Artificial Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) providing insights on hard substrate biodiversity and community structure of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Pavloudi, C.; Yperifanou, E.I.; Kristoffersen, J.; Dailianis, T.; Gerovasileiou, V. (2021). Artificial Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) providing insights on hard substrate biodiversity and community structure of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. ARPHA Conference Abstracts 4: e64760. https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/aca.4.e64760
In: ARPHA Conference Abstracts. Pensoft Publishers: Sofia. ISSN 2603-3925, more
Monitoring marine biodiversity in hard-bottom habitats is challenging as it typically involves resource-intensive, non-standardized, and often destructive sampling methods that limit its scalability. Differences in monitoring approaches furthermore hinder inter-comparison among monitoring programs. Standardised collectors such as Artificial Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) can be used to monitor status and changes of hard substrate communities in coastal environments. In addition, ARMS constitute an early-warning system for marine biological invasions by identifying newly introduced Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) and track the migration patterns of already known NIS in European continental waters.In the framework of ASSEMBLE+ project and as part of the European ARMS programme (ARMS-MBON) (Obst et al. 2020), ARMS were deployed in two locations in Greece and, more specifically, in the marina of the Old Venetian Harbour of Heraklion (1HERP) and in the Underwater Biotechnological Park of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (2UBPC).The ARMS deployment and retrieval dates are shown in Table 1; deployment and retrieval were done according to the standards and protocols established by the Smithsonian Institution. Upon retrieval, the plates from the ARMS were disassembled, photographed (Fig. 1a) and samples of both the motile and sessile communities were collected for molecular analysis. Each sampling event produced three fractions (sessile, motile 90–500 μm and motile 500 μm−2 mm) as well as a stack of plate and specimen images.
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