Changes in diversity underpin the very nature and integrity of ecosystems, including how they function, deliver goods and services, and respond to disturbances. Yet understanding the underlying mechanisms of biodiversity change remains both one of the greatest challenges in ecological science and of fundamental importance to resource management and conservation. The key problem is the need to integrate the effects of different factors operating on different space and time scale on biodiversity. Biodiversity assessment and the maintenance of environmental quality are central to the management of coastal ecosystems, multi use and multi value systems. This research will focus on the study of meta communities, alpha and beta diversity as a way forward for ecology over regional spatial scales and relevance to resource management. The research will investigate the resilience of hard bottom marine benthic communities in relation to habitat complexity and degrees of connectivity. Appropriate experiments will be set up in order to evaluate the recovery of benthic communities after disturbance according to the different degree of connectivity between assemblages and taking into account the life history of the different benthic species. particular attention will be given to Marine Protected Areas and their role in preserving biodiversity