Genetic and Morphological Features of Patella Caerulea and Patella Rustica across Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were initially created to protect the living, non-living, cultural and/or historical values from human activities. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD; Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992) has set a target of protecting 10% of the coastal and marine areas by 2020, which has led to a rapid increase in the creation of MPAs worldwide. Within this context, there is a growing concern regarding the number of efficient MPAs. One of the main issues is that biological or ecological features of marine species as well as ecosystem processes are not taken into account in MPA design. Deciding criteria for species management requires considerable information collected from a number of sources, including morphometric data, genetic data and distributional data. Morphometric tools are useful to study species taxonomy, or to provide information about the morphological variability, size and growth of the species, which is essential for MPA monitoring. Genetic tools can be use to resolve species taxonomy or population structure, allowing to estimate genetic diversity and connectivity of populations at different temporal and spatial scales. Both morphometric and genetic data used in combination provide a powerful tool that should be considered in MPA assessment. However, the accurate interpretation and the integration of this information into marine spatial planning is specially challenging. The aim of this PhD thesis was to develop a protocol for monitoring Marine Protected Areas by studying the morphology and genetics of two closely limpet species (Patella rustica and Patella caerulea) across MPAs in the Western Mediterranean sea. Overall, the results of this thesis provides support the inclusion of the morphological and genetic tools into management plans, and in the guidelines for the monitoring to improve and/or maintain MPA health and effectiveness.