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11 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3327.-- This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Jean‐Baptiste Ledoux, Silvia Frias‐Vidal, Ignasi Montero‐Serra,Agostinho Antunes, Clara Casado Bueno, Sergi Civit, Paula Lopez‐Sendino, Cristina Linares, Joaquim Garrabou, Assessing the impact of population decline on mating system in the overexploited Mediterranean red coral Aquatic Conservation - Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 30(6): 1149-1159 (2020), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3327. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions, Understanding the interactions among demographic parameters, mating system and population dynamics is key to predict the response of populations to global change. The Mediterranean red coral is a precious octocoral suffering from population decline due to overfishing and warming-driven mass mortality events. While the demographic consequences of these two pressures are well characterized, little is known regarding their impact on population dynamics and evolution of red coral populations. The main objective of this study was to fill this gap focusing more particularly on mating pattern and genetic drift. Combining sibship and progeny arrays analyses, a genetic characterization of the red coral mating system was conducted. In addition, a synchronic approach was developed comparing mating patterns in two populations with contrasting demographic patterns: a pristine-like population and a declining population. The results show that polyandry is likely to be the norm in red coral. The similar patterns of genetic diversity between adults and larvae combined with the lack of differential reproductive success among putative fathers did not support significant sweepstakes effects during larval production. While instantaneous biparental inbreeding was detected, no long-term inbreeding was observed even in the declining population. Mating patterns and effective population sizes in the two populations were not statistically different. Nevertheless, a trend towards a slightly higher inbreeding and a lower number of breeders was observed in the declining population. Accordingly, we hypothesized that an increase in male gamete dispersal may buffer the increase of genetic drift expected in the declining population. This feedback between demographic decline and reproductive pattern may potentially take part in the long-term persistence of red coral populations. However, the negative trend reported in the declining population unambiguously supports the need to maintain high densities of reproductive colonies to the functioning of red coral populations, This research was supported by national funds through FCT‐Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020., the Spanish MINECO (CGL2012‐32194), the TOTAL Foundation PERFECT project, the MIMOSA project funded by the foundation Prince Albert II de Monaco, and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 689518 (MERCES). [...] J.B.L. was supported by a postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/74400/2010) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), C.L. by a Ramon y Cajal (RyC‐2011‐08135), IMS by a FPI grant (BES‐2013‐066150) and S.C. by research project SGR 622 (GRBIO) from the Departament d’ Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya and (PGC2018‐095931‐B‐I00) MINECO (Spain). Genotyping was performed at the Genome Transcriptome Facility of Bordeaux (grants from the Conseil Régional d'Aquitaine n°20030304002FA and 20040305003FA, from the European Union FEDER n°2003227 and from Investissements d'Avenir ANR‐10‐EQPX‐16‐01), With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)

Complex ecological interactions are widely utilized to deliver conservation benefits but their efficacy is often debated. Using a coral reef trophic cascade as an example, we reveal that outcomes can be surprisingly difficult to detect. Even important impacts of marine reserves can go undetected (20% more coral with power

Understanding how no-take zones (NTZs) shape the population dynamics of key herbivores is crucial for the conservation and management of temperate benthic communities. Here, we examine the recovery patterns of sea urchin populations following a high-intensity storm under contrasting protection regimes in the NW Mediterranean Sea. We found significant differences in the recovery trends of Paracentrotus lividus abundance and biomass in the five years following the storm. The P. lividus populations outside the NTZ recovered faster than the populations inside the NTZ, revealing that predation was the main factor controlling the sea urchin populations inside the NTZ during the study period. Arbacia lixula reached the highest abundance and biomass values ever observed outside the NTZ in 2016. Our findings reveal that predation can control the establishment of new sea urchin populations and emphasize top-down control in NTZs, confirming the important role of fully protected areas in the structure of benthic communities.

