Fieldwork was conducted across the Ligurian coastline in Italy, a region where ecological quality has been monitored for nearly twenty years using CARLIT. Building on this long-term knowledge, the project identified representative benthic algal landscapes across the region and established replicated transects within each community (intact forests of Ericaria amentacea, beds of the more tolerant Cystoseira compressa, mixed forest–turf mosaics, and turf-dominated assemblages). Over two years, these transects were used to measure temperature, light availability, and wave exposure within each algal landscape across seasons. Simultaneously, canopy cover and continuity were assessed and understory algal and invertebrate diversity were quantified. Seasonal samples of dominant algal species were also analysed for their carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures, providing a baselline for further insights into trophic support, carbon pathways, and nutrient assimilation in each community type.
This work produced the first region-scale, replicated dataset linking habitat structure with multiple ecosystem functions in Mediterranean midlittoral communities. Although full data analysis is ongoing, several important patterns have emerged. Intact forests of Ericaria amentacea significantly reduced temperature and desiccation, particularly during early summer heatwaves, indicating a strong capacity to buffer environmental extremes. Canopy continuity appeared to be as important, or even more important, than the identity of the forest-forming species in providing this environmental amelioration. Despite the expectation that forested habitats would support higher species richness, differences in overall diversity between forests and turf were not strongly apparent at the scales measured. However, forested habitats supported substantially greater biomass and more abundant invertebrate assemblages, suggesting a larger carbon storage pool and differing ecological roles. The results also suggest that fragmentation of forest habitats can reduce ecosystem function more than an equivalent reduction in total canopy cover, highlighting the importance of landscape structure in determining ecological resilience.
