Fig. 1: Distribution of mass mortality events (MMEs) across the Mediterranean Sea.
a Spatial representation of 1858 mortality records according to damage severity from 1986 to 2020. Each data point represents a quantified MME in a single species population, related to a possible biotic or abiotic mortality driver at a distinct georeferenced site and year. b–d The ridgeline plots display the distribution of three proxies for three of the main mortality drivers studied over the last 35 years. Mean sea surface temperature, mean wind gusts higher than 15 m s−1, and mean nutrient runoff have been quantified using Copernicus data (https://climate.copernicus.eu) across the Mediterranean Sea for a range of 5 years. These three metrics serve as proxies for temperature anomaly, storms, and turbidity.
