Can MPS's protect sea urchin stocks?

Sea urchins have long attracted attention from scientists worldwide for their ecological role in coastal areas. Entire communities structures associated to kelp beds and related ecosystem functions were found to strictly depend on grazing by urchins. Sea urchins, in addition, have been used as a food resource by humans since prehistory, and presently they are one of the important sea food (both exploited from the wild and in part obtained from aquaculture) consumed in many regions, but also exported-imported through the world. In the Mediterranean sea, the purple sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck) exerts a key ecological as a main regulator of the structure of coastal communities. A…

NON-INDIGENOUS SPECIES AND MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

The introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS) has been pointed out as a major threat to biodiversity. NIS may in time become invasive (i.e. invasive alien species “IAS”) and may cause biodiversity loss and ecosystem service changes. In the Mediterranean Sea, due to multiple human-borne stressors, the number of recorded NIS has currently reached a number around 1000 NIS. Sicily and its surrounding islands, also including a high number of Marine Protected Area (MPAs), as a consequence of their geographic position and the intense maritime traffic volumes, including fisheries and recreational fleets that foster the introduction of marine alien species, is a region particularly vulnerable and …

Operational sex ratio in the edible sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus at Ustica Island MPA (western Mediterranean, Italy)

The role of environmental education in Sicilian Marine Protected Areas

Today, more than ever, we need to be care for our common home: the Earth. The global financial and economical crisis has made evident the inner relationship between environmental degradation, the consequences of the new shift in the geopolitical order, and the cultural conflicts confronting the world. In this contest, the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea (MATTM) promotes Education for Sustainable Development and Environmental Education to empower citizen to live sustainably and in an environmentally conscious manner. From a citizenship perspective, ecological viewpoints play a role in the public debate about land use, large scale fishing, sustainability, cl…

Feeding behaviour of Ophidiaster ophidianus (Lmk.) (Asteroidea) in Mediterranean rocky reefs

The thermophilic Atlanto-Mediterranean purple starfish, Ophidiaster ophidianus, is a species protected under the EU’s Habitats Directive which is expanding its distribution in the northern Mediterranean areas as a consequence of global worming. The ecology of the species is largely unknown, specially for the diet. To cover this gap, the feeding habits of O. ophidianus have been studied in two different Mediterranean rocky reef areas: the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (Ustica Island, sampled in 2009) and the eastern Adriatic Sea (Molunat, sampled in 2014) by both field observations and ?13C and ?15N stable isotope analysis (SIA). SCUBA divers collected data by turning adult starfish downside-up an…