The toxin-producing microbial species Alexandrium minutum has a wide distribution in the Mediterranean Sea and causes high biomass blooms with consequences on the environment, human health and coastal-related economic activities. Comprehension of algal genetic differences and associated connectivity is fundamental to understand the geographical scale of adaptation and dispersal pathways of harm...

BACKGROUND Regime shifts are abrupt changes encompassing a multitude of physical properties and ecosystem variables, which lead to new regime conditions. Recent investigations focus on the changes in ecosystem diversity and functioning associated to such shifts. Of particular interest, because of the implication on climate drivers, are shifts that occur synchronously in separated basins. PRIN...

Efforts to intercompare many existing circulation type classification (CTC) methods have found no consistency in their outcomes. Therefore, when confronted with a task classify atmospheric types, it is difficult find clear guidelines. This study explores the ways of increasing between and obtaining physically meaningful practically useful results. By applying range CTC sea-level pressure fields...

This numerical study provides the first simulation of the anthropogenic tritium invasion and its decay product helium-3 (He) in the Mediterranean Sea. The simulation covers the entire tritium (H) transient generated by the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests performed in the 1950s and early 1960s and is run till 2011. Tritium, helium-3 and their derived age estimates are particularly suitable for...

Long distance migration occurs in a wide variety of taxa including birds, insects, fishes, mammals and reptiles. Here, we provide evidence for a new paradigm for the determinants of migration destination. As adults, sea turtles show fidelity to their natal nesting areas and then at the end of the breeding season may migrate to distant foraging sites. For a major rookery in the Mediterranean, we...

Abstract This study examines coupled relationships among clouds, atmospheric circulation, and sea ice in Antarctic winter. We find that the wave-3 pattern dominates leading covariability mode cloud, ice. Both horizontal transport vertical motion contribute to cloud formation, resulting maximum anomalies spatially between meridional wind pressure system. The radiative effect of clouds related ca...

Background. Calomera littoralis is a Palearctic species, widely distributed in Europe; inhabiting predominantly its Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea coastlines. Methods. Its phylogeography on the Balkan Peninsula and on the north-western Black Sea coast was inferred using a 697 bp long portion of the mitochondrial COI gene, amplified from 169 individuals collected on 43 localities. Results...

This study describes a new model implementation for the Mediterranean Sea with what is currently the highest vertical resolution over the Mediterranean basin. The resolution is of 1/16×1/16 in the horizontal and has 72 unevenly spaced vertical levels. This model has been developed in the frame of the EU-MFSTEP project and is the operational forecast model currently used at the basin scale. The ...