United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan Regional Activity Centre For Specially Protected Areas ADRIATIC SEA Description of the ecology and identification of the areas that may deserve to be protected With financial Withsupport financial of the European support of the CommissionEuropean Commission RAC/SPA – Tunis, 2015 Note: The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of RAC/SPA and UNEP concerning the legal status of any State, Territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of their frontiers or boundaries. © 2015 United Nations Environment Programme / Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) Boulevard du Leader Yasser Arafat B.P. 337 - 1080 Tunis Cedex - Tunisia E-mail: [email protected] This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. UNEP-MAP-RAC/SPA would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. This document has been prepared in the framework of the project MedOpenSeas for supporting the establishment of MPAs in open seas, including deep seas; with financial support of the European Commission. The original version of this document was prepared for the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) by: Prof. Carlo CERRANO, RAC/SPA Consultant. Polytechnic University of Marche (UNIVPM).Under the supervision of: Dr. Daniel Cebrian, RAC/SPA. Edited by Cebrian, D. and Requena, S. The draft document was submitted for revision to the expert representatives of the following Parties to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean: Albania, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia. For bibliographic purposes this document may be cited as: UNEP/MAP-RAC/SPA. (2015). Adriatic Sea: Description of the ecology and identification of the areas that may deserve to be protected. By Cerrano, C. Edited by Cebrian, D. and Requena, S., RAC/SPA, Tunis; 92 pp. Additional authors of the study: Tatjana Bakran-Petricioli, Azzurra Bastari, Simonetta Fraschetti, Carla Huete-Stauffer, Francesco Ferretti, Fiorenza Micheli, Massimo Ponti, Antonio Pusceddu and Laura Valisano GIS: A.Bastari (UNIVPM) and Dr. S. Requena (RAC/SPA consultant). Maps and Illustrations credit: As per figure captions within the report. Cover : Adriatic basin 3D model (S.Requena, EMODnet), Adriatic coralligenous rim (C.Cerrano), Pennatula phosphorea (A. Bastari). This document should not be considered as an official United Nations document. Table of contents 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 3 1.1 Context of this report ......................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Sources of information ...................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Georeferencing work ......................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Further considerations ....................................................................................................... 6 2 INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS AND CONSERVATIONS FRAMEWORK .......................... 7 2.1 NATURA 2000 network: Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and Birds Directive (79/409/CEE, 2009/147/CE) .................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Sites of Community Interest (SCI), Special Protection Areas for birds (SPA-IBA), Special Areas of Conservation (SAC-ZSP) and EMERALD Sites................................................... 8 2.3 Conservation of the network NATURA 2000, monitoring and surveillance ....................... 11 2.4 ADRIAPAN network of Adriatic Marine Protected or to be protected areas ..................... 12 PART I. CHRACTERISATION ...................................................................................................... 15 3 ABIOTIC CHARACTERISATION ............................................................................................. 15 3.1 Geological setting ............................................................................................................ 15 3.2 Origin .............................................................................................................................. 16 3.3 General geomorphology .................................................................................................. 17 4 RIVER DISCHARGE ................................................................................................................ 18 4.1 Sedimentation processes in the Adriatic .......................................................................... 20 5 OCEANOGRAPHIC FEATURES ............................................................................................. 22 6 HYDROLOGY AND HYDRODYNAMICS ................................................................................. 23 6.1 Other recent geological processes in the Adriatic ............................................................ 26 PART II. BIOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA .................................................. 27 7 ADRIATIC BENTHIC COMMUNITIES ..................................................................................... 27 7.1 Soft bottoms .................................................................................................................... 27 7.2 Hard bottoms ................................................................................................................... 30 7.3 List of Adriatic biocenosis ................................................................................................ 32 7.4 A.- Adriatic biocenoses of the circalittoral zone ............................................................... 38 7.5 Circalittoral sands ............................................................................................................ 38 7.5.1 IV. 2. 2. Biocenosis of the coastal detritic bottom ....................................................................................... 39 7.5.2 IV. 2. 5. Biocoenosis of detritic bottoms of the open Adriatic ..................................................................... 43 7.6 Circalittoral muds ............................................................................................................ 44 7.6.1 IV. 1. 1. Biocenosis of costal terrigenous muds (VTC)................................................................................. 44 7.7 Circalittoral hard bottoms................................................................................................. 47 7.7.1 IV. 3. 1. Coralligenous domain .................................................................................................................... 47 7.7.2 IV. 3. 2. Semi-dark caves (also in enclave in upper stages) (GSO) ............................................................... 52 7.8 B.- Bathyal zone .............................................................................................................. 53 7.9 V. 1. Bathyal muds .......................................................................................................... 53 7.9.1 V. 1. 1. Biocenosis of bathyal muds ............................................................................................................. 53 1 7.10 V. 3. Bathyal hard bottoms .............................................................................................. 53 7.10.1 V. 3. 1. Biocenoses of deep sea corals .................................................................................................... 53 8 BENTHIC COMMUNITIES: CONSERVATION AND THREATS .............................................. 55 9 VERTEBRATES ...................................................................................................................... 57 9.1 Seaturtles ........................................................................................................................ 57 9.2 Seabirds .......................................................................................................................... 58 9.3 Sea mammals ................................................................................................................. 58 9.4 Fisheries ......................................................................................................................... 59 10 ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURES ........................................................................................... 61 PART III. ....................................................................................................................................... 67 11 SYNTHESIS OF THE ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING OF THE ADRIATIC .............................. 67 11.1 Primary production and nutrient patterns in the Adriatic Sea ........................................... 69 11.2 Zooplankton patterns in the Adriatic Sea ......................................................................... 71 12 CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................