Page 4 - Bioconstructions_2018

64 Gianmarco Ingrosso et al.

and the studies have shown this to occur from the shallow to the deep sea
(Kruz ˇi c, 2014; Piazzi et al., 2012; Teixido ´ et al., 2013; and references
therein; Terro ´n-Sigler et al., 2016a; Vorberg, 2000).
The management of bioconstructions, just as that of all components of
natural capital, is based on three pillars:
(a) Patterns—assessing the distribution of habitats and their conservation
status.
(b) Processes—understanding the drivers that determine the patterns and
identifing stressors and their impacts.
(c) Measures—enforcing management actions based on solid scientific
evidence.
This study focuses on the most important biogenic habitats along the
8500km of the Italian coast, covering a large portion of the habitat diversity
of the whole Mediterranean basin. Our aims are to: (1) give an agreed def-
inition of bioconstruction; (2) review the existing distributions of marine
bioconstructions along the Italian coasts; (3) investigate the potential for
assessing connectivity of marine bioconstructions using different approaches
(e.g. genetic analyses, beta diversity and biophysical models); (4) provide
information about the age of some bioconstructions by radiocarbon dating;
(5) assess the effects of common human pressures; and (6) propose new areas
of critical ecological importance to be included in protection priorities.
Based on this knowledge, recommendations for future research are pro-
posed, together with guidelines for the conservation of coastal bioconstructions.

2. PATTERNS
2.1 What Is a Bioconstruction?
In the scientific literature bioconstructions are also called “biogenic reefs” and
this has generated several, commonly rather sterile, nomenclatural controver-
sies. Boero (2017a), for instance, commented on the recent discovery of a new
biogenic reef in front of the Amazon River delta (Moura et al., 2016), mostly
built by crustose coralline algae, just like Mediterranean coralligenous bio-
constructions (Ballesteros, 2006) that, however, was uncited.
The term “bioconstruction” was first used in marine and coastal geology
usually referring to a limestone structure of biogenic origin that has been built
up by modular and sediment-binding organisms including macroalgae, corals,
bryozoans and stromatoporoids (Fox, 2005). While describing a Silurian
reef in Indiana (USA), Carozzi and Zadnik (1959) introduced the term
“bioconstructed limestone” in geology, and the word “bioconstructed” was