Works on Marine Ecology and Invasive Species

Ocean warming and acidification are major drivers of change in marine ecosystems, with particularly strong impacts on low-mobility benthic organisms. Despite their ecological impo…

The Gulf of Heraklion is one of the most well-studied coastal marine ecosystems in the eastern Mediterranean. It is an oligotrophic area, exposed to wave action where muddy sedime…

In the past, only a few studies were carried out on the marine vegetation of the Island of Pantelleria, reporting a high level of biodiversity in this island. However, the most re…

Biological invasions are considered one of the main threats for biodiversity. In the last decades, more than 60 macroalgae have been introduced in the Mediterranean Sea, causing s…

The unique geography of Chile encompasses a wide diversity of ecosystems and a rich biodiversity. However, the platyhelminth fauna has been poorly studied. The aim of this work is…

Brittle stars (class Ophiuroidea) are marine invertebrates comprising approximately 2,100 extant species, and are considered to constitute the most diverse taxon of the phylum Ech…

To address the global biodiversity crisis, standardized data that are rapidly obtainable through minimally invasive means are needed for documenting change and informing conservat…

DNA metabarcoding has great potential to improve marine biomonitoring programs by providing a rapid and accurate assessment of species composition in zoobenthic communities. Howev…

Aquatic macroinvertebrates are often identified, based on morphology, but molecular approaches like DNA barcoding, metabarcoding and metagenomics are increasingly used for species…

Free-living flatworms, also known as turbellarians, are abundant and key components of aquatic habitats. They play vital roles in food webs and contribute to ecosystem health. How…

An overview of boring Australian Eophliantidae is provided along with the description of two new species of the genus Bircenna Chilton, 1884, B. thieli sp. nov. and B. hinojosai s…

We use molecular phylogenomic as well as morphological data to provide a taxonomic update on New Guinea endemic Philaccolilus diving beetles. In these lotic beetles, we find crypt…

A comprehensive morphological and genetic investigation of the widespread copepod species Acartia tonsa Dana 1849 has been conducted across the Black, Caspian, and Baltic seas. A.…

This study documents the first confirmed record of the white trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex) in the Black Sea. A specimen (354 mm TL and weight 703 g) was recorded near Varna, Bulg…

The alien species Macrobrachium nipponense (De Haan, 1849), known as the oriental river prawn, has been identified in the Bulgarian part of the Lower Danube for the first time, ba…

The availability of quantitative long term datasets on the phytobenthic assemblages of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (southern Italy, Mediterranean Sea), a lagoon like semi-enclosed …

Information on the presence of Pinna nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Mediterranean Sea is largely reported in literature because it is an endemic and, at the same time, endangered…

A central aspect of ecology is the understanding of how environmental factors influence species distribution, population structure, and dynamics, ultimately highlighting species’ …

Invasive alien species achieve their success through a set of traits that give them a fitness advantage over other species. Many of them are characterised by a generalist diet wit…

Shellfish mariculture, particularly of oysters, poses a significant risk for the introduction of non-native species into marine ecosystems. This study investigates the diversity o…

Invasions by non-indigenous species (NIS) are among the major problems that coastal ecosystems are facing globally and are driven by anthropogenic activities, such as internationa…

The widespread distribution of invasive species inevitably leads to the emergence of a new category of biotic relationships: interspecific predatory interactions between invasive …

Many freshwater ecosystems are currently facing the dual challenges of artificial light at night (ALAN) and nutrient enrichment. How these simultaneously acting environmental fact…

Human activities and environmental changes have significantly increased the introduction of non-native species (NIS) into marine habitats, posing a challenge to biodiversity and e…

Invasive species can disrupt disease dynamics in new areas. Upon introduction, an invasive species in its new range may be colonised by novel parasites that normally infect native…

Human activities have been transporting caprellid amphipods (or “skeleton shrimps”) across the oceans for many decades. As a result, some caprellid amphipods now are among the mos…

