Fostering marine resilience through the reduction of anthropogenic pressures in temperate rocky reefs

Abstract

Resilience is vital for maintaining the health of temperate coastal systems, especially in the Anthropocene era, where anthropogenic pressures such as pollution, physical impacts, and overfishing pose significant threats. However, the scarcity of studies addressing marine resilience hampers its effective management. To address this issue, we evaluated the resilience of 300 temperate rocky reefs situated in Southern Europe, considering biological, environmental, and anthropogenic factors. We identified 43 top resilient areas recommended for conservation and 39 bottom resilient areas that could benefit from reducing anthropogenic pressures. Given that our findings suggest that anthropogenic pressures unequally influence the resilience of bottom resilient areas, we followed their decreasing order of influence to simulate five management scenarios based on the cumulative reduction of these pressures. While different percentages of reduction in anthropogenic pressures were necessary to significantly enhance resilience in each scenario, we found that, regardless of the approach taken, a comparable percentage of bottom resilient areas—ranging from 17 % to 23 %—could be reclassified as moderate resilient areas. By advancing resilience knowledge in temperate rocky reefs, this research underscores the important role that reducing anthropogenic pressures plays in enhancing resilience but also provides valuable insights for their strategic management.