Environmental drivers of distribution and reef development of the Mediterranean coral Cladocora caespitosa

Cladocora caespitosa is the only Mediterranean scleractinian similar to tropical reef-building corals. While this species is part of the recent fossil history of the Mediterranean Sea, it is currently considered endangered due to its decline during the last decades. Environmental factors affecting the distribution and persistence of extensive bank reefs of this endemic species across its whole geographic range are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the environmental response of C. caespitosa and its main types of assemblages using ecological niche modeling and ordination analysis. We also predicted other suitable areas for the occurrence of the species and assessed the conservation effectiveness of Mediterranean marine protected areas (MPAs) for this coral. We found that phosphate concentration and wave height were factors affecting both the occurrence of this versatile species and the distribution of its extensive bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea. A set of factors (diffuse attenuation coefficient, calcite and nitrate concentrations, mean wave height, sea surface temperature, and shape of the coast) likely act as environmental barriers preventing the species from expansion to the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea. Uncertainties in our large-scale statistical results and departures from previous physiological and ecological studies are also discussed under an integrative perspective. This study reveals that Mediterranean MPAs encompass eight of the ten banks and 16 of the 21 beds of C. caespitosa. Preservation of water clarity by avoiding phosphate discharges may improve the protection of this emblematic species.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [CTM2014-57949-R]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Benthic Fauna of Littoral and Deep-Sea Habitats of the Alboran Sea: A Hotspot of Biodiversity

En prens

The Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: Estimates, Patterns, and Threats

The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hot spot. Here we combined an extensive literature analysis with expert opinions to update publicly available estimates of major taxa in this marine ecosystem and to revise and update several species lists. We also assessed overall spatial and temporal patterns of species diversity and identified major changes and threats. Our results listed approximately 17,000 marine species occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. However, our estimates of marine diversity are still incomplete as yet—undescribed species will be added in the future. Diversity for microbes is substantially underestimated, and the deep-sea areas and portions of the southern and eastern region are still poorly known. In addition, the invasion of alien species is a crucial factor that will continue to change the biodiversity of the Mediterranean, mainly in its eastern basin that can spread rapidly northwards and westwards due to the warming of the Mediterranean Sea. Spatial patterns showed a general decrease in biodiversity from northwestern to southeastern regions following a gradient of production, with some exceptions and caution due to gaps in our knowledge of the biota along the southern and eastern rims. Biodiversity was also generally higher in coastal areas and continental shelves, and decreases with depth. Temporal trends indicated that overexploitation and habitat loss have been the main human drivers of historical changes in biodiversity. At present, habitat loss and degradation, followed by fishing impacts, pollution, climate change, eutrophication, and the establishment of alien species are the most important threats and affect the greatest number of taxonomic groups. All these impacts are expected to grow in importance in the future, especially climate change and habitat degradation. The spatial identification of hot spots highlighted the ecological importance of most of the western Mediterranean shelves (and in particular, the Strait of Gibraltar and the adjacent Alboran Sea), western African coast, the Adriatic, and the Aegean Sea, which show high concentrations of endangered, threatened, or vulnerable species. The Levantine Basin, severely impacted by the invasion of species, is endangered as well

Atlas de las praderas marinas de España

Knowledge of the distribution and extent of seagrass habitats is currently the basis of management and conservation policies of the coastal zones in most European countries. This basic information is being requested through European directives for the establishment of monitoring programmes and the implementation of specific actions to preserve the marine environment. In addition, this information is crucial for the quantification of the ecological importance usually attributed to seagrass habitats due to, for instance, their involvement in biogeochemical cycles, marine biodiversity and quality of coastal waters or global carbon budgets. The seagrass atlas of Spain represents a huge collective effort performed by 84 authors across 30 Spanish institutions largely involved in the scientific research, management and conservation of seagrass habitats during the last three decades. They have contributed to the availability of the most precise and realistic seagrass maps for each region of the Spanish coast which have been integrated in a GIS to obtain the distribution and area of each seagrass species. Most of this information has independently originated at a regional level by regional governments, universities and public research organisations, which explain the elevated heterogeneity in criteria, scales, methods and objectives of the available information. On this basis, seagrass habitats in Spain occupy a total surface of 1,541,63 km2, 89% of which is concentrated in the Mediterranean regions; the rest is present in sheltered estuarine areas of the Atlantic peninsular regions and in the open coastal waters of the Canary Islands, which represents 50% of the Atlantic meadows. Of this surface, 71.5% corresponds to Posidonia oceanica, 