An ecosystem-based approach to evaluate the ecological quality of Mediterranean undersea caves

This ecosystem-based evaluation of the quality of undersea caves seems to be a powerful tool, with the advantage of being based on almost all its components, rather than just on a few species. It is accompanied by a measure of its reliability, hence it provides a reliable idea of the ecological state of the entire ecosystem at each cave site. Monitoring the ecological state of caves and the effects of disturbances over large geographic and temporal scales is made possible with CavEBQI. Applying the same method to other ecosystems, can provide an integrated view of a marine region, which is essential when addressing questions about protection, conservation and restoration.