ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Ecosystem Restoration
This article is part of the Research TopicRestoring Our Blue Planet: Advances in Marine and Coastal RestorationView all 15 articles
Feasibility of ex situ cultivation and outplanting of the habitat-forming seaweed Ericaria selaginoides in an oceanic island: insight for future restoration
Provisionally accepted
Jose Valdazo1,2*
Sonia Díaz-Vergara1,2
Emmanuelle Descourvieres3
Annalisa Falace3
Ricardo Haroun1,2Francisco Otero-Ferrer1,2Fernando Tuya1,2- 1University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
- 2Instituto Universitario de Acuicultura Sostenible y Ecosistemas Marinos (IU-ECOAQUA), Las Palmas, Spain
- 3University of Trieste, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Marine forests formed by Cystoseira species are undergoing population declines across the Macaronesian archipelagos, threatening the essential ecosystem services they provide. Active restoration strategies, particularly ex situ cultivation and outplanting of early stages, are emerging as key tools to recover these habitats. We assessed the feasibility of restoration for the canopy-forming brown alga Ericaria selaginoides in the Canary Islands, combining laboratory-based optimization of seedling cultivation with a field outplanting experiment. To optimize early development, we conducted a factorial experiment testing the influence of two light intensities (125 and 250 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹) and three culture media: filtered seawater (SW), Von Stosch (VS) solution, and a commercial Macrocystis derived bio-stimulant (Algatron Cifo®; AL). Embryos cultured with VS and SW had advanced embryonic development, while those grown under low light and VS medium reached significantly larger sizes at advanced stages, indicating enhanced growth potential. This combination of low light and VS medium was therefore selected to optimize juvenile cultivation. Then juveniles were outplanted at two tidal heights (i.e., upper and lower intertidal) and under different microhabitat conditions (i.e., inside and outside tidal pools). Field monitoring revealed strong environmental filtering. Survival and growth were highest in lower intertidal pools, while individuals in the upper, more exposed, zones experienced high mortality. These findings demonstrate that ex situ cultivation of E. selaginoides, combined with strategic microhabitat selection, could enhance restoration success. These outcomes provide a scalable and practical solution for the long-term implementation of restoration techniques, offering initial insight into the recovery potential of Cystoseira forests in oceanic insular regions that suffered widespread declines.
Keywords: Brown macroalgae, Canary Islands, Environmental stress, Ex situ cultivation, Macaronesia, restoration
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Valdazo, Díaz-Vergara, Descourvieres, Falace, Haroun, Otero-Ferrer and Tuya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jose Valdazo
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.