Bionomic Cartography of the Balearic Sea: Evolution of Coastal Marine Habitats of Mallorca

Abstract

[eng] The first compilation of marine habitats of Mallorca is presented. The Mallorcan coastline presents an environmental and biological heterogeneity, which confers great a complexity of the marine environment and treasures an important biodiversity, both at the level of species and marine communities. The main threats affecting the coastal environment are: climate change, marine pollution, over-fishing and anthropogenic occupation, resulting in dynamic changes occurring in the environment that result in the loss of certain habitats, introduction of alien species, extinction of species, degradation of the coast, etc. The objective of the present study is to compile published and unpublished information about the present state of the biodiversity of the marine biocenosis of the Balearic Sea in a spatial manner, limited to a maximum depth of two hundred meters. The purpose of this project is to provide quantitative criteria that will allow the delimitation of areas with a high level of biodiversity for conservation, and to aid planning and management of habitats and species, contributing to the reduction of biodiversity loss caused by anthropogenic impacts and global change. The project also seeks to establish the present state of marine biodiversity based on pre-existing information and the analysis of its evolution, resulting in a technological database for consultation and integrated analysis to facilitate its management, from of the change of habitat extension, representing one of the most outstanding dimensions of the science of the global change, thanks to the development of the TIG´s (Geographical Information Technologies) the Anthropocene impact on the ecosystems can be traced. The final map of the Mallorca bionomic cartography has included a total of 41 habitats mapped on an area 2.978,22 km2 of seabed, comprising between 0 and 50 m of the seabed surrounding the island and up to the 400 m along the Menorca canal.