Seascape Ecology: from characterization to evaluation of state and change over time

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Background

Landscape ecology has been a discrete, established discipline since at least 1980. Its marine counterpart, seascape ecology, is barely a decade old, its first applications dating from the early 2010s. Lack of perception of the marine environment hampers the adoption of many landscape ecology approaches to the sea. Seascape ecology relies on special technologies such as remote sensing (either acoustic or optical), robotics, and scuba diving. Both disciplines deal with the spatial configuration of ecosystems and consider environmental heterogeneity and dynamics as the main subjects of study and the key for ecosystem functioning and persistence. Seascape is here intended as the totality of natural and anthropogenic characters of a marine region. To the geologist, it is defined by sedimentology and underwater geomorphology, to the biologist by the nature of the living cover of the seafloor, to the ecologist by the relationships among functional processes and the spatial organization of ecosystems.

The goal of this research topic is to encourage original research, case studies, reviews, and viewpoints to identify research priority gaps and possibly contribute to filling them in. We will appreciate, in particular, manuscripts dealing with recent advances such as high-resolution habitat mapping; underwater soundscape and biophony; development, application and validation of biotic indices to assess seafloor integrity (as requested, for instance, by recent European Directives). Papers of interest may discuss the multivarious facets of stability and describe resistance and resilience patterns, the role of stress and disturbance, regime shift and phase shift, or may take up the challenge of integrating coastal landscape and seascape analyses. Studies of long-term series are welcome, as well as methodological improvements, and macroecological approaches on the importance of species diversity and connectivity in seascape organization.

Submitted manuscripts may deal with the following themes:
1) marine habitat characterization (to identify types) and evaluation (to define status and values);
2) definition of environmental mosaics, and appraisal of their vulnerability, quality and susceptibility to human pressures;
3) description of reefscapes and benthoscapes, including biogenic formations and other priority marine habitats;
4) suitability and predictive modelling for either species or habitats;
5) geo-environmental approaches, including morpho-bathymetric and sedimentological maps if relevant to ecological processes;
6) topology of benthic communities, with a special attention to the role and functions of canopy, understorey and intermediate layer assemblages; 7) structure and functioning of seagrass, macroalgal and animal forests;
8) change over time of marine ecosystems and impact of alien species on their configuration (e.g., homogenization);
9) species and habitat restoration interventions;
10) assessment and monetary value of marine natural capital, and/or quantification of its functions and services.

Keywords: marine habitats, seascape, reefscape, benthoscape, soundscape, mapping, ecological change, biotic indices, long-term series, spatial modelling

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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