Este artículo contiene 13 páginas, 1 tabla, 5 figuras., Climate change threatens coastal benthic communities on a global scale. However, the potential effects of ongoing warming on mesophotic temperate reefs at the community level remain poorly understood. Investigating how different members of these communities will respond to the future expected environmental conditions is, therefore, key to anticipating their future trajectories and developing specific management and conservation strategies. Here, we examined the responses of some of the main components of the highly diverse Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages to thermal stress. We performed thermotolerance experiments with different temperature treatments (from 26 to 29°C) with 10 species from different phyla (three anthozoans, six sponges and one ascidian) and different structural roles. Overall, we observed species‐specific contrasting responses to warming regardless of phyla or growth form. Moreover, the responses ranged from highly resistant species to sensitive species and were mostly in agreement with previous field observations from mass mortality events (MMEs) linked to Mediterranean marine heat waves. Our results unravel the diversity of responses to warming in coralligenous outcrops and suggest the presence of potential winners and losers in the face of climate change. Finally, this study highlights the importance of accounting for species‐specific vulnerabilities and response diversity when forecasting the future trajectories of temperate benthic communities in a warming ocean., the funding support of Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (CORCLIM 759S/2012 and 766S/2012), the TOTAL foundation (CLIMCARES project), the Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation (MIMOSA project n° 1983), the MPA‐ADAPT project, the Interreg MED Program (European Regional Development Fund), and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES). D.G.G. was supported by an FPU grant (FPU15/05457) from the Spanish Ministry of Education, M.P.E. by an APIF‐2016 and I.M.S. by an FPI grant (BES‐2013‐066150). The authors are part of the Marine Conservation research group (www. medrecover.org) (2017 SGR 1521) from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The Galapagos sea lion ( Zalophus wollebaeki ), an endangered species, experiences high pup mortality (up to 100%) in years when El Niño events reduce food supply in the Galapagos Islands. Mortality of pups in non-El Niño years is estimated to be 5% in undisturbed colonies. From 2009 to 2012 we observed high pup mortality (up to 67%) in colonies close to the Galapagos capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, where contact with humans, domestic animals, and rats is frequent. Gross postmortem findings from 54 pups included hemorrhagic lesions in liver and congestion in lungs; histopathology suggested a possible association with infectious diseases. Evidence of Leptospira infection was found in five out of seven samples collected in 2010. Canine distemper viral (CDV) RNA was detected in tissues from six sea lions (in 2011-12), four of which were confirmed by nucleotide sequencing. The absence of CDV antibodies in 109 juvenile animals tested in 2014 at urban and remote colonies could indicate that the CDV infection observed in 2011 was likely confined to a few animals. Our results indicated that Galapagos sea lions have been exposed at least to two pathogens, Leptospira and CDV; however, the impact of these infections on the sea lions is unclear.

12 pages, 6 figures, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13321, 1. Global warming and overexploitation both threaten the integrity and resilience of marine ecosystems. Many calls have been made to at least partially offset climate change impacts through local conservation management. However, a mechanistic understanding of the interactions of multiple stressors is generally lacking for habitat‐forming species; preventing the development of sound conservation strategies. 2. We examined the effectiveness of no‐take marine protected areas (MPAs) at enhancing structural complexity and resilience to climate change on populations of an overexploited and long‐lived octocoral. We used long‐term data over eight populations, subjected to varying levels of disturbances, and Integral Projection Models to understand how the overfishing and mass‐mortality events shape the stochastic dynamics of the Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum. 3. Marine protected areas largely reduced colony partial mortality (i.e. shrinkage), enhancing the structural complexity of coral populations. However, there were no significant differences in individual mortality or population growth rates between protected and exploited populations. In contrast, warming had detrimental consequences for the long‐term viability of red coral populations, driving steady declines and potential local extinctions due to sharp effects in survival rates. Stochastic demographic models revealed only a weak compensatory effect of MPAs on the impacts of warming. 4. Policy implications. Our results suggest that marine protected areas (MPAs) are an effective local conservation tool for enhancing the structural complexity of red coral populations. However, MPAs may not be enough to ensure red coral's persistence under future increases in thermal stress. Accordingly, conservation strategies aiming to ensure the persistence and functional role of red coral populations should include management actions at both local (well‐enforced MPAs) and global scales (reductions in greenhouse gas emissions). Finally, this study unravels the divergent demographic consequences that can arise from multiple stressors and highlights the key role of demography in better understanding and predicting the consequences of combined impacts for vulnerable ecosystems, This study was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation Biorock project (CTM2009‐08045), Smart project (CGL2012‐32194), TOTAL Foundation Perfect Project, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation MIMOSA project and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 689518 (MERCES). [...]. I.M.S. was supported by a FPI grant (BES‐2013‐066150), C.L. by a Ramon y Cajal (RyC‐2011‐08134), and J.B.L. by a Postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/74400/2010) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Support for D.F.D. came from National Science Foundation awards 1340024 and 1242355. I.M.S., C.L., J.B.L. and J.G. are part of the Marine Conservation Research Group (2017 SGR 1521) from the Generalitat de Catalunya

