Near-pristine benthic habitats on the Francesc Pagès Bank, Alboran Sea, western Mediterranean

Why it matters for Life Mapper

First description of the seafloor and habitats of the Francesc Pagès Bank, a volcanic high on the Moroccan upper slope of the southern Alboran Sea (76–580 m deep). The authors map its crests, banks and ridges from multibeam data, classify the physical habitats automatically and check them against ROV video, which reveals dense and unusually well-preserved gardens of gorgonians, soft corals and sponges. For Life Mapper it is a worked example of the mapping chain the guidelines describe: multibeam bathymetry, automatic classification of physical habitats as surrogates, then ROV ground-truthing to tie them to the species actually present. It concerns Group 5 habitats (sponge, coral and coralligenous beds), and because its assemblages are near-pristine it can serve as a reference for what these habitats look like in good condition — the baseline that condition assessments and restoration targets need.

Editorial note by the Life Mapper team — not part of the original article.