Search results for "Ocean"
showing 10 items of 2919 documents
Monitoring the habitat use of common Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) using passive acoustics in a Mediterranean marine protected area
2014
The Mediterranean Tursiops truncatus subpopulation has been classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because of its decline. This species in coastal areas is exposed to a wide variety of threats: directed kills, bycatch, reduced prey availability caused by environmental degradation and overfishing, habitat degradation including disturbances from boat traffic and noise. Despite the increase in boat traffic in the Mediterranean Sea, the effect on T. truncatus’ habitat use has been studied in little detail and few data have been published. This study represents the first attempt to characterise spatial and temporal habitat use by T. truncatus and its relation to boat traffic in the Isole …
Chronological records of metal deposition in sediments from the Strait of Sicily, central Mediterranean: assessing natural fluxes and anthropogenic a…
2010
Abstract Sediment box-cores were recovered from the Strait of Sicily along two onshore–offshore transects in water depths of 29–500 m. Samples were dated by 210 Pb and analysed for major and trace elements. Inspections of chronological profiles integrated with application of statistical algorithms to the geochemical dataset and supported by in situ hydrological observations were used to assess factors driving element distributions. Mineralogical and chemical variability of sediments offshore of the southwestern Sicily coast reflect the irregular sea floor morphology of the Adventure Bank. Anthropogenic inputs explain enrichments with respect to background values for Sb, As, Pb, and Hg, that…
Effects of salinity and water temporality on zooplankton community in coastal Mediterranean ponds
2012
Abstract Some of the predicted effects of climate warming in Mediterranean climate are the increase of temperature, change of precipitation patterns and the rise in sea levels. This will have major consequences, mainly in coastal aquatic ecosystems, by the increase of salinity and the reduction of the flooding period, affecting the whole aquatic community. To assess on the possible consequences of the global change in the zooplankton community of Mediterranean coastal lakes, we analized the zooplankton diversity in a set of lakes with different salinity and water permanence time. The ponds were classified in four groups: permanent and temporary freshwater ponds, and permanent and temporary …
Patterns of variability in early life traits of a Mediterranean coastal fish
2013
Spawning dates and pelagic larval duration (PLD) are early life traits (ELT) crucial for understanding life cycles, properly assessing patterns of connectivity and gathering indications about patchiness or homogeneity of larval pools. Considering that little attention has been paid to spatial variability in these traits, we investigated variability of ELT from the analysis of otolith microstructure in the common two-banded sea bream Diplodus vulgaris. In the southwestern Adriatic Sea, along ~200 km of coast (∼1° in latitude, 41.2° to 40.2°N), variability of ELT was assessed at multiple spatial scales. Overall, PLD (ranging from 25 to 61 d) and spawning dates (October 2009 to February 2010) …
Marine debris ingestion in loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta, from the Western Mediterranean
2002
Marine debris represents an important threat for sea turtles, but information on this topic is scarce in some areas, such as the Mediterranean sea. This paper quantifies marine debris ingestion in 54 juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) illegally captured by fishermen in Spanish Mediterranean waters. Curved carapace length was measured, necropsies were performed and debris abundance and type was recorded. Different types of debris appeared in the gastrointestinal tract of 43 turtles (79.6%), being plastics the most frequent (75.9%). Tar, paper, Styrofoam, wood, reed, feathers, hooks, lines, and net fragments were also present. A regression analysis showed that the volume of deb…
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…
First record of Synedropsis roundii (Bacillariophyta, Fragilariaceae) in the Mediterranean region
2019
Populations of the fragilarioid diatom Synedropsis roundii are described from the phytoplankton of the Albufera of Valencia, a large and shallow eutrophic lagoon in the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The specimens collected are described and illustrated with light and scanning electron microscopy. This is the first documented record of this species since its description, and the first illustrated record of the genus in the Mediterranean region. The Albufera lagoon and the type locality of the species (Imboassica Lagoon, SE Brazil) are similar in some ecological features. The ecological and biogeographical implications of this finding are briefly discussed.
The first colonization of the Genus Amphistegina and other exotic benthic foraminifera of the Pelagian Islands and south-eastern Sicily (central Medi…
2014
Abstract A detailed study of the marine sediments collected on the inner shelf of some of the selected areas of the central Mediterranean Sea has been carried out in order to verify the presence of exotic benthic foraminiferal species. Since 2000, the coastal marine environments of the Pelagian Islands and of Sicily (central Mediterranean) have been increasingly colonized by exotic species (i.e. fishes and algae) originating both from the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. The studied areas (Pelagian Islands and SE Sicily) are located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, they represent an ideal place to understand how exotic species, coming from different Oceans, may have coloniz…
First record of Aplysia dactylomela (Opisthobranchia: Aplysiidae) from the Egadi Islands (western Sicily)
2014
The alien mollusc Aplysia dactylomela is recorded for the first time from the Egadi Islands marine protected area (western Sicily). This species has been widely reported in the Mediterranean and has established populations in Sicily. The presence of a few specimens let us suppose that its occurrence in this area is a recent event and that soon new populations will be sighted in the whole Egadi Islands and on the western and southern coasts of Sicily.
African monsoon variability during the previous interglacial maximum.
2002
Little is known about centennial- to millennial-scale climate variability during interglacial times, other than the Holocene. We here present high-resolution evidence from anoxic (unbioturbated) sediments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that demonstrates a sustained V800-yr climate disturbance in the monsoonal latitudes during the Eemian interglacial maximum (V125 ka BP). Results imply that before and after this event, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) penetrated sufficiently beyond the central Saharan watershed (V21n) during the summer monsoon to fuel flooding into the Mediterranean along the wider North African margin, through fossil river/wadi systems that to date have been cons…