The bioinvasion of the Mediterranean from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal, called Lessepsian bioinvasion, was used as a way to uncover the invading potential of different genetic clades. Populations of blotchfin dragonet Callionymus filamentosus were assessed, based on 2 mitochondrial markers (control region and cytochrome oxidase 1) and 2 nuclear markers (2nd intron of the ribosomal protein S7 ...

BACKGROUND Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABFT) shows complex demography and ecological variation in the Mediterranean Sea. Genetic surveys have detected significant, although weak, signals of population structuring; catch series analyses and tagging programs identified complex ABFT spatial dynamics and migration patterns. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the genetic structure of the ABFT in the Med...

The gills of 63 specimens of the Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus) (Osteichthyes: Scombridae) from three localities of the Mediterranean (Sardinian, Tyrrhenian and Levantine Seas) were examined for metazoan parasites. The parasite fauna of T. thynnus from the Sea of Sardinia included 11 species: five didymozoid trematodes, three capsalid and one hexostomid monogeneans, and one ca...

Fossil Fuels are always considered as environmental pollutants. On the other hand, the political and economic situations highly affect the price of these fuels. Offshore wind and wave, as renewable energy sources, represent the better alternatives for electricity generation. Therefore, it is necessary that wind speeds effectively be estimated due to the absence of field measurements of the wind...

The semienclosed western Mediterranean Sea has proven to be a useful location to evaluate surface heat flux estimates. In the past the directly measured average oceanic heat transport from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar of ;5.2 6 1.3 W m has been compared to estimates of the average heat flux across the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. On long timescale...

Genetic variation was surveyed at nine microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial control region (868 bp) to test for the presence of genetic stock structure in young-of-the-year Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus thynnus) from the Mediterranean Sea. Bluefin tuna were sampled over a period of 5 years from the Balearic and Tyrrhenian seas in the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea, and fro...

Pinna nobilis is the largest endemic Mediterranean marine bivalve. During past centuries, various human activities have promoted the regression of its populations. As a consequence of stringent standards of protection, demographic expansions are currently reported in many sites. The aim of this study was to provide the first large broad-scale insight into the genetic variability of P. nobilis i...

Marine cryptic species, taxa that are morphologically identical but genetically distinct, may be important and underestimated components of the ecosystem. The understanding of several ecological interactions, such as marine bioinvasions, could be altered by the correct description of the bioinvaders. Here, we have focused our study on the hardyhead silverside, Atherinomorus lacunosus, a Lesseps...

The Mediterranean Sea is considered as one of the hotspots of marine bioinvasions, largely due to the influx of tropical species migrating through the Suez Canal, so-called Lessepsian migrants. Several cases of Lessepsian migration have been documented recently, however, little is known about the ecological characteristics of the migrating species and their aptitude to colonize the new areas. T...