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Benthic Biodiversity in the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea
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Benthic Biodiversity in the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2021) | Viewed by 14361

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Fabio Crocetta

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, National Institute of Biology, Ecology and Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, 80121 Naples, Italy
Interests: Mediterranean biota; historical ecology; integrative taxonomy; barcoding; litter communities; alien species; citizen science; Mollusca

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The northeastern Atlantic, and in particular the Mediterranean Sea, has a long history of scientific exploration and is commonly considered a biodiversity hotspot, hosting a variegate biota that is the best known worldwide. Despite that, the northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea can be still somehow considered as understudied and prone to the discovery of new species and assemblages. Moreover, the arrival and spread of alien species have increasingly threatened local assemblages in the last century, raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity for human well-being. This Special Issue will fill gaps in biodiversity studies in the area, focusing on various connected topics, ranging from species to community level, and from coastal to deep-sea environments.

Dr. Fabio Crocetta
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Benthic assemblages
  • Species interactions
  • Coastal and deep-sea
  • Endemisms
  • Alien species
  • Habitat formers
  • Taxonomy
  • Ecology
  • Anthropogenic impacts
  • Citizen science

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 19038 KiB  
Article
Really Onychocellids? Revisions and New Findings Increase the Astonishing Bryozoan Diversity of the Mediterranean Sea
by Antonietta Rosso, Vasilis Gerovasileiou and Emanuela Di Martino
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(11), 904; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8110904 - 11 Nov 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2571
Abstract
Investigation of bryozoan faunas collected in two submarine caves in Lesvos Island, Aegean Sea revealed a great number of colonies of three species currently assigned to the cheilostome family Onychocellidae: Onychocella marioni Jullien, 1882, O. vibraculifera Neviani, 1895, and Smittipora disjuncta Canu & [...] Read more.
Investigation of bryozoan faunas collected in two submarine caves in Lesvos Island, Aegean Sea revealed a great number of colonies of three species currently assigned to the cheilostome family Onychocellidae: Onychocella marioni Jullien, 1882, O. vibraculifera Neviani, 1895, and Smittipora disjuncta Canu & Bassler, 1930. All species were first described and subsequently recorded on several occasions, from the Mediterranean Sea, particularly from the Aegean Sea. The availability of this material provided the basis for more detailed observations and first scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study of some diagnostic characters, including ovicells and ancestrulae, for the well-known species, as well as a few colonies of a species left in open nomenclature (i.e., Onychocellidae sp. 1) in previous works. In this paper we (i) update the descriptions of these four species; (ii) resurrect the species Floridinella arculifera Canu & Bassler, 1927, which was previously synonymised with Caleschara minuta (Maplestone, 1909), suggesting for it the new combination Tretosina arculifera; (iii) and introduce the new genus Bryobifallax for S. disjuncta. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Benthic Biodiversity in the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea)
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20 pages, 4168 KiB  
Article
Seagrass of Vasiliko Bay, Eastern Mediterranean: Lost Cause or Priority Conservation Habitat?
by Demetris Kletou, Periklis Kleitou, Ioannis Savva, Martin J. Attrill, Stephanos Charalambous, Alexis Loucaides and Jason M. Hall-Spencer
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(9), 717; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8090717 - 16 Sep 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3782
Abstract
Mediterranean coasts are affected by multiple mounting pressures. In Cyprus, marine fish farming has grown rapidly in the past decade and is concentrated in the west side of Vasiliko Bay. The east coast of this bay has ports, a power station, a desalination [...] Read more.
Mediterranean coasts are affected by multiple mounting pressures. In Cyprus, marine fish farming has grown rapidly in the past decade and is concentrated in the west side of Vasiliko Bay. The east coast of this bay has ports, a power station, a desalination unit, a cement factory, a major new oil terminal, and gas storage facilities. The bay is earmarked to create the largest hydrocarbon processing, storing, and transport facility in the region. Here, we assess the status of Posidonia oceanica habitat in an understudied region at the upper thermal, and eastern limit, of this Mediterranean endemic seagrass. An extensive ancient seagrass meadow was revealed, covering about 200 ha across 10 km of coastline, over soft substrata at ca 10–30 m depth, and over hard substrata at ca 0–6 m depth. Seagrass shoot density and leaf surface area decreased, both with increasing depth and with proximity to industrial developments; part of the meadow had been destroyed by dredging to build a jetty. Close to fish farms the seagrass had higher epiphytic biomass as well as lower leaf number, mass, and surface area, all of which indicate adverse effects of eutrophication and increased turbidity. Despite these multiple stressors, most of the meadow was in good ecological status, with some of the highest shoot densities ever reported. Furthermore, iconic species like sea turtles, monk seals, and dolphins were seen during sampling. Posidonia oceanica meadows off Cyprus are among the most valuable in the Mediterranean due to their tolerance of high seawater temperatures. Managers of future coastal developments in the region will need to adhere to European legislation and international conventions designed to secure the socioeconomic benefits of seagrass beds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Benthic Biodiversity in the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea)
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17 pages, 8774 KiB  
Article
The More You Search, the More You Find: A New Mediterranean Endemism of the Genus Ocenebra Gray, 1847 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Muricidae) from a Submarine Cave of the Messina Strait Area (Italy)
by Fabio Crocetta, Roland Houart and Giuseppe Bonomolo
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(6), 443; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8060443 - 16 Jun 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4816
Abstract
Three hundred years of study on the Mediterranean molluscan fauna led the scientific community to consider it as the best ever known. However, the rate at which new taxa are discovered and described every year is still remarkably high, even in key predators [...] Read more.
Three hundred years of study on the Mediterranean molluscan fauna led the scientific community to consider it as the best ever known. However, the rate at which new taxa are discovered and described every year is still remarkably high, even in key predators such as Muricidae Rafinesque, 1815. Within this family, the genus Ocenebra Gray, 1847 comprises species widely distributed in the northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea that were already the target of a decadal nomenclatural, morphological, and molecular combined research. Notwithstanding, we hereby describe an additional ocenebrid endemism from the Mediterranean Sea, whose distribution appears to be restricted to a circalittoral submarine cave of the Messina Strait area (Italy). The new species Ocenebra vazzanai is compared with the recent Atlanto-Mediterranean congeneric taxa on the basis of the known type materials, and a table summarizing the main diagnostic features of the species is offered to facilitate future identifications. The high biodiversity highlighted in the genus Ocenebra reveals a wide adaptive radiation and suggests the necessity of further studies aiming to tackle biodiversity issues even in popular groups, such as molluscs, and in widely studied biogeographic areas, such as Italy, and the Mediterranean basin in general. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Benthic Biodiversity in the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea)
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8 pages, 1389 KiB  
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Hiding in Fouling Communities: A Native Spider Crab Decorating with a Cryptogenic Bryozoan in a Mediterranean Marina
by Valentina Tanduo, Riccardo Virgili, David Osca and Fabio Crocetta
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2021, 9(5), 495; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse9050495 - 03 May 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2498
Abstract
Camouflage is the method by which animals conceal by blending in with the environment, and may be achieved by fixed or changing color, shape, texture, chemical secretions, and/or behavior [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Benthic Biodiversity in the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea)
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