Wednesday December 3, 2025
Oceanographic —
An international coalition of marine scientists is calling for global action to safeguard one of the ocean’s most overlooked yet ecologically critical ecosystems, Marine Animal Forests (MAFs) – ‘living architectures’ that act as biodiversity refuges, nursery grounds for fisheries, and key players in carbon cycling and coastal protection.
The appeal – presented in Marine Animal Forests: A Manifesto – was released this week by a research team led by Spain’s Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) in collaboration with the Università del Salento, Italy.