Citizen Science Helps in Tracking the Range Expansions of Non-Indigenous and Neo-Native Species in Greece and Cyprus (Eastern Mediterranean Sea)

Raising knowledge of the dispersal non-indigenous species (NIS) in new geographic areas is a matter major concern, as alien may outcompete native biota through competition, predation, and hybridization. In Mediterranean Sea, where biological invasions constitute serious threat, combined use citizen science social networks amplified results obtained via traditional research activities, often recording that would otherwise presumably have passed unnoticed. We hereby report unpublished data for five NIS (the annelid Branchiomma luctuosum, shrimp Saron marmoratus fishes Lutjanus argentimaculatus, Oxyurichthys petersii, specimens group Abudefduf saxatilis/vaigiensis/troschelii) one neo-native (Seriola fasciata) Greece Cyprus (eastern Sea), majority which were focused citizen-science project records at country level. also revise update their known distribution invaded area, thus contributing to study large-scale well-defined distributional patterns spreading Sea.