Macroalgal communities have an essential role in the shallow benthic habitats of temperate seas, where changes in their composition can resonate through entire coastal ecosystems. As all major ecosystems on Earth, algal beds have already been affected by multiple disturbances. Passive conservation tools, such as marine protected areas or No-take zones, have the potential to reduce some of the anthropogenic impacts by limiting human activity. However, without a good knowledge of the natural community dynamics, it is not easy to discern between changes fruit of the intrinsic variability of biological communities and the ones caused by human-related stressors. In this study, we evaluated the natural variability of macroalgal communities' composition inside and outside a Mediterranean No-Take marine reserve during 15 years. We described their temporal dynamics considering their main drivers and we tested the effect of protection in seaweed beds. We did not find differences either in the composition of the macroalgal assemblages or the total algal cover between protected and non-protected locations over the fifteen years of study. Nevertheless, we observed a positive effect of the protection increasing the cover of some specific species, such as the canopy-forming Treptacantha elegans. Our results highlight the importance of obtaining long-term data in ecological studies to better understand the natural variability of marine communities. Accordingly, a robust understanding of the community dynamics would help us to avoid misinterpretations between ‘impacted’ or ‘in-recovery’ communities when recovery times are longer than the study periods., This work was supported by the long-term monitoring programme of the Natural Park of Cap de Creus and the Natural Park of Montgrí, Illes Medes and Baix Ter, the Medes Islands and the Baix Ter protected areas (public agreement PTOP- 2017-130, Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat of the Generalitat de Catalunya) and by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES). This output reflects only the authors' view, and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained herein that may be made. All the authors are part of the MedRecover research group 2017SGR-1521 (www.medrecover.org).

Active restoration is considered a profitable strategy to return ecosystems to their predisturbance state, in a reasonable time frame. However, ecological restoration of marine ecosystems is still in its infancy if compared to the terrestrial context. A review of 498 studies published in the last 25 years was carried out within the MERCES H2020 EU project to understand the effects of marine restoration actions across coastal habitats at global scale. Here, an overview focused on the Mediterranean Sea was carried out to identify both contextual and methodological determinants of restoration success in the basin. Results show that restoration efforts across habitats are increasing, especially in seagrasses and saltmarshes, but never approached at ecosystem level. Targets, methods, response variables and standards are still very heterogeneous. Short project duration (one-two years), small restoration areas (< 1 ha), lack of controls and knowledge of baselines are still a limit for deriving generalities. Finally, restorations rarely consider future challenges linked to global change, thus impairing long- term success stories. Marine restoration is a promising approach to counteract habitat loss in coastal areas. However, restoration science needs more robust approaches leading to the development of best practices (e.g. protocols, monitoring of the effects, reasons for failure) to be applied at spatial and temporal scales so as to answer to present and future disturbance regimes.

