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Long-term field study of Patella ferruginea at the "Penisola del Sinis -Isola di Mal di Ventre" MPA (Sardinia, Italy): updated results on population trend

Stefania Coppa1*, Andrea Camedda1, Stefano Marra1, 2, Free Espinosa Torre3, Giorgio Massaro4 and Giuseppe A. De Lucia1
  • 1 CNR-IAMC (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero), Italy
  • 2 Università della Tuscia, Italy
  • 3 Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
  • 4 Area Marina Protetta "Penisola del Sinis - Isola di Mal di Ventre", Italy

Patella ferruginea (Gmelin, 1791) is an endemic limpet of the Western Mediterranean Sea. It is a protandrous species and can exceed 10 cm in length. The historical exploitation of this intertidal limpet, coupled with the increased human pressures on coastal habitats, have caused a strong contraction of its distribution range that now includes only a small number of scattered sites in Spain, Italy, Corsica and North Africa (Espinosa et al., 2014). For this reason, P. ferruginea is considered the most endangered invertebrate of the Mediterranean Sea and is protected under Annex II of the Berne Convention, Annex II of the Barcelona Convention, and Annex IV of the Habitat Directive. However in Italy, where the existing populations seem to be in strong regression, such legal protection has not been followed by effective enforcement and no national conservation strategy has been implemented. In Sardinia, the main nuclei of P. ferruginea are enclosed within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and National Parks. The highest densities have been recorded along the Northern coast. The Southern limit of the geographic distribution of P. ferruginea in Sardinia is represented by the population found at the "Penisola del Sinis - Isola di Mal di Ventre" MPA (hereinafter Sinis MPA). It was thought initially that the distribution of this population was limited only to the Mal di Ventre Island, until 2014 when a small and young cluster was discovered by Marra et al. (2015) at San Marco, a rocky cape of about 4 km in length on the mainland. Nevertheless, based on of 5 years monitoring data, it was demonstrated that this species in Mal di Ventre Island is dangerously close to local extinction because of the pressure of illegal fishing, higher on easily accessible sites and on the coast with the lower levels of legal protection (Coppa et al., 2015). Here we further investigate the temporal trend of the population by continuing the monitoring activity started in the summer of 2009 at the Mal di Ventre Island, and consisting in the yearly examination of fixed transects, georeferencing and measuring each specimen of P. ferruginea. The obtained results confirmed the high rate of decline in population size estimated by Coppa et al. (2015). The mean density recorded is currently lower than 0.01 ind./m and the population results almost completely confined in hardly accessible sites of the "no take - no entry" zone (Zone A, according to the Italian legislation). In those sites, despite a strong reduction occurred between 2011 and 2012 (-40%), density values remained stable, around a mean of about 0.06 ind./m, over the last three years (2013-2015). In spite of the high degree of fragmentation of this population and the continuous lack of large sized females (>70 mm), a high percentage of juveniles was recorded in the summer of 2015. Within Zone A (hardly-accessible sites), 41% of the measured limpets had a size smaller than 25 mm indicating that the population of the Sinis MPA, completely isolated from the others in Sardinia, is still breeding. The data produced by the monitoring activity planned for the summer of 2016 will be considered to evaluate the surviving rate of this new fraction and to determine if the extinction probability is decreasing. These new considerations on population viability will take into account also the results of the second check of Cape San Marco (summer 2016) aimed at confirming the persistence of the nucleus recorded in 2014. The information derived from this long-term field studies will be crucial to put in place conservation measures for P. ferruginea in the Sinis MPA that could be effective only if accompanied by higher levels of enforcement and awareness-raising activities.

References

Coppa, S., de Lucia, G.A., Massaro, G., Camedda, A., Marra, S., Magni, P., Perilli, A., Di Bitetto, M., García-Gómez, J.C., Espinosa, F. (2015). Is the establishment of MPAs enough to preserve endangered intertidal species? The case of Patella ferruginea in the Mal di Ventre Island (W Sardinia, Italy). Aquat. Conserv. Mar. Freshw. Ecosys. doi:10.1002/aqc.2579

Espinosa, F., Rivera-Ingraham, G.A., Maestre, M., González, A.R., Bazairi, H., García-Gómez, J.C. (2014). Updated global distribution of the threatened marine limpet Patella ferruginea (Gastropoda: Patellidae): an example of biodiversity loss in the Mediterranean. Oryx. 48, 266-275.

Marra, S., de Lucia, G.A., Camedda, A., Esinosa, F., Coppa, S. (2015). New records of the distribution and conservation status of the endangered limpet Patella ferruginea in Sardinia (Italy, W Mediterranean). Aquat. Conserv. Mar. Freshw. Ecosys. doi: 10.1002/aqc.2615

Keywords: marine protected areas, Patella ferruginea, limpet, long-term monitoring, Endangered Species, Mediterranean

Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: 1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS

Citation: Coppa S, Camedda A, Marra S, Espinosa Torre F, Massaro G and De Lucia GA (2016). Long-term field study of Patella ferruginea at the "Penisola del Sinis -Isola di Mal di Ventre" MPA (Sardinia, Italy): updated results on population trend. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00147

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Received: 29 Apr 2016; Published Online: 03 Sep 2016.

* Correspondence: Dr. Stefania Coppa, CNR-IAMC (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero), Oristano, Italy, stefania.coppa@cnr.it