Costal reclamation has been carried out extensively along the coastlines of Arabian Gulf during last decades. As a small archipelago country, coastal continues to be major option for securing land meet needs expanding population and economic development in Bahrain. Macrobenthic communities often reflect integrity ecosystems as they respond natural anthropogenic stressors. This study characteriz...

The large-scale deep-sea biodiversity distribution of the benthic fauna was explored in the Mediterranean Sea, which can be seen as a miniature model of the oceans of the world. Within the framework of the BIOFUN project ("Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Contrasting Southern European Deep-sea Environments: from viruses to megafauna"), we investigated the large spatial scale variabilit...

Sponges have long been considered as “living hotels” due to the great diversity and abundance of other taxonomic groups often found in association with them. are dominant components benthic communities Levant Sea; especially recently discovered mesophotic sponge grounds off coast Israel. However, almost no data exist regarding their associated macrofauna. The current study sought identify macro...

A benthic-pelagic mesocosm experiment was performed to study how the benthic macrofaunal community responds to a eutrophication gradient. The novel experimental setup allowed the induction of an eutrophication gradient in the water column and the detailed documentation of the response of the benthos in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Nine mesocosms were deployed in the facilities...

Oxygen depletion can lead to the collapse of benthic ecosystems, i.e. to dead zones, and large-scale biodiversity loss. Based on mortality and survival, we evaluated ranges of sensitivity and tolerance to hypoxia levels, duration of anoxia and H2S exposure across taxa and key life habits. Experiments were conducted on a sublittoral soft-bottom under realistic in situ conditions in a community s...