CIGESMED is a SeasEra project (E.U. FP7 ERA-NET) Towards Integrated Marine Research Strategy and Programmes, supported by the E.C. under Seasera’s theme 3: Development of indicators and science support and management tools for the determination of Good Environmental Status in the Mediterranean Sea.

CIGESMED is funded for 3 years (2012-2016) by ANR (France), GSTR (Greece) and TÜBITAK (Turkey). It involves 5 partners and 10 laboratories from these countries, as well as a SME, marine parks and stakeholders. A Board of External Advisors (BEA), consisting in independent scientists, stakeholders and policy-makers meets at an annual basis, and aims at providing advices on all aspects of the execution of the project.
Funding agencies

CIGESMED main objectives are (1) to fulfill the key gaps in the current scientific knowledge of the coralligenous habitats that make it difficult to make recommendations for protecting them by developing barcoding to enhance reliable identification for conservation and protection purposes (invasive and cryptic species^?), and by studying genetic structuring and effective dispersal potential of keystone/habitat^? species (2) to enhance the knowledge on coralligenous populations by deciding on reference states and setting up a network of Mediterranean experts (long term series), (3) to monitor networks, locally managed and coordinate them on a regional scale, standardizing protocols that could be applied to the entire Mediterranean and testing indices and indicators, specific to coralligenous, (4) to test population genetic criteria as tools to monitor the GES^? of the coastal Mediterranean Sea, (5) to implement a “citizen science” network and (6) to use trees of knowledge as tools to sort, organize and illustrate the large heterogeneous sets of produced data and as a tool of dissemination towards scientists, decision makers, environmental managers and general public.

By working on coralligenous, a typical milieu from the Mediterranean Sea, which houses a tremendous biodiversity creating a lot of ecosystems and seascapes, and of ecological, patrimonial and socio-economical importance, CIGESMED challenges to assess its good state and functioning, to construct operational indicators usable to assess the good state of the Mediterranean coastal waters and to create the structure which will permit to carry on with monitoring after the end of the project.

To achieve these objectives CIGESMED is structured into 6 work packages beside the management, coordination and reporting one (WP1): Coralligenous assessment and threats (WP2), Indicator development and test (WP3), Innovative monitoring tools (WP4), Citizen Science network implementation (WP5), Data management and mapping (WP6) and Outreach and dissemination (WP7).

Sigle	Organisation name	Place	Country
CNRS	Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique  IMBE?: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et continentale – UMR? 7263  MIO?: Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanographie – UMR 7294  SPE?:Systèmes Pour l’Environnement, écosystemes côtiers – UMR 6134	Marseille, Corte	FR
EGE	Ege University  Faculty of Fisheries  Dokuz Eylul University [Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology & Faculty of Science]  Cela Bayar University, Department of Biology  Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs [General Directorate of Water Management]	Izmir, Ankara	TR
LIGAMEN	is not anymore member of CIGESMED	Marseille	FR
IFREMER	Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer  Centre de Méditerranée, Laboratoire Environnement Ressources PACA?	La Seyne sur mer	FR
HCMR	Hellenic Center for Marine Research  Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture  Institute of Oceanography  Institute of Marine biological Resources	Thalassocosmos	GR
NMPZ	National Marine Park of Zakynthos subcontractor	Zakynthos	GR

Participant short CV

Partners
Key personal

CIGESMED who’s who

Greece will organize the second general assembly (GA2) in Mytilini (19-22 May 2015) as well as the 2nd Committee of External Advisers (CEA2) on the 19th May.

 Important:
Annual report by the WP leaders are due on the 15th March 2015

Participation to the 2nd Mediterranean symposium on the conservation of coralligenous and other calcareous bio-concretions. RAC/SPA, Portorož, Slovenia, 29-30 October 2014
List of communications
Gallery

CIGESMED protocol, working document

CIGESMED protocol (draft) EN

List of coralligenous species usable for management (as presently reported by French and Turkish teams) ask to romain.david@imbe.fr

CIGESMED Committee of Externals Advisors (CEA), Marseille, 21 October 2014
Please go to the web page

CIGESMED general assembly in Izmir, 6-9 May 2014
Please go to the web page

1st CIGESMED evaluation
SeasEra evaluation of Marine-Era funded project, Palma de Mallorca, 8 april 2014
[To the pptx presentation]

Living documents, 4 April 2014
A new section of the website has been opened.
It gathers links to read/download reports, protocols etc ...
[click here]

CIGESMED field trip in Marseille, 2-4 july 2013. The coralligenous is extremely polymorphic, depending on the relative dynamics of builders (red algae, bryozoans, polychaetes, etc.) and eroders (sponges, cyanobacteria, molluscs, etc.). It makes very different facies and seascapes also depending on environmental conditions (light, turbidity, etc.). Colleagues from the eastern Mediterranean will have the occasion to compare the coralligenous of the Bay of Marseille and the bio-constructions they can observe in their countries. These works will be hosted by the Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et continentale (IMBE^?) at the Endoume’s Marine Station.

