After the Fall: The Demographic Destiny of a Gorgonian Population Stricken by Catastrophic Mortality

In recent years, the frequency of mass mortality events in marine ecosystems has increased, and several populations benthic organism have been affected, reducing their density changing size age structure. Few details are known about dynamics these over long time intervals. late summer both 1999 2003 two drastic events, co-occurring with anomalous temperature increases, affected northwestern Mediterranean rocky coastal communities. Due to Paramuricea clavata population living at western edge La Spezia Gulf (Italy) was stricken, 78% colonies died. This monitored from 1998 (pre-mortality) until 2013. paper deals photographic sampling permanent plots carried out The findings were compared those previous series. long-term, non-destructive highlights demographic trajectory octocoral there after indicating that some new drop-point between local extinction complete recovery may be reached. Long-term monitoring (including pre-mortality data) could allow evaluating effects global climate change on conservation impacted populations.