Search results for "POSIDONIA OCEANICA"
showing 10 items of 135 documents
Letter to the editor regarding the article “Taking advantage of seagrass recovery potential to develop novel and effective meadow rehabilitation meth…
2020
Alagna et al. (2019) suggest new transplantation methods for Posidonia oceanica (Linnaeus) Delile, inspired by its natural recovery process after disturbance due to dredging operations for gas-pipelines. They observe that P. oceanica vegetative fragments naturally settled only on loose calcareous stones deployed to fill the trenches of the gas-pipeline. No recovery was noted on dead matte, sand and large calcarenitic boulders. Following a new pilot restoration project currently ongoing in the same area, we demonstrate that natural recovery also occurs on dead matte. After examining other alternative transplantation methods for P. oceanica, the Authors suggest using their "habitat enhancemen…
The mapping of the Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile barrier reef meadow in the southeastern Gulf of Tunis (Tunisia)
2016
Abstract Barrier reefs are among the most important ecomorphosis for Posidonia oceanica meadows and have long been subjected to anthropic pressures. The authors mapped the entire Sidi Rais (northeastern Tunisia) Posidonia oceanica barrier reef by means of remote sensing based on processing a satellite image acquired via Google Earth © software, coupled with field observations obtained by snorkeling. The map thus produced represents the P. oceanica barrier reef in its current state, covering a total area of 156.77 ha, the reef being divided into three distinct sections separated by reverse flows with each section subject to varied anthropic factors and disturbances.
Root hair anatomy and morphology in Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile and substratum typology: First observations of a spiral form
2018
Abstract The morpho-anatomical root hair features of P. oceanica ramets collected in meadows settled on different substrata (sand, matte and rock) were analysed. On each substratum, nine plagiothropic rhizomes each one composed by 3–6 interconnected short shoots were collected between April and May 2016 at 10 m of depth. On sand and on rock, the adventitious roots showed two distinct tubular and spiral-shaped hairs, clustered in yellowish-gray gelatinous pads. Tubular root hair tips were dactiliform and generally attached to grains of rock fragments. Moreover, a sub-circular swelling zone occurred. On matte , root hairs did not form gelatinous pads, were very short and had a simple distal p…
Ecological function of phenolic compounds from mediterranean fucoid algae and seagrasses: An overview on the genus Cystoseira sensu lato and Posidoni…
2020
Biodiversity is undergoing rapid and worrying changes, partially driven by anthropogenic activities. Human impacts and climate change (e.g., increasing temperature and ocean acidification), which act at different spatial scales, represent the most serious threats to biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function. In the Mediterranean Sea, complex systems such as fucoid algae and seagrasses, characterized by a high associated biodiversity, are regularly exposed to natural and anthropogenic pressures. These systems, particularly sensitive to a variety of stressors, evolved several physiological and biochemical traits as a response to the different pressures which they are subjected to. For…
Seagrasses along the Sicilian coasts
2010
All seagrass species known from the Mediterranean basin have been recorded along the Sicilian coast, where studies have been carried out at a very local scale and information is fragmented or confined to the grey literature. The objective of this article is to summarise and evaluate current knowledge on seagrass species on the Sicilian coasts, providing an overview of species distribution, genetic diversity, biology and ecology, based on the literature and unpublished data. Most literature studies have been carried out on Posidonia oceanica meadows because of their wide distribution, complexity and ecological importance. In this study, the analyses carried out on P. oceanica structural and …
Boat anchoring on Posidonia oceanica beds in a marine protected area (Italy, western Mediterranean): effect of anchor types in different anchoring st…
2004
Seagrasses worldwide are noted for suffering from mechanical damage caused by boat anchoring. This is particularly so in sites highly frequented by boaters (marine protected areas or coastal urbanised areas). In the last decades, different strategies have been put into practice to reduce such impacts on seagrasses (i.e. by anchoring bans or by deploying boat moorings), More recently, in consideration that few marine protected area (MPA) management bodies or local administrations have the resources to enforce their anchorage regulations, the self-regulatory approach based on education and information of boaters has been preferred in several cases. At present, however, very little is known on…
Reference growth charts for Posidonia oceanica seagrass: An effective tool for assessing growth performance by age and depth
2016
Abstract Growth performance of rhizomes has become among the most used descriptors for monitoring Posidonia oceanica seagrass dynamics and population status. However, ability to detect any change of growth in space or in time is often confounded by natural age-induced decline. To overcome this problem, we have produced reference growth charts, which in other areas are universally recognized as a very powerful tool for comparing growth of living beings during their ontogeny. Reference growth charts involving different P. oceanica growth performance measures (speed of growth and primary production of rhizomes) have been built using proper statistical frameworks (GLMM, Segmented and Quantile R…
Short-term response of the slow growing seagrass Posidonia oceanica to simulated anchor impact
2007
Experimental evaluations about the impact of anchors of small vessels have previously shown that each anchoring can on average damage up to six shoots of Posidonia oceanica, removing small amount of biomass and, at the same time, interrupting continuity among shoots. The aim of the paper was to investigate the response of P. oceanica to different damage intensity at two levels of substrata compactness. Three treatments were considered: control (no damage); low damage (simulated anchor damage by three strokes of a hoe); and high damage (six strokes). Disturbance was higher where the substratum was highly penetrable and after one year significant variation was observed among treatments for bo…
Effectiveness of Posidonia oceanica biotic indices for assessing the ecological status of coastal waters in the Saronikos Gulf (Aegean Sea, Eastern M…
2017
Biotic indices are considered key assessment tools in most national and European policies aimed at improving the quality of coastal waters. At present, several Water Framework Directive (WFD)-compliant biotic indices based on the marine angiosperm Posidonia oceanica have been developed and applied in the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of four different P. oceanica indices (POMI, PREI, Valencian CS, and BiPo) in evaluating the ecological status of coastal waters in a case study area of Greece. The evaluation, comparison, and validation of the Ecological Status Class (ESC) assessments obtained by each index were based on a set of eight common sites that en…
Preferential assimilation of seagrass detritus by two coexisting Mediterranean sea cucumbers: Holothuria polii and Holothuria tubulosa
2019
Abstract Holothuria polii and Holothuria tubulosa are two of the most commercially exploited sea cucumbers of the Mediterranean Sea. As deposit-feeders, they represent an important component of the benthic community. Hence, knowledge of their feeding behaviour is crucial for understanding their function in terms of benthic ecology and sediment dynamics. Using information obtained from stable isotope analysis, the food selectivity/assimilation, temporal variations in diet and trophic niche of H. polii and H. tubulosa were investigated. Analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios in body wall tissue showed a preferential assimilation of seagrass detritus among multiple food sources, with …