ORMEF: a Mediterranean database of exotic fish records

Abstract

The Mediterranean Sea is recognized today as the World’s most invaded marine region, but observations of species occurrences remain scattered in the scientific literature and scarcely accessible. Here we introduce the ORMEF database: a first comprehensive and robust compilation of exotic fish observations recorded over more than a century in the Mediterranean. ORMEF consists today of 4015 geo-referenced occurrences from 20 Mediterranean Countries, extracted from 670 scientific published papers. We collated information on 188 fish taxa that are thus divided: 106 species entered through the Suez Canal; 25 species introduced by shipping, mariculture, aquarium release or by means of other human activities; 57 Atlantic species, whose arrival in the Mediterranean has been attributed to the unassisted immigration through the strait of Gibraltar. Each observation included in the ORMEF database was submitted to a severe quality control and checked for geographical and taxonomic biases. ORMEF is a new authoritative reference for Mediterranean bio-invasion research and a living archive to inform management strategies and policymakers in a period of rapid environmental transformation.

Spatio‐temporal dynamics of exotic fish species in the Mediterranean Sea: Over a century of invasion reconstructed

“…Our study is based on the georeferenced ORMEF database (Azzurro et al, 2022 ). Earlier versions have been employed for large‐scale investigations of invasive species (e.g.…”

“…This basin, which is naturally rich in species and endemisms (Coll et al, 2010 ; Lejeusne et al, 2010 ), is undergoing a climate‐related decline of the native biodiversity (Albano et al, 2021 ) and a continuous invasion of exotic species. More than 1000 non‐indigenous taxa have been detected to date (Zenetos & Galanidi, 2020 ), including rising numbers of exotic fish (Azzurro et al, 2022 ; Golani et al, 2021 ). The most important entry route is the Suez Canal.…”

“…We exploited a new, large compilation of georeferenced occurrences that have recently been extracted from the Mediterranean literature through the ORMEF (Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fishes) database (Azzurro et al, 2022 ). The dataset—which consists of 4015 georeferenced observations of 188 fish species new to the Mediterranean Sea—offers an invaluable opportunity to explore a centuries‐old invasion across space and time in a consistent way over an entire marine region.…”

Climate change paves the way for a new inter‐ocean fish interchange

“…In our analyses, we considered ten of the most invasive fishes of the Mediterranean Sea: Etrumeus golanii, Fistularia commersonii, Lagocephalus sceleratus, Pterois miles, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Stephanolepis diaspros, Upeneus moluccensis, Hemiramphus far, and Sphyraena chrysotaenia. Occurrence data in the native (Indo-Pacific) and exotic (Mediterranean) ranges were obtained from the database compiled by D'Amen and Azzurro (2020a), which has been updated recently (Azzurro et al 2021(Azzurro et al , 2022. Environmental marine layers were downloaded from the open-access Bio-ORACLE database at 5-arcminute resolution, including both current (2020) conditions as well as future (2050 and 2100) conditions under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) (Assis et al 2018).…”

“…Occurrence data in the native (Indo‐Pacific) and exotic (Mediterranean) ranges were obtained from the database compiled by D’Amen and Azzurro (2020a), which has been updated recently (Azzurro et al . 2021, 2022). Environmental marine layers were downloaded from the open‐access Bio‐ORACLE database at 5‐arcminute resolution, including both current (2020) conditions as well as future (2050 and 2100) conditions under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) (Assis et al .…”