Monitoring the seagrass Posidonia oceanica to understand the effects of local disturbances in a marine protected area

Since the seagrass Posidonia oceanica is highly sensitive to environmental changes, a monitoring of the physiognomy, phenology and lepidochronology of the meadows was conducted during 2015-2020 at Tremiti Islands Marine Protected Area (Adriatic Sea). The meadow resulted stressed where anthropogenic disturbances occurred, while the implementation of proper management measures proved to trigger the recovery of the habitat. Our results underlined the importance of P. oceanica as a biological indicator to monitor human activities at local scale.