The ups and downs of a canopy-forming seaweed over a span of more than one century.

ABSTRACT: Canopy-forming seaweeds constitute marine forests that deliver ecosystem services. The worldwide range shift, sharp decline or loss of many of these forests, caused by the cumulative impact of increasing human pressure and climate change, have been widely documented. Contrasting examples, reflecting higher than expected resilience, have been more rarely reported. Here, we took the opportunity of having at our disposal a two-century suite of documents (herbarium vouchers, articles) and a ~120-year observation period, dealing with a long-lived brown seaweed, Cystoseira mediterranea, along a well-explored Mediterranean coastline in the Gulf of Lions, to depict the fate of its populations. In addition, we provided baselines for future surveys, with a high degree of accuracy. The northernmost p

SUBMITTER: Blanfune A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6437179 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature