0000000000219398
AUTHOR
Ali Badreddine
New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (November 2020)
This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria : new records of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus ; Spain : further spread and establishment of the sea slug Lamprohaminoea ovalis in continental shores; Tunisia : first record of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Gabes; Italy : a new occurrence of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in Northern Ionian waters; first record of Cephalopholis taeniops in t…
Threatened biogenic formations of the Mediterranean: Current status and assessment of the vermetid reefs along the Lebanese coastline (Levant basin)
Abstract Vermetid reefs are a key intertidal habitat in the warm-temperate part of the Mediterranean Sea and in some subtropical and tropical regions in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This unique and highly diverse ecosystems is under siege due to both the high anthropogenic pressure and the global climate change, with documented local population declines in the Eastern Mediterranean. This study aims at evaluating the conservation state of vermetid reefs along the Lebanese coast (Eastern Mediterranean), where seawater warming, habitat degradation and coastal urbanization likely threaten their presence. In order to assess the conservation status of vermetid reefs in Lebanon, five sites wer…