Long-term changes in a Ligurian infralittoral community (Mediterranean Sea): A warning signal?

Longobardi, Lorenzo; Bavestrello, Giorgio; Betti, Federico; Cattaneo‐Vietti, Riccardo

doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2017.03.011

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The upper infralittoral zone of Portofino hosts a rather rich benthic fauna (e.g. Bertolino et al 2016;Betti et al 2017;Longobardi et al 2017) and this is supported by our study of the Pycnogonida. The number of species identified in our study is close to that recorded by Chimenz et al (1979) in the Civitavecchia harbor in the Tyrrhenian Sea.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

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Pycnogonids (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Portofino, Ligurian Sea (North-Western Mediterranean Sea)

Galli

Colasanto

Betti

et al. 2019

The European Zoological Journal

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Pycnogonida collected monthly from September 2017 to August 2018 in the Portofino Marine Protected Area at 0-5 m depth were studied. A total of 499 specimens were collected, 457 of which were identified to species level. These were classified as belonging to 10 species: Achelia echinata*, Ascorhynchus castelli, Neotrygaeus communis*, Tanystylum conirostre*, Anoplodactylus angulatus, A. petiolatus, A. pygmaeus*, A. virescens, Callipallene phantoma and C. tiberi*. For five dominant species (those marked with an asterisk) the annual phenology was outlined. Four hundred and seventeen additional specimens, collected from the same area and depth range mainly during the 1970s and 1980s were identified to species level for completeness of information, leading to the addition of Pycnogonum pusillum and Endeis spinosa.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Some studies, driven by mass mortality following water warming events (e.g. Cerrano et al 2000;Schiaparelli et al 2007;Cerrano & Bavestrello 2008), focused on the long-term changes in structure and composition of the benthic communities (Bertolino et al 2016;Betti et al 2017;Longobardi et al 2017).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Pycnogonids (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Portofino, Ligurian Sea (North-Western Mediterranean Sea)

Galli

Colasanto

Betti

et al. 2019

The European Zoological Journal

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“…The barnacle Perforatus perforatus and the scleractinian coral Leptopsammia pruvoti (as well as Balanophyllia europaea and Caryophyllia inornata ), common in 1991, were not found again in subsequent years. A decadal study (2002–2013) at Portofino MPA (about 80 km east of Gallinara) obtained the same result, and seawater warming has been invoked as a putative cause (Betti et al, ; Longobardi, Bavestrello, Betti, & Cattaneo‐Vietti, ). In the case of sponges, the results were contradictory: Scalarispongia scalaris , a major component of APO in 1991, disappeared, possibly as a result of summer heat waves in the late 1990s (Cerrano et al, ); Sarcotragus foetidus became more abundant, as observed in other Mediterranean areas (Bianchi et al, ); and Axinella polypoides , a species protected under the European Habitats Directive (Longo et al, ), became more scarce.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The park never born: Outcome of a quarter of a century of inaction on the sea‐floor integrity of a proposed but not established Marine Protected Area

Bianchi

Cocito

Diviacco

et al. 2018

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a major tool to conserve marine ecosystems but are also strongly attractive to tourists, the increased numbers of which can cause environmental issues if not properly managed.2. Proposing an MPA and then failing to establish it risks advertising the beauty of a marine area without managing the unavoidable increase in tourism. This is what happened at Gallinara Island (Ligurian Sea, north-western Mediterranean), where an MPA was proposed in 1990 but has not yet been established. 3. Benthic data collected soon after the proposal (1990-92) have been compared with similar information obtained in subsequent periods (2009 and 2016): change has been assessed both visually and statistically, using multivariate and univariate techniques. 4. The Gallinara sea floor supported five epibenthic communities in 1991, four of which corresponded to European Nature Information System (EUNIS) habitats; the fifth epibenthic community, characterized by the erect sponge Axinella polypoides, should be included in the next revision of EUNIS. 5. In the 25 years since the original MPA proposal, all epibenthic communities have exhibited a reduction in their three-dimensional structure and biotic homogenization, and severe decreases in species diversity, and the sea floor has been littered with derelict fishing gear and other waste from boats. 6. In absence of the MPA, proposals to develop a management plan for a marine Site of Community Importance (SCI) have been provided, to reduce sea-based human pressures. The dramatic alteration of Gallinara sea floor after 25 years of negligence and inaction is a sad warning for other unmanaged yet beautiful natural areas within urbanized regions of the world.

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“…Almost two decades ago, it was already highlighted that the spread of alien species and its fast distribution northwards and from the east to the west may be due to the fact that some temperature physical barriers are weaker . Actually, the progressive warming of the Mediterranean shallow waters is influencing the delicate coexistence of boreal, temperate, sub-tropical and tropical species (Moschella 2008;Corriero et al 2015;Longobardi et al 2017). Many of these deep environmental changes and its repercussions on single species or whole ecosystem functioning have been highlighted, such as the more frequent occurrence of harmful algal blooms (Mangialajo et al 2010;Faimali et al 2012;Privitera et al 2012), mass mortalities of sponges and anthozoans in shallow waters (Cerrano et al 2000;Linares et al 2005;Garrabou et al 2009;Rivetti et al 2014;Parravicini et al 2015), and changes in biodiversity of Mediterranean communities (Puce et al 2009;Gatti et al 2015;Gravili et al 2015a;Betti et al 2017a, and references therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of global warming on reproduction and potential dispersal of Mediterranean Cnidarians

Rossi

Gravili

Milisenda

et al. 2019

The European Zoological Journal

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Water temperature directly affects life cycles, reproductive periods, and metabolism of organisms living the oceans, especially in the surface zones. Due to the ocean warming, changes in water stratification and primary productivity are affecting trophic chains in sensitive world areas, such as the Mediterranean Sea. Benthic and pelagic cnidarians exhibit complex responses to climatic conditions. For example, the structure and phenology of the Mediterranean hydrozoan community displayed marked changes in species composition, bathymetric distribution, and reproductive timing over the last decades. The regional species pool remained stable in terms of species numbers but not in terms of species identity. When the Scyphozoa group is considered, we observe that Pelagia noctiluca (among the most abundant jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic waters) has increasingly frequent massive outbreaks associated to warmer winters. Variations in metabolic activities, such as respiration and excretion, are strongly temperature-dependent, with direct increment of energetic costs with jellyfish size and temperature, leading to growth rate reduction. Water temperature affects sexual reproduction through changes in the energy storage and gonad development cycles. Anthozoan life cycles depend also on primary productivity and temperature: gonadal production and spawning are tightly related in shallow populations (0-30 m depth) with the spring-summer temperature trends and autumn food availability. Overall, the energy transferred from the mother colonies to the offspring may decrease, negatively affecting their potential to settle, metamorphose and feed during the first months of their lives, eventually impairing the dominance of long-living cnidarian suspension feeders in shallow benthic habitats. In this review, we describe the already ongoing effects of sea warming on several features of cnidarian reproduction, trying to elucidate how reproductive traits and potential dispersion will be affected by the cascade effects of increasing temperature in the Mediterranean Sea.

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Long-term changes in a Ligurian infralittoral community (Mediterranean Sea): A warning signal?

Cited by 18 publications

References 37 publications

Pycnogonids (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Portofino, Ligurian Sea (North-Western Mediterranean Sea)

Pycnogonids (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Portofino, Ligurian Sea (North-Western Mediterranean Sea)

The park never born: Outcome of a quarter of a century of inaction on the sea‐floor integrity of a proposed but not established Marine Protected Area

Effects of global warming on reproduction and potential dispersal of Mediterranean Cnidarians

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