Alboran Sea - Why is it so special?

As three climatic regions, the Lusitanian (cold-template), the Mauritania (warm) and the Mediterranean itself, join here, the flora and fauna of the Alboran Sea is extraordinary diverse. Outstanding for its ecosystem value that sustains a multitude of diversity are the seagrass meadows (the Mediterranean endemic Posidonia oceanica; Zoostera sp and Cymodocea sp); the Laminaria forest, occurring deeper than any other similar Laminaria forest of Europe (down to 60m) which fronds can grow up to 6m in length; the deep sea maerl beds formed from agglomerations of thousands of living calcareous algae; coraligenous communities and gorgonian forests, vermetid reefs made of endemic sessile gastropods in the intertidal shores; aggregations of sponges and other characteristic and important deep sea communities.

The diversity of available habitats with complex geological structures and the oceanographic conditions led many to consider the Alboran to be the oceanographic ‘motor’ of the Western Mediterranean Sea.