Worldwide, pristine environments are influenced by human societies. In the Galapagos Islands, the endangered, endemic Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) has formed one of the biggest colonies within the town center of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. About 8,000 people live there and human wildlife interactions occur daily. With colony counts and direct observations from 2008 to 2012, we analyze cause of death, injuries and disease of urban sea lion colonies at Wreck Bay. Population increase since 2008 can be attributed to an immigration of adult sea lions in 2010, resulting in an increase in the pup and juvenile production in 2011 and 2012. Pup mortality increased drastically to 2009 and again in 2011 and 2012. Besides pup mortality, most of the deaths are caused by increased disease incidences and human activity. Our observations suggest that overall 65% of the injuries observed are produced by human interaction. The increase in threats leading to death, injuries or disease can have long-term effects on the population. Although threats that cause physical injuries can be managed locally, sea lions range movements contributes to the spread of infectious pathogens, which may affect neighbor colonies and potentially have an impact on the survival of the species. Our study reveals the need of stronger efforts towards a more complete understanding of threats and especially disease spread among Galapagos Sea lions in urban environments and the establishment of more effective management measures.

4th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB 2018), 13-16 May 2018, Montreal, The temperate coralligenous bioconcretions are mainly built by the accumulation of encrusting coralline algae growing at low irradiance levels. They harbour approximately 10% of marine Mediterranean species (about 1600 species), including long-lived algae and invertebrates. Enhanced by climate change, several pressures affect coralligenous assemblages, leading to increased frequency of mass mortalities and dramatic loss of habitat complexity and biodiversity. The EU-funded project MERCES is developing innovative methodologies to restore macroinvertebrate habitat-forming species from three key taxonomic groups: Cnidaria/Anthozoa, Porifera/Demospongiae and Bryozoa. Restoration protocols are based on fragments/transplants from donor organisms and recruitment-enhancing devices. Collaboration with volunteers (divers and diving operators) in several phases of field activities proved crucial both to minimize underwater working time and to increase the sense of stewardship in a major users’ segment. Additionally, the MERCES project explores how to enhance restoration success by identifying the mechanisms conferring resistance to thermal stress in gorgonians. This is pursued by coupling thermotolerance experiments with next generation sequencing tools and facilitation processes (by comparing the outcomes of mono-specific vs. multi-specific transplanted assemblages). Results will be included in the strategic planning of restoration efforts in the Mediterranean in the context of global change

8 pages, 5 figures, supplementary material https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/suppl/10.1098/rspb.2017.2688, Understanding the role of the environment in shaping the evolution of life histories remains a major challenge in ecology and evolution. We synthesize longevity patterns of marine sessile species and find strong positive relationships between depth and maximum lifespan across multiple sessile marine taxa, including corals, bivalves, sponges and macroalgae. Using long-term demographic data on marine sessile and terrestrial plant species, we show that extreme longevity leads to strongly dampened population dynamics. We also used detailed analyses of Mediterranean red coral, with a maximum lifespan of 532 years, to explore the life-history patterns of long-lived taxa and the vulnerability to external mortality sources that these characteristics can create. Depth-related environmental gradients—including light, food availability, temperature and disturbance intensity—drive highly predictable distributions of life histories that, in turn, have predictable ecological consequences for the dynamics of natural populations

4th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB 2018), 13-16 May 2018, Montreal, A review of 573 studies on active restoration actions in the marine environment, published in the last 25 years, was carried out at global scale. We assessed how, where, at which spatial and temporal scales and under which socio-ecological settings restoration studies have been carried out, from very shallow to deep sea habitats. Results show that restoration efforts across habitats are increasing, especially in seagrasses and coral reefs, but never approached at ecosystem level. Targets, methods, response variables and standards are still very heterogeneous. Of the factors considered in the review, habitat, human impact intensity, realm and methods of restoration were found to be good determinant of restoration success. Short project duration (one-two years), small restoration areas (< 1 ha), lack of controls and knowledge of baselines are still a limit for deriving generalities. Finally, restorations rarely consider future challenges linked to global change this impairing long-term success stories. Restoration science needs more robust approaches leading to the development of best practices (e.g. protocols, monitoring of the effects, reasons for failure) to be applied at spatial and temporal scales so as to answer to present and future disturbance regimes. Marine restoration is a promising approach to limit habitat loss. More science is needed to increase the number of success stories

