Article Review: Lessepsian migration of zooplankton through Suez Canal and its impact on ecological system

Abstract

The marine environment of the East Mediterranean has been considerably impacted in modern times by two man-made changes: the creation of a waterway between the Indo-Pacific and the Mediterranean basins and the control of the Nile fresh-water outflow. The opening of the Suez Canal caused a migration generally from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and rarely in the opposite direction as the Red Sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the Atlantic, so the Red Sea species have advantages over Atlantic species in the salty and nutrientpoor eastern Mediterranean. Accordingly Red Sea species invaded the Mediterranean ecosystem and not vice versa; this phenomenon is known as the Lessepsian migration or erythrean invasion. The composition of zooplankton in the eastern Mediterranean has been shown to include a large proportion of Indo-Pacific and other circumtropical species which have successfully settled and proliferated in this environment. During the present study, an overview is provided on zooplankton migration through Suez Canal and its impact on the ecological system based on published literature. It is also meant with the hydrographic and zooplankton characteristics of the adjacent seas. It is clear that, except jellyfish Rhopilema nomadica, the negative impact of zooplankton Lessepsian migratory species in the Egyptian Mediterranean waters is not evident. Finally, it would be concluded that, a continuous monitoring programme will be needed to record the recent erythrean zooplankton species and follow up the distribution and abundance of those previously recorded as aliens to assess their impacts on the native biodiversity of the Mediterranean. ª 2015 Hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Evaluating the Impact of Atmospheric Depositions on Springtime Dinitrogen Fixation in the Cretan Sea (Eastern Mediterranean)—A Mesocosm Approach

“…Zooplankton abundance did not vary significantly between the mesocosms (M. Lou personal communication). Specifically, no known diazotroph grazers such as Macrosetella gracilis that feed on Trichodesmium cells were found in our mesocosms nor observed in the few surveys performed in the EMS (Kimor and Wood, 1975;Zakaria, 2015). In contrary, we hypothesize that airborne microbes or viruses can be important in regulating surface N 2 fixation in the Mediterranean Sea.…”

Mesozooplankton spatial distribution and community structure in the South Adriatic Sea during two winters (2015, 2016)

“…dispar is one of the rarest calycophores in the Adriatic Sea (Gamulin & Kršinić, ) and was found last time at a station near Dubrovnik in the late 1960s. These species are Lessepsian migrants, which migrated from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean (Batistić et al., ; Zakaria, ) and their presence coincided with the cyclonic current circulation that governs the entry of Eastern Mediterranean waters into the Adriatic Sea.…”

“…Moreover, starting in early 2015, an additional warmer and saltier core was observed at the shelf break, at stations P300 and P600, between Mediterranean Sea (Brugnano, Bergamasco, Granata, Guglielmo, & Zagami, 2010;Estrada, Vives, & Alcaraz, 1985;Furnestin, 1979;Licandro & Icardi, 2009;Scotto di Carlo et al, 1984; rarest calycophores in the Adriatic Sea (Gamulin & Kršinić, 2000) and was found last time at a station near Dubrovnik in the late 1960s. These species are Lessepsian migrants, which migrated from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Zakaria, 2015) and their presence coincided with the cyclonic current circulation that governs the entry of Eastern Mediterranean waters into the Adriatic Sea.…”

Mesozooplankton in a stressed area of the Nile Delta Coast, Egypt.

“…During the past two decades, the zooplankton in the Egyptian Mediterranean waters has drawn great attention, particularly along the Alexandria coast (e.g. Abdel-Aziz, 2006;Abdel Aziz et al 2006;Zakaria, 2006Zakaria, , 2007Zakaria, , 2014Zakaria, , 2015Abou-Zaid et al 2014;Aboul-Ezz et al, 2014a;Abo-Taleb, 2014;Heneash, 2015;Abo-Taleb et al The mesozooplankton was studied biweekly for one year in a part of the Nile Delta coast laying under the stress of different human activities. The study recorded 59 species amounted totally to an average of 59.7 x10 3 orgm/m 3 .…”