Search results for " MEDITERRANEAN SEA"
showing 10 items of 245 documents
Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae)-first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea
2016
The first record in the Mediterranean Sea of the invasive aorid amphipod crustacean Grandidierella bonnieroides is presented. A widespread circumtropical species, recorded off the Saudi coast of the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, it may have been introduced into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. This tube-builder species of soft bottoms recently established a population in the polluted Haifa Bay, Israel. Further, this is the first Mediterranean record of the genus.
Tidal notches, coastal landforms and relative sea-level changes during the Late Quaternary at Ustica Island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)
2017
In this paper we present and discuss data concerning the morphostructural evolution at Ustica Island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) during Late Quaternary. New insights on the relative sea-level changes of Ustica are coming from data collected during a geomorphological field survey around the island, together with the bathymetric analysis of the surrounding seabed and 14C datings on samples of speleothems, flowstones and marine shells found inside three selected sea caves. The survey was mainly accomplished on June 2015 through the first complete snorkel investigation off the about 18 km-long volcanic coast of the island, which allowed to precisely define location, relationship and morphometric fe…
8000 years of coastal changes on a western Mediterranean island: A multiproxy approach from the Posada plain of Sardinia
2018
Abstract A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation was conducted to reconstruct the Holocene history of coastal landscape change in the lower Posada coastal plain of eastern Sardinia. In the Mediterranean region, coastal modifications during the Holocene have been driven by a complex interplay between climate, geomorphological processes and human activity. In this paper, millennial-scale human-sea level-environment interactions are investigated near Posada, one of the largest coastal plains in eastern Sardinia. Biostratigraphic and palynological approaches were used to interpret the chrono-stratigraphy exhibited by a series of new cores taken from the coastal plain. This new study elu…
New records of amphipod crustaceans along the Israeli Mediterranean coast, including a rare Mediterranean endemic species, Maera schieckei Karaman & …
2020
A survey has been carried out at four Israeli rocky sites to evaluate the diversity of the amphipod fauna on various hard substrates, still scarcely monitored, as potential pabulum for amphipod crustacean species. A survey of shallow rocky reefs along the Mediterranean coast of Israel recovered 28 species and integrated the Amphipoda checklist for the country ofIsrael with 12 newly-recorded species. Such renewed national list includes Maera schieckei Karaman & Ruffo, 1971, a rare species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, recorded here for the first time from the southern Levant Basin. The species, described from specimens collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea in 1970, has been only record…
DNA barcoding for species assignment: the case of Mediterranean marine fishes
2014
Background: DNA barcoding enhances the prospects for species-level identifications globally using a standardized and authenticated DNA-based approach. Reference libraries comprising validated DNA barcodes (COI) constitute robust datasets for testing query sequences, providing considerable utility to identify marine fish and other organisms. Here we test the feasibility of using DNA barcoding to assign species to tissue samples from fish collected in the central Mediterranean Sea, a major contributor to the European marine ichthyofaunal diversity. Methodology/Principal Findings: A dataset of 1278 DNA barcodes, representing 218 marine fish species, was used to test the utility of DNA barcodes…
New insights into the gut microbiome in loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta stranded on the Mediterranean coast
2019
Caretta caretta is the most common sea turtle species in the Mediterranean Sea. The species is threatened by anthropomorphic activity that causes thousands of deaths and hundreds of strandings along the Mediterranean coast. Stranded turtles are often cared for in rehabilitation centres until they recover or die. The objective of this study was to characterize the gut microbiome of nine sea turtles stranded along the Sicilian coast of the Mediterranean Sea using high-throughput sequencing analysis targeting V3–V4 regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Stool samples were collected from eight specimens hosted in the recovery centre after a few days of hospitalization (under 7) and from one ho…
Overlapping patterns of morphometric and genetic differentiation in the Mediterranean goby Pomatoschistus tortonesei Miller, 1968 (Perciformes, Gobii…
2012
Abstract. The genetic and morphological variations of Pomatoschistus tortonesei Miller, 1968 were studied in samples collected from three Tunisian lagoons. The morphological analysis included 18 morphometric measurements and was based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA), whereas the genetic analysis was based on the 16S-rRNA and COI mitochondrial genes. Both analyses differentiated the populations and demonstrated consistently a well-supported differentiation between the western Mediterranean samples (Bizerta and Tunis South lagoons) and the eastern Mediterranean sample (El Bibane lagoon). The observed differentiation could be explained in terms of the geographic isolation of the various …
Genetic architecture of the marbled goby Pomatoschistus marmoratus (Perciformes, Gobiidae) in the Mediterranean Sea
2011
The marbled goby Pomatoschistus marmoratus, a species inhabiting coastal Mediterranean lagoons, has been studied by measuring its mitochondrial DNA variation. This analysis revealed a Mediterranean west vs east split and, subsequently, an eastern differentiation among the Libyan–Tunisian Gulf, the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean Sea. The high cohesion between the samples collected in the vast area of western Mediterranean contrasts with the genetic mosaic of the more sub-structured eastern Mediterranean. This western homogeneity can not yet be fully explained even if a human-mediated migratory flow, due to a maritime traffic, has been posited. The pattern in the eastern basin revealed a genetic…
Mediterranean circulation perturbations over the last five centuries: Relevance to past Eastern Mediterranean Transient-type events
2016
The Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) occurred in the Aegean Sea from 1988 to 1995 and is the most significant intermediate-to-deep Mediterranean overturning perturbation reported by instrumental records. The EMT was likely caused by accumulation of high salinity waters in the Levantine and enhanced heat loss in the Aegean Sea, coupled with surface water freshening in the Sicily Channel. It is still unknown whether similar transients occurred in the past and, if so, what their forcing processes were. In this study, sediments from the Sicily Channel document surface water freshening (SCFR) at 1910 ± 12, 1812 ± 18, 1725 ± 25 and 1580 ± 30 CE. A regional ocean hindcast links SCFR to enhanc…
Microbial and meiofaunal response to intensive mussel-farm biodeposition in coastal sediments of the Western Mediterranean
2000
We studied the impact of organic loads due to the biodeposition of a mussel farm in a coastal area of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean). Sediment chemistry, microbial and meiofaunal assemblages were investigated from March 1997 to February 1998 on monthly basis at two stations: the first was located under the mussel farm, while the second was at about 1-km distance and served as control. Benthic response to changes in the biodepositional regime was investigated in terms of biochemical composition of the sedimentary organic matter, phytopigment content, bacterial abundance and composition and meiofaunal community structure. A large accumulation of chloroplastic pigments, proteins an…