Invasive species often severely impact ecosystems and human activities in the areas that they invade. The lionfishes Pterois miles and P. volitans are regarded as the most success…

The tropical seagrass Halophila stipulacea (Forsskål) Ascherson, 1867 entered in the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal more than 100 years ago. In coastal-marine ecosystems…

Organism dispersal is nowadays highly driven by human vectors. This also refers to the aquatic organisms that can often silently spread in and invade new waters, especially when h…

Invasive species pose threats to either human health or inflict ecological and/or economic damage. The silver-cheeked toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus), a Lessepsian species, is …

A study of polyclad fauna of the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula was carried out from 2010 to 2013. The paper reports nine new records belonging to three Cotylean families…

Terrestrial mollusca are sparsely studied in Chile and, for the first time, a formal record of the diversity of land snails in northern Chile is reported. Coastal and desertic are…

We describe Phoronis emigi sp. n. as the eighth member of the genus based on specimens collected from a sandy bottom at 33.2 m depth in Tomioka Bay, Amakusa, Japan. The new specie…

Cirolana songkhla sp. n. was collected from brackish-water habitats including lagoons and estuaries in the coastal zone of the lower Gulf of Thailand. C. songkhla sp. n. is descri…

The genus Ficopomatus (Serpulidae) consists of sessile, tubicolous polychaete annelid worms that may colonize a diversity of substrata, and tolerate considerable variations in sal…

The genus Amphictene is reported for the first time from Mexico. Previous records for America are restricted to Brazil (A. catharinensis) (Grube, 1870), and Guatemala (A. guatemal…

The gorgoniid Eugorgia is exclusively an eastern Pacific genus. It has a wide geographic and bathymetric range of distribution, found from California to Perú and extends down to 6…

Most sternaspid species have been described from shallow water, and Caulleryaspis Sendall & Salazar-Vallejo, 2013 includes one deep water species: C. gudmundssoni Sendall & Salaza…

During a study of the epipelagic zooplankton carried out near the fringing reef around Sharm El-Sheikh area, in the northern Red Sea, female and male specimens of the poorly known…

Two new species of Demospongiae are described for British Columbia and adjacent waters in the family Axinellidae, Auletta krautteri sp. n. and Dragmacidon kishinensis sp. n. They …

The presence of two species within the Eurythoe complanata complex in the Mediterranean Sea is reported, as well as their geographical distributions. One species, Eurythoe laevise…

Temperate reefs, built by multilayers of encrusting algae accumulated during hundreds to thousands of years, represent one of the most important habitats of the Mediterranean Sea.…

Eleven taxa including one new species of gammaridean amphipods are reported from the waters of Pulau Tioman. The presence of Tethygeneia sunda sp. n. represents the first record o…

A new species of the genus Dugesia is described from the Lake Ohrid region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, forming the first fully documented species description for …

Sternaspid polychaetes are common and often abundant in soft bottoms in the world oceans. Some authors suggest that only one species should be recognized, whereas others regard a …

The first proven abyssal record of Stenosemus exaratus (G.O. Sars, 1878) is presented on the basis of an ROV study in the Irish Sea. For the first time in situ images of the speci…

The present synthesis focuses on the so called ‘horny sponges’ recorded from marine caves of the Mediterranean Sea. The main aim is to provide a list of all recorded species, diag…

The state of knowledge of the alien marine Mollusca in Italy is reviewed and updated. Littorina saxatilis (Olivi, 1792), Polycera hedgpethi Er. Marcus, 1964 and Haminoea japonica …

A new species of the genus Aeneator Finlay, 1926 is described from off the coast of Caldera (27°S), northern Chile. Aeneator martae sp. n. has a small, broad, stout, angulated she…

Buchneria dofleini (Buchner, 1924), type species of Buchneria Harmer, 1957, was first described from material collected in 1904–1905 from Sagami Bay, Japan, but the type specimens…