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The alarming loss of species characterizes the future of marine biodiversity and threatens the provision of ecosystem services to society. In this context, knowing the state of biodiversity from a temporal perspective is essential to develop effective strategies for the conservation of the marine environment, according to the entity.

Thus, the INBIOMAR II project has echoed this need and has sought to establish a temporary monitoring programme, which allows the state of biodiversity present in remote enclaves of the Alboran Sea to be assessed through the indicators proposed by the Spanish Inventory of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity (IEPNB). To this end, five monitoring stations have been established, in which non-destructive visual censuses have been carried out with the Reef Life Survey methodology, which has allowed the scientific team to quantify the entire marine biological community in a single dive.

Finally, INBIOMAR II will be complemented with the biodiversity data collected throughout the previous INBIOMAR project, giving continuity to an initiative that seeks to temporarily assess the state of marine biodiversity, as well as involve society in the conservation of our seas.

The general objective of the project has been to establish the first programme for the temporary monitoring of the state of marine biodiversity (fish, invertebrates and habitats) present on the rocky bottoms of the Autonomous City of Melilla, in the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) “maritime-terrestrial zone of the Aguadú Cliffs” (ES6320001), in the Al Hoceima Archipelago, in the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera and in the Chafarinas Islands.

The specific objectives were as follows:

• Georeferencing the biological sampling areas associated with the four temporal monitoring stations (Autonomous City of Melilla, SAC “Maritime-Terrestrial Zone of the Aguadu Cliffs”, Al Hoceima Archipelago and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera).
• Train society in the Reef Life Survey citizen science methodology for the quantification of marine biodiversity on the rocky bottoms of monitoring stations.
• To quantify the marine biodiversity, composed of fish and macroinvertebrates, present on the rocky bottoms of the monitoring stations.
• Identify the main marine habitats present in the four monitoring stations, through the composition of the macroinvertebrate community and type of bottom.
• To promote, disseminate and highlight the importance of monitoring the state of marine biodiversity present in remote enclaves of the Alboran Sea.

• Detection of the rocky substrate, identifying a total of 40 areas to carry out sampling (dives).
• Definition of the identified sampling areas , checking the bathymetry and the slope of the seabed of each of them to ratify that the stations were correctly positioned and did not show any geographical anomaly on the seabed.
• Preparation of the necessary audiovisual material for the training course and the necessary materials for the dives.
• Development of the training course, which aimed to train society in the Reef Life Survey citizen science methodology for the quantification of marine biodiversity on the rocky bottoms of monitoring stations.
• Collection of data on marine biodiversity of habitats and species of fish and macroinvertebrates, through two underwater visual censuses in the summer season in 56 areas of the 5 monitoring stations.
• Classification of the 8 marine habitats identified between 2020 and 2021 and principal component analysis, which identified the functional groups of macroalgae that characterized each habitat.
• Estimation of the biodiversity indicators proposed by the Spanish Inventory of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity (IEPNB) to assess possible temporary changes in the state of marine biodiversity using data obtained during INBIOMAR and INBIOMAR II. The indicators used were number 2 (conservation status of habitats of community interest), number 4 (species by conservation status by taxonomic group) and number 14 (number of taxa identified by taxonomic group).
• Identification of the temporal trends of the 3 indicators.
• Dissemination and communication of the project through different channels: holding two informative days and eight talks aimed at civil and military society in Melilla, publications on social networks, participation in the media and preparation of informative material (leaflets, pens, cloth bags, bottles, T-shirts, sampling sheets, calendars for 2021 and 2022 and notebooks).

The INBIOMAR II project has managed to expand knowledge about the biodiversity of marine species and habitats on the seabed of the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, the Al Hoceima Archipelago, the SAC Acantilados de Aguadú, the seabed of Melilla (area outside the SAC) and the Chafarinas Islands. This, according to the entity, will allow, in the future, to monitor the temporal trends in the biodiversity of fish and invertebrates in these areas of interest and which, however, have not been previously studied much.

Thus, thanks to the sampling campaigns carried out in the different monitoring stations between 2020 and 2021, a total of 76 species of fish have been censused, along with 48 species of marine macroinvertebrates, and 8 underwater habitats composed of macroalgae, sessile invertebrates and phanerogams have been described. Finally, sampling has also been used to collect information on marine debris present.

In addition, important work has been carried out to disseminate, train and raise awareness among military and educational institutions in the area on the importance of the conservation of marine biodiversity through various channels (talks, publications on social networks, etc.). Eight people have also been trained in the Life Coral Survey citizen science methodology, helping them to collect and share standardised data in their dives.