Detect coastal disturbances and climate change effects in coralligenous community through sentinel stations

objective of the study [107]. In our case, the objective was not an exhaustive description of the existing community but rather the evaluation of possible changes in the covers of sessile target species within the community. Similarly, the number of quadrats or replicates used must be defined by the target objectives. In other studies of rocky bottoms or surfaces, three [36,108– 109], five [110], six [111], and eight replicates [112] have been employed. In all of these studies, the replicates had areas of significantly less than 1 m2 with the exceptions of the studies by Fraschetti et al. [109] and Piazzi et al. [36] who also used areas of 1 m2. Image analysis based on a monitoring system comprises a non-invasive method that does not interfere with the natural development or evolution of the studied community [69, 92, 103, 113, Fig 7. Photos of the same replicate taken in 2005 and 2014 for both orientations. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231641.g007 PLOS ONE Detect coastal disturbances in coralligenous PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231641 May 5, 2020 10 / 23