The Western Mediterranean Sea is a biodiversity hotspot but faces significant anthropogenic pressures, including overfishing and climate change. These threats can irreversibly alter marine ecosystems, jeopardizing their functioning and dependent activities. Urgent identification and quantification of biodiversity changes are needed to support efficient management measurements. Using complementary biodiversity indicators—taxonomic, functional, and resilience—offers a comprehensive view of biodiversity shifts. Functional indicators, based on biological and ecological traits, are particularly under-utilized in this region. Biodiversity indicators' changes and sensitivity may vary across different spatial scales, potentially leading to disconnects between research and managerial scales. This study examines spatial biodiversity patterns of demersal communities in the Western Mediterranean across four distinct spatial scales. By applying thirteen complementary biodiversity indicators, our analysis reveals significant variability in biodiversity components, highlighting geographical heterogeneity and discontinuity across regions. However, these patterns change with the spatial scale at which indicators are assessed. Our findings emphasize the sensitivity of different biodiversity indicators to spatial scales and highlight the importance of a scale-aware approach in management strategies. This approach ensures accurate and multifaceted consideration of marine community spatial patterns, maximizing biodiversity preservation and helping mitigating conflicts among uses of ocean space.
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