An Analysis of Adriatic Ichthyofauna—Ecology, Zoogeography, and Conservation Status

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of biogeographic and habitat distribution patterns, and the conservation status data of Adriatic fishes, based on the last published checklist and evidence-based critical analyses of species presence. The total number of species recorded in the Adriatic is 449. The Adriatic has 58.8% of Mediterranean species richness, 76.1% of its families, and 87.8% of its orders. Among species discovered in the Adriatic after 2010, twelve species were attributed to biological invasion, mostly Atlantic immigrants or alien species, and ten species were attributed to improved research on the native ichthyofauna of the Adriatic area. About 58% of species are native species of Atlanto-Mediterranean origin, 21% are native species of wider global occurrence, 15% are Mediterranean or Mediterranean and Black Sea endemics and 5% originated outside Mediterranean Sea. The majority of species inhabit the benthic environment (71.9%), while others occur in the pelagic environment (20.7%) or are euryhaline (7.3%). The benthic littoral species are the most numerous Adriatic fishes, representing 40% of all species richness, whereas pelagic fishes are mainly eurybathic or epipelagic; only 3.6% of species are deep pelagic species. A Red Book of marine fishes of the Adriatic Sea is urgently needed to assess their conservation status, covering the entire Adriatic Sea and reviewing all fish species to assess their conservation status.

An Assessment of Spearfishing Catches along the Eastern Adriatic Coast

“…Considering that the rules of the monitored competitions and the fish biodiversity in the study areas were quite similar in all the studies, it can be assumed that the main reason for this difference was the specific characteristics of the Adriatic Sea. The benthic littoral species, which are the main target of spearfishers, are the most numerous fishes in the Adriatic Sea, accounting for 40% of the total species richness [34]. The results of this study in terms of trophic levels of species targeted by spearfishers indicate that spearfishers mainly target carnivorous mid-trophic-level fishes, which coincides with other studies from the Mediterranean [8,21].…”

Potential Invasiveness of Devil Firefish Pterois miles (Bennett 1828) in the Eastern Adriatic Sea

“…The eastern coast is composed of limestone and its steep and narrow shelf deepens fast, whereas the western coast has a wider shelf because of sediments brought by rivers (Dulčić et al, 2005). A recently updated checklist of Adriatic Sea fishes with a critical assessment of each species using an evidence approach listed a total of 444 species (Kovačić et al, 2020), which represents nearly 60% of the Mediterranean Sea species richness (Lipej et al, 2022). Although the lower temperatures of the Adriatic Sea restrict the northward expansion of thermophilic non-native species, so far in the Croatian coastal areas the presence of 24 new non-native fish species has been recorded (Dulčić and Dragičević, 2011), whereas in Montenegro and Albania there are at least seven new non-native fish species, including silvercheeked toadfish Lagocephalus sceleratus and those belonging to the genus Siganus (Otero et al, 2013).…”

The spread of the non-indigenous species Bregmaceros nectabanus Whitley, 1941 (Osteichthyes: Bregmacerotidae) in the eastern Mediterranean

“…Climate change, anthropogenic activity and "non-indigenous migration" have changed the faunistic composition of the Mediterranean Sea during the last few decades (Albano et al, 2021;Lipej et al, 2022;Palermino et al, 2022).…”