Perspectives on the Marine Animal Forests of the World

Sergio RossiSergio Rossi is a research scientist specialized in marine natural resources and biological oceanography, focusing his attention on the health indicators of coastal benthic populations, coastal biological processes, flows of matter and energy in the benthic-pelagic coupling system, in the transplantation and aquaculture of marine organisms, and the management and conservation of marine wildlife. He is especially interested in the processes and conservation of the marine animal forests of the world.Lorenzo Bramanti Lorenzo Bramanti is a Marine Ecologist expert in conservation, spatial distribution, population and metapopulation dynamics of benthic suspension feeders. His field of research is at  the interconnection between functional ecology and conservation biology, focussing on the demographic processes regulating the dynamics of long living species, in particular corals, and their implications for conservation and marine spatial planning.

• The Coral Tree at the End of the World: Introductory Notes to Coralline Mythology and Folklore from the Indian and Pacific oceans.- The Marine Animal Forests Of South Africa: Importance For Bioregionalisation And Marine Spatial Planning.- Coral and reef fish communities in the thermally extreme Persian/Arabian Gulf: Insights into potential climate change effects.- Marginal reefs in the Anthropocene: they are not Noah’s Ark.- Animal Forests in Submarine Caves.- The Tubeworm Forests of Hydrothermal Vents and Cold Seeps.- Bryozoans: the ‘forgotten’ bioconstructors.- Polychaetes as habitat former: structure and function.- Chemical war in marine animal forests: Natural products and chemical interactions.- The nursery role of marine animal forests.- From Trees To Octocorals: The Role Of Self-Thinning And Shading In Underwater Animal Forests.- Marine animal forests as Carbon immobilizers or why we should preserve these three-dimensional alive structures.- Invasive alien species and their effects on marine animal forests.- Plastics, an additional threat for coral ecosystems.- Visual methods for monitoring mesophotic-to-deep reefs and animal forests: finding a compromise between analytical effort and result quality.- Advances in the Marine Animal Forests Scientific Outreach and Citizen Science.