Este artículo contiene 6 páginas , 3 figuras, Overexploitation leads to the ecological extinction of many oceanic species. The depletion of historical abundances of large animals, such as whales and sea turtles, is well known. However, the magnitude of the historical overfishing of exploited invertebrates is unclear. The lack of rigorous baseline data limits the implementation of efficient management and conservation plans in the marine realm. The precious Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum has been intensively exploited since antiquity for its use in jewellery. It shows dramatic signs of overexploitation, with no untouched populations known in shallow waters. Here, we report the discovery of an exceptional red coral population from a previously unexplored shallow underwater cave in Corsica (France) harbouring the largest biomass (by more than 100-fold) reported to date in the Mediterranean. Our findings challenge current assumptions on the pristine state of this emblematic species. Our results suggest that, before intense exploitation, red coral lived in relatively high-density populations with a large proportion of centuries-old colonies, even at very shallow depths. We call for the re-evaluation of the baseline for red coral and question the sustainability of the exploitation of a species that is still common but ecologically (functionally) extinct and in a trajectory of further decline., J.G. acknowledges financial support from Parc Regional de Corse, TOTAL Fondation (Perfect Project); C.L., J.G. and I.M.S. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation through a Ramon y Cajal research contract (RyC-2011-08134), a FPI grant (BES-2013-066150) and the Smart project (CGL2012-32194); and J.B.L. was funded by a Postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/74400/2010) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; FCT) (http://www.fct.pt).

Gorgonians are habitat-forming octocorals dwelling in marine hard-bottom communities worldwide. In the Mediterranean, these slow-growing, long-lived species are increasingly threatened by disturbances such as destructive fishing practices, anchoring, uncontrolled and overfrequent diving, mucillagenous algal aggregates, algal invasions, and mass mortalities caused by anomalous seawater temperature increases. As a result, gorgonian forests are in decline and associated hard-bottoms are faced with the loss of structural complexity and iodiversity. Hence, the development of efficient restoration techniques is urgently needed. Based on previous experiences, transplantation of gorgonian fragments is considered as an appropriate method, due to its low impact on the donor colonies, generally high survival rates of transplants and ability to bypass sensitive early life stages. Studies to date confirm the feasibility of the method on the local spatial scale. Here we present details of the gorgonian transplantation, indicating required material and methods as well as the recommended size and density of ransplants. The proposed approach ensures fast and efficient fixation method, easily applicable by divers.

Pelagic fishes are among the most ecologically and economically important fish species in European seas. In principle, these pelagic fishes have potential to demonstrate rapid abundance and distribution shifts in response to climatic variability due to their high adult motility, planktonic larval stages, and low dependence on benthic habitat for food or shelter during their life histories. Here we provide evidence of substantial climate-driven changes to the structure of pelagic fish communities in European shelf seas. We investigated the patterns of species-level change using catch records from 57,870 fisheries-independent survey trawls from across European continental shelf region between 1965 and 2012. We analysed changes in the distribution and rate of occurrence of the six most common species, and observed a strong subtropicalization of the North Sea and Baltic Sea assemblages. These areas have shifted away from cold-water assemblages typically characterised by Atlantic herring and European sprat from the 1960s to 1980s, to warmer-water assemblages including Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic horse mackerel, European pilchard and European anchovy from the 1990s onwards. We next investigated if warming sea temperatures have forced these changes using temporally-comprehensive data from the North Sea region. Our models indicated the primary driver of change in these species has been sea surface temperatures in all cases. Together, these analyses highlight how individual species responses have combined to result in a dramatic subtropicalization of the pelagic fish assemblage of the European continental shelf.

