Bilan général et perspectives du projet Life Maha-Volet côtier

Coordinated by the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), the integrated LIFE Marha project aimed to improve understanding of the mechanisms driving the degradation and resilience of marine natural habitats in order to develop practical solutions for their conservation and restoration. Within this framework, Ifremer contributed to 13 actions structured around three major themes: coastal habitats, deep-sea habitats, and the maritime economy. For the coastal component, activities focused on four main tasks dedicated to seagrass meadows, kelp forests, intertidal reefs, and technological innovation to support habitat observation and monitoring. The results reflect a substantial scientific and technical commitment: 18 research cruises and 3,580 samples collected demonstrate the scale of the work carried out by the teams involved in this component. These efforts resulted in five scientific reports, eight peer-reviewed publications, and more than twenty datasets made available to the scientific community and environmental managers. From functional ecology studies to modelling, from site-based approaches to large-scale spatial analyses, and from the development of operational monitoring protocols to technological innovation, the Marha project achieved significant scientific and methodological advances through an integrated biogeographical approach. In particular, it strengthened knowledge of coastal ecosystems of high ecological value, as well as the pressures affecting them. These achievements provide a solid foundation for the development of more integrated monitoring programmes and the implementation of more effective conservation and restoration strategies, ultimately supporting improved ecosystem management.