Invasive mussels directly threat intertidal vermetid reef: some evidences from a Sicilian MPA

Biological invasions pose a great threat to natural communities. Brachidontes pharaonis is an Eritrean mussel that has accessed in the Mediterranean sea shortly after the opening of the Suez Canal. At the beginning it had a restrained distribution with small local populations along the Israeli intertidal coast. More than a hundred years later it spread westward as far as NW Sicily, colonizing some hyperaline and natural habitats. Previous studies along the Israeli coast have proved that anthropogenic habitat modi#- cations occurring on vermetid reefs may promote the colonization of this invasive mussel causing a reduction of the indigenous mussel Mytilaster minimus. This study focuses on a …

Selezione dell’habitat in quattro specie ittiche criptobentoniche nell’infralitorale superiore di coste rocciose in Mediterraneo