Séminaire CIGESMED on the Encrusting Coralligenous Rhodophyta, by Marc VERLAQUE, Station Marine d’Endoume, July 2013, 2nd.

Séminaire CIGESMED sur les algues corallines / Evolution and Biodiversity of red algae (Rhodophyta) (taxonomie, phylogénie, écologie). Invitée, Line LE GALL (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris), 27 juin 2013 à la Station Marine d’Endoume.

Premières plongées tests sur le coralligène de la baie de Marseille - news by ECOREM

CIGESMED was scooped by ABC Méditerranée on the 11th May 2013

CIGESMED on twitter
CIGESMED project was twitted by the CNRS^?-INEE^? the 7^th May 2013.

CIGESMED on the web
CIGESMED was listed by ECOREM on the 3rd May 2013.

What is coralligenous ?
During the launching of CIGESMED, it was evidenced that there was no agreed definition of the coralligenous. After discussion, it was agreed that in the framework of the project, partners will follow the definition given by E. Ballesteros (2006).
In order to put everybody in the picture about coralligenous, the IMBE will organize a field exploration on different type of coralligenous of the Bay of Marseille with greek and turkish co-workers by the mid-july 2013.

Kickoff meeting
The kickoff meeting will be held in Crete, hosted by HCMR^? at Thalassocosmos, from the 17^th to the 19^th April 2013.
REPORT

CIGESMED’ meeting are hosted by the 3 participant countries.
 Greece did organize the kickoff in Heraklion (Crete) [april 2013]
 France proposed a field trip to intercalibrate photographic methods (Marseille) [june 2013]
 Turkey has hosted the first general assembly (GA1) in Izmir [6-9 May 2014]
 France held the 1st Committee of External Advisers (CEA1) in Marseille [21 October 2014]
 Greece has organized the second general assembly (GA2) in Mytilini (19-22 May 2015) as well as the 2nd Committee of External Advisers (CEA2)
 France has organized 2 meetings in December 2015:
(1) WG1 CIGESMED output
(2) WG2 How to enlarge the disciplinary spectrum preparing answers to the next call for proposals (H2020, ANR, etc.)
 The final CIGESMED meeting will be held in Marseille on the 29 June- 1 July 2016

Deliverables from WP will be published in this section, as well as articles (in scientific reviews or for the layman). Education and training opportunities will also be listed here.
Deliverables
Publications
Tools
Education & training events

NEW :
Cigesmed Protocol (validation in progress)
Définitions Used by CIGESMED community

In the framework of CIGESMED SeasEra ««project»», a specialized Citizen Science initiative – CIGESMED for divers – is launched aiming to engage enthusiast divers in the observation of coralligenous reefs, in order to obtain information regarding its spatial distribution, enable a primary characterization of the basic structure of its assemblages, and monitor potential pressures and threats to the habitat^? (Gerovasileiou et al., 2016). CIGESMED project aimed to enhance understanding on the links between natural and anthropogenic pressures and ecosystem functioning to define and maintain the good environmental status of the Mediterranean Sea, through the integrated study of coralligenous assemblages.

Among others, one of the aims of CIGESMED for divers is to become a means to carry on studying and monitoring coralligenous reefs even after the official end of CIGESMED project, passing the baton of the coordination to local coastal managers and maintaining a context of strong collaboration with the scientific researchers.
A data collection protocol and a multilingual website and an Android smartphone application were developed, comprising an educational module and a data submission platform. Georeferenced data reporting focuses on: (a) basic topographic and abiotic features for the preliminary description of each site^?, and the creation of data series for sites receiving multiple visits; (b) presence and relative abundance of typical conspicuous species, as well as (c) existence of pressures and imminent threats, for the characterization and assessment of coralligenous assemblages.
An additional visual aid was prepared in the form of a submersible identification guide which participants can carry with them underwater. Divers have the choice to report additional information and are encouraged to upload their photographs. The long-term goal is the development of an active community of amateur observers providing widespread and ecologically significant data on coralligenous assemblages.

presentations and articles