim: Marine bioconstructions such as coralligenous formations are hotspot of biodi‐ versity and play a relevant ecological role in the preservation of biodiversity by provid‐ ing carbon regulation, protection and nursery areas for several marine species. For this reason, the European Union Habitat Directive included them among priority habitats to be preserved. Although their ecological role is well established, connectivity pat‐ terns are still poorly investigated, representing a limit in conservation planning. The present study pioneers a novel approach for the analysis of connectivity in marine bioconstructor species, which often lack suitable genetic markers, by taking advantage of next‐generation sequencing techniques. We assess the geographical patterns of genomic variation of the sunset cup coral Leptopsammia pruvoti Lacaze‐Duthiers, 1897, an ahermatypic, non‐zooxanthellate and solitary scleractinian coral species common in coralligenous habitats and distributed across the Mediterranean Sea. Location: The Italian coastline (Western and Central Mediterranean). Methods: We applied the restriction site‐associated 2b‐RAD approach to genotype over 1,000 high‐quality and filtered single nucleotide polymorphisms in 10 population samples. Results: The results revealed the existence of a strongly supported genetic structure, with highly significant pairwise FST values between all the population samples, includ‐ ing those collected about 5 km apart from each other. Moreover, genomic data indi‐ cate that the strongest barriers to gene flow are between the western (Ligurian–Tyrrhenian Sea) and the eastern side (Adriatic Sea) of the Italian peninsula. Main conclusions: The strong differentiation found in L. pruvoti is similar to that found in other species of marine bioconstructors investigated in this area, but it strongly contrasts with the small differences found in many fish and invertebrates at the same geographical scale. All in one, our results highlight the importance of assessing con‐ nectivity in species belonging to coralligenous habitats as, due to their limited disper‐ sal ability, they might require specific spatial conservation measures.

Este artículo contiene 12 páginas, 3 tablas, 1 figura. ; To understand the restoration potential of degraded habitats, it is important to know the key processes and habitat features that allow for recovery after disturbance. As part of the EU (Horizon 2020) funded MERCES project, a group of European experts compiled and assessed current knowledge, from both past and ongoing restoration efforts, within the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the North-East Atlantic Ocean. The aim was to provide an expert judgment of how different habitat features could impact restoration success and enhance the recovery of marine habitats. A set of biological and ecological features (i.e., life-history traits, population connectivity, spatial distribution, structural complexity, and the potential for regime shifts) were identified and scored according to their contribution to the successful accomplishment of habitat restoration for five habitats: seagrass meadows, kelp forests, Cystoseira macroalgal beds, coralligenous assemblages and cold-water coral habitats. The expert group concluded that most of the kelp forests features facilitate successful restoration, while the features for the coralligenous assemblages and the cold-water coral habitat did not promote successful restoration. For the other habitats the conclusions were much more variable. The lack of knowledge on the relationship between acting pressures and resulting changes in the ecological state of habitats is a major challenge for implementing restoration actions. This paper provides an overview of essential features that can affect restoration success in marine habitats of key importance for valuable ecosystem services. ; This work has been part of the MERCES project (www. merces-project.eu/, Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas) and based on the MERCES deliverable D1.1 "State of the knowledge on European marine habitat mapping and degraded habitats". The project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programmeunderthegrantagreementno.689518. ; Peer reviewed

Anthropogenic climate change, and global warming in particular, has strong and increasing impacts on marine ecosystems (Poloczanska et al., 2013; Halpern et al., 2015; Smale et al., 2019). The Mediterranean Sea is considered a marine biodiversity hot-spot contributing to more than 7% of world's marine biodiversity including a high percentage of endemic species (Coll et al., 2010). The Mediterranean region is a climate change hotspot, where the respective impacts of warming are very pronounced and relatively well documented (Cramer et al., 2018). One of the major impacts of sea surface temperature rise in the marine coastal ecosystems is the occurrence of mass mortality events (MMEs). The first evidences of this phenomenon dated from the first half of'80 years affecting the Western Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea (Harmelin, 1984; Bavestrello and Boero, 1986; Gaino and Pronzato, 1989; Voultsiadou et al., 2011). The most impressive phenomenon happened in 1999 when an unprecedented large scale MME impacted populations of more than 30 species from different phyla along the French and Italian coasts (Cerrano et al., 2000; Perez et al., 2000). Following this event, several other large scale MMEs have been reported, along with numerous other minor ones, which are usually more restricted in geographic extend and/or number of affected species (Garrabou et al., 2009; Rivetti et al., 2014; Marbà et al., 2015; Rubio-Portillo et al., 2016, authors' personal observations). These events have generally been associated with strong and recurrent marine heat waves (Crisci et al., 2011; Kersting et al., 2013; Turicchia et al., 2018; Bensoussan et al., 2019) which are becoming more frequent globally (Smale et al., 2019). Both field observations and future projections using Regional Coupled Models (Adloff et al., 2015; Darmaraki et al., 2019) show the increase in Mediterranean sea surface temperature, with more frequent occurrence of extreme ocean warming events. As a result, new MMEs are expected during the coming years. To date, despite the efforts, neither updated nor comprehensive information can support scientific analysis of mortality events at a Mediterranean regional scale. Such information is vital to guide management and conservation strategies that can then inform adaptive management schemes that aim to face the impacts of climate change ; MV-L was supported by a postdoctoral contract Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación (IJCI-2016-29329) of Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. AI was supported by a Technical staff contract (PTA2015-10829-I) Ayudas Personal Técnico de Apoyo of Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (2015). Interreg Med Programme (grant number Project MPA-Adapt 1MED15_3.2_M2_337) 85% cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund, the MIMOSA project funded by the Foundation Prince Albert II Monaco and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 689518 (MERCES). DG-G was supported by an FPU grant (FPU15/05457) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. J-BL was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020 ; Peer Reviewed