An ecosystem-based approach to evaluate the ecological quality of Mediterranean undersea caves

A theoretical model of structure and functioning was constructed for the Mediterranean undersea cave ecosystem. This model integrates almost all representative components of the cave ecosystem and gives an idea of their faunal compositions, characteristics and related interactions. This model constitutes the basis of the Ecosystem-Based Quality Index (EBQI) of the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which aims at evaluating the ecological quality of an ecosystem. It is based on four crucial complementary elements: (i) each component was weighted in accordance with its importance in determining the structure and functioning of the cave ecosystem; (ii) a suite of relevant parameters were defined to assess the ecological state of each component of the cave ecosystem; (iii) these parameters were aggregated into one relevant index, the Cave EBQI (CavEBQI), to summarize the quality evaluation for each cave site; (iv) each value of ecological state is accompanied by a Confidence Index as a measure of its reliability. The CavEBQI was used on 22 Mediterranean undersea caves of France and Italy. Disparities of ecological quality were found among caves but most of them ranged from moderate to high ecological quality. For some caves, no conclusion can be drawn when our method predicts a poor reliability of the evaluation of their ecological quality. This ecosystem-based evaluation of the quality of undersea caves seems to be a powerful tool, with the advantage of being based on almost all its components, rather than just on a few species. It is accompanied by a measure of its reliability, hence it provides a reliable idea of the ecological state of the entire ecosystem at each cave site. Monitoring the ecological state of caves and the effects of disturbances over large geographic and temporal scales is made possible with CavEBQI. Applying the same method to other ecosystems, can provide an integrated view of a marine region, which is essential when addressing questions about protection, conservation and restoration.