ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e72248
Benthic habitat mapping of Plazh Gradina – Zlatna ribka (Black Sea) and Karpathos and Saria islands (Mediterranean Sea)
expand article infoStamatina Nikolopoulou‡, Dimitar Berov§, Stefania Klayn§, Lyubomir I. Dimitrov|, Kiril Velkovsky, Eva Chatzinikolaou‡, Giorgos Chatzigeorgiou‡, Ventzislav Karamfilov§, Christina Pavloudi‡
‡ Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBC), 71500, Heraklion, Crete, Greece§ Laboratory of Marine Ecology, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2 Major Yurii Gagarin Street, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria| Institute of Oceanology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 40 First May St, 9000, Varna, Bulgaria¶ Centre for underwater archaeology, Khan Krum sq. 1, 8130, Sozopol, Bulgaria

Corresponding author: Christina Pavloudi ( cpavloud@hcmr.gr )

© Stamatina Nikolopoulou, Dimitar Berov, Stefania Klayn, Lyubomir Dimitrov, Kiril Velkovsky, Eva Chatzinikolaou, Giorgos Chatzigeorgiou, Ventzislav Karamfilov, Christina Pavloudi.
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Nikolopoulou S, Berov D, Klayn S, Dimitrov LI, Velkovsky K, Chatzinikolaou E, Chatzigeorgiou G, Karamfilov V, Pavloudi C (2021) Benthic habitat mapping of Plazh Gradina – Zlatna ribka (Black Sea) and Karpathos and Saria islands (Mediterranean Sea). ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e72248
Open Access
Abstract

Habitat mapping is nеcessary for the efficient conservation and protection of marine ecosystems. In addition, it is a requirement for EU Member States as stated in the European Union (EU) Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), as well as necessary for the achievement and maintenance of 'good environmental status (GES)' of benthic marine habitats in the framework of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC).

This study provides baseline information on the marine benthic habitats of Sozopol Bay (Black Sea) and Karpathos and Saria islands (Mediterranean Sea). These two Natura 2000 sites were selected as study sites of the RECONNECT project, which aimed at creating a transnational cooperative network to confront the environmental threats of ecosystems with a high natural and cultural interest, by the establishment of common practices and a joint regional strategy. The specific objective was to map the marine habitats using a defined a priori classification (EUNIS), with the ultimate purpose of supporting government marine spatial planning, management and decision-making processes through the development of a Decision Support System.

Keywords
habitat mapping, marine benthic ecosystems, Karpathos, Saria, Sozopol, Posidonia oceanica, Zostera spp., EUNIS, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea