Drivers of biodiversity loss in the Eastern Mediterranean

The easternmost Mediterranean Sea is experiencing the most dramatic climate -driven biodiversity loss worldwide. The basin is under the additional pressure of tropical species introduced by humans as well as other local stressors, but disentangling their ef fects is often difficult. One frequent problem is the lack of data over sufficiently long periods to assess change and how the ecosystem has evolved. This project will study biodiversity loss in the Eastern Mediterranean by reconstructing data over the last few decades from monitoring projects, museum collections and subfossil samples. We will focus on molluscs and fishes for their importance for the functioning of the ecosystem and the economy of coastal communities. We will then quantify how many Mediterranean species have already been lost due to the profound environmental changes caused by humans, how this loss deteriorates the functioning of the ecosystem, how summer heat peaks affect molluscs and fishes, and how other stressors like tropical species and fishing are contributing to this demise. Eventually, we will model the distribution of species under future climate scenarios to better comprehend the changes ahead of us and plan appropriate restoration and mitigation actions.