Search results for "Dendropoma"
showing 10 items of 24 documents
Ocean acidification impairs vermetid reef recruitment
2014
Vermetids form reefs in sub-tropical and warm-temperate waters that protect coasts from erosion, regulate sediment transport and accumulation, serve as carbon sinks and provide habitat for other species. The gastropods that form these reefs brood encapsulated larvae; they are threatened by rapid environmental changes since their ability to disperse is very limited. We used transplant experiments along a natural CO2 gradient to assess ocean acidification effects on the reef-building gastropod Dendropoma petraeum. We found that although D. petraeum were able to reproduce and brood at elevated levels of CO2, recruitment success was adversely affected. Long-term exposure to acidified conditions…
Threatened biogenic formations of the Mediterranean: Current status and assessment of the vermetid reefs along the Lebanese coastline (Levant basin)
2019
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…
Recruitment patterns in an intertidal species with low dispersal ability: the reef-building Dendropoma cristatum (Biondi, 1859) (Mollusca: Gastropoda)
2016
In the Mediterranean, the gastropod Dendropoma cristatum (sin. D. petraeum (Monterosato, 1884)) is the primary builder of the vermetid reef, an intertidal bioconstruction of exceptional ecological importance. Despite awareness of the need for conservation of this key species, the biology of D. cristatum remains poorly understood. The recruitment of D. cristatum deserves particular attention because the absence of a planktonic larval stage limits its dispersal ability. We examined the temporal pattern of recruitment during the breeding season of D. cristatum from June to September in 2013. Specifically, we compared the two portions of the vermetid reef (i.e. the inner edge and the outer edge…
Settlement performance of the Mediterranean reef-builders Dendropoma cristatum (Biondi 1859) in response to natural bacterial films.
2017
The gastropod Dendropoma cristatum is a biogenic engineer of the central Mediterranean, forming reefs along the lower rocky intertidal fringe with a remarkable ecological role. To understand whether reef-associated biofilm cultivable bacterial and biofilm ageing may trigger the settlement of the juvenile snails, a combination of laboratory techniques and field experiments was used. Reef-associated biofilm cultivable bacteria were isolated, and a settlement-choice experiment was performed in situ on artificial biofilms composed of i) a mixture of six biofilm-forming selected isolates, ii) all the cultivable bacteria, and iii) 13-, 23-, 32-day old biofilms formed under natural conditions. Ove…
The neglected status of the vermetid reefs in the Mediterranean Sea: A systematic map
2022
Studied since late 1800, vermetid reefs are marine bioconstructions of well-acknowledged importance in the Mediterranean Sea. Despite their persistence being jeopardized in the whole basin, recent studies have referred to this bioconstruction as a neglected habitat. In this study, we assessed the neglected status of the Mediterranean vermetid reefs in the scientific literature producing a systematic map through a multi-method bibliometric protocol. Scopus and Web of Science databases were jointly used for data collection. Vermetid reefs publication rate (i.e., number of publications per year) was investigated compared to the other Mediterranean bio-constructions using ANOVA analysis and Zer…
Settlement performance of the Mediterranean reef-builders Dendropoma cristatum (Biondi 1859) in response to natural bacterial films
2018
The gastropod Dendropoma cristatum is a biogenic engineer of the central Mediterranean, forming reefs along the lower rocky intertidal fringe with a remarkable ecological role. To understand whether reef-associated biofilm cultivable bacterial and biofilm ageing may trigger the settlement of the juvenile snails, a combination of laboratory techniques and field experiments was used. Reef-associated biofilm cultivable bacteria were isolated, and a settlement-choice experiment was performed in situ on artificial biofilms composed of i) a mixture of six biofilm-forming selected isolates, ii) all the cultivable bacteria, and iii) 13-, 23-, 32-day old biofilms formed under naturalconditions. Overall,sett…
The Mediterranean vermetid reefs: distribution and conservation status
2016
The vermetid reef is an intertidal bioconstruction distributed in the warmest waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and is built by the gregarious vermetid gastropodDendropomaspp. cemented by the coralline red algae of the genusNeogoniolithon.Thisbiogenichabitatisonly generically protected under the European Habitat Directive, but to date it is not explicitly taken into account in many conservation plans. Despite the documented local extinction of Dendropomain the some Eastern Mediterranean locations, its role as habitat engineer and the high numbers of ecosystem services provided, vermetid reef is among the least known marine bioconstruction of the Mediterranean. We counted 112 reefs along the …
Characterization of mitotic and meiotic, chromosomes of the vermetid gastropodDendropoma (Novastoa) Petraeum(Monterosato, 1884) (Mollusca, Caenogastr…
1997
Abstract The vermetid gastropod Dendropoma (Novastoa) petraeum from the Northwestern coast of Sicily was investigated karyologically. The count of spermatocyte bivalents at diakinesis gave the haploid number of this species as n=17. The count of mitotic chromosomes in males, females and early developing embryos gave the diploid number as 2n=34. Irrespective of sex, the karyotype of D. petraeum consists of 17 homomorphic chromosome pairs, of which 8 are metacentric, 4 subtelocentric and 5 acrocentric. This species is characterized by the presence of two chromosomes per cell involved in nucleolus organization (NOR) and by a low amount of constitutive heterochromatin.
A new marker for sea surface temperature trend during the last centuries in temperate areas: Vermetid reef
2004
The presence of Vermetid reefs in temperate waters, their diffusion in the Mediterranean Sea, and the possibility of performing 14 C ages allowed the use of Vermetids as an indicator of sea level changes. We present new data on sea climate trend fluctuations that could be interpreted as Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variations, recorded on Vermetid (Dendropoma petraeum) reefs, by means of isotopic analysis. The isotopic records show positive values of the d 18 O relative to present-day values in the period between 1600 and 1850 AD; this deviation occurs in association with the climatic cooling event known as Little Ice Age (LIA). Subsequently, we can observe the warming trend that character…
Ocean acidification and elevated temperature negatively affect recruitment, oxygen consumption and calcification of the reef-building Dendropoma cris…
2019
Expected temperature rise and seawater pH decrease may affect marine organism fitness. By a transplant experiment involving air-temperature manipulation along a natural CO2 gradient, we investigated the effects of high pCO(2) (similar to 1100 mu atm) and elevated temperature (up to +2 degrees C than ambient conditions) on the reproductive success, recruitment, growth, shell chemical composition and oxygen consumption of the early life stages of the intertidal reef-building vermetid Dendropoma cristatum. Reproductive success was predominantly affected by temperature increase, with encapsulated embryos exhibiting higher survival in control than elevated temperature conditions, which were in t…