Final comments

   This project has allowed, for the first time, to obtain a comprehensive vision of the overall effect of an infrequent extreme meteorological event on some of the most representative components of the coastal marine biota. It has evidenced the enormous benefits derived from putting efforts, ideas and results in common. Without it, every researcher, not to mention the managers, policy makers or the society in general, would have kept a fragmentary vision of the effects of the storm on the populations or communities they have studied or heard about.

This project has also reinforced the extraordinary value of the monitoring programmes. Without them, no references of the ‘before-the-storm’ state of the ecosystems would have been available and therefore any attempt at assessing the loss of ecosystems services or their resilience would not have been possible. This adds a very strong argument in support of the need to continue funding the monitoring programmes of the most relevant components of the benthos along the Catalan coast.

Finally, the  creation of an Observatory of the Benthos of the Catalan Coasts has been proposed and is being discussed within the working group. The Observatory would benefit from the already extant logistics and from the precedent established by this project. Its ultimate aim should be to provide an integrated vision and specific answers and tools to scientists and managers interested in studying the natural dynamics or assessing the response of nearshore ecosystems affected by both natural and human perturbations.

More specifically, this Observatory should aim at:

1. Serving as a forum for all specialist involved in the study of the nearshore benthic ecosystems (meetings).

2. Providing a global, permanent, rigorous and up-to-date vision of any issue related with the research and management of the coastal natural benthic resources. This includes providing information and criteria to help decision makers in the elaboration of management policies and during environmental crisis (ad hoc reports; scientific publications; protocols).

3. Proposing a set of standard methodologies to adequately and consistently assess the state and evolution of the coastal ecosystems.

4. Helping in the dissemination of the information both at the scientific and popular levels to enhance interaction between researchers and awareness in the society.

5. Collaborating with other homologous organizations worldwide.