Marine biodiversity can be protected by identifying vulnerable species and creating marine protected areas (MPAs) to ensure their survival. A wide variety of methods are employed by environmental managers to determine areas of conservation priority, however which methods should be applied is often a subject of debate for practitioners and scientists. We applied two species vulnerability assessments, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species and FishBase’s intrinsic vulnerability assessment, to fish communities in three coastal habitats (mangrove, rocky and coral) on the island of San Cristobal, Galapagos. When using the IUCN red list of threatened species, rocky reefs hosted the greatest number of vulnerable species, however when applying the FishBase assessment of intrinsic vulnerability mangroves hosted the greatest abundance of ‘very-highly’ vulnerable species and coral ecosystems hosted the greatest abundance of ‘highly’ vulnerable species. The two methods showed little overlap in determining habitat types that host vulnerable species because they rely on different biological and ecological parameters. Since extensive data is required for IUCN red list assessments, we show that the intrinsic vulnerability assessment from FishBase can be used to complement the IUCN red list especially in data-poor areas. Intrinsic vulnerability assessments are based on less data-intensive methods than the IUCN red list, but nonetheless may bridge information gaps that can arise when using the IUCN red list alone. Vulnerability assessments based on intrinsic factors are not widely applied in marine spatial planning, but their inclusion as a tool for forming conservation strategies can be useful in preventing species loss.

9 pages, 7 figures, supplementary information https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36094-9, Climate change threatens the structure and function of marine ecosystems, highlighting the importance of understanding the response of species to changing environmental conditions. However, thermal tolerance determining the vulnerability to warming of many abundant marine species is still poorly understood. In this study, we quantified in the field the effects of a temperature anomaly recorded in the Mediterranean Sea during the summer of 2015 on populations of two common sympatric bryozoans, Myriapora truncata and Pentapora fascialis. Then, we experimentally assessed their thermal tolerances in aquaria as well as different sublethal responses to warming. Differences between species were found in survival patterns in natural populations, P. fascialis showing significantly lower survival rates than M. truncata. The thermotolerance experiments supported field observations: P. fascialis started to show signs of necrosis when the temperature was raised to 25–26 °C and completely died between 28–29 °C, coinciding with the temperature when we observed first signs of necrosis in M. truncata. The results from this study reflect different responses to warming between these two co-occurring species, highlighting the importance of combining multiple approaches to assess the vulnerability of benthic species in a changing climate world, This study was partially funded by the “Parc Natural del Montgrí, Illes Medes i Baix Ter” and the “Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat” of the Catalan Government project, the SMART project (CGL2012-32194) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES). This output reflects only the author’s view and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained M.P.E was supported by an APIF grant (APIF2016), I.M.S by an FPI grant (BES-2013-066150), D.G.G by an FPU grant (FPU15/05457) and B.F by a SENACYT & STRI Postdoctoral Fellow (47-2017-4-FID16-239)

9 pages, 5 figures, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12341, Understanding the drivers of restoration success is a central issue for marine conservation. Here, we explore the role of life‐history strategies of sessile marine species in shaping restoration outcomes and their associated timescales. A transplantation experiment for the extremely slow‐growing and threatened octocoral Corallium rubrum was highly successful over a relatively short term due to high survival and reproductive potential of the transplanted colonies. However, demographic projections predict that from 30 to 40 years may be required for fully functional C. rubrum populations to develop. More broadly, a comprehensive meta‐analysis revealed a negative correlation between survival after transplanting and growth rates among sessile species. As a result, simulated dynamics for a range of marine sessile invertebrates predict that longer recovery times are positively associated with survival rates. These results demonstrate a tradeoff between initial transplantation efforts and the speed of recovery. Transplantation of slow‐growing species will tend to require lower initial effort due to higher survival after transplanting, but the period required to fully recover habitat complexity will tend to be far longer. This study highlights the important role of life history as a driver of marine restoration outcomes and shows how demographic knowledge and modeling tools can help managers to anticipate the dynamics and timescales of restored populations, Funding was provided by the Spanish MINECO (CTM2009-08045 and CGL2012-32194), the Oak Foundation, the TOTAL Foundation Perfect Project, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES). [...] IMS was supported by a FPI grant (BES-2013-066150), CL by a Ramon y Cajal (RyC-2011-08134), and JBL by a Postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/74400/2010). Authors are part of the Medrecover group (2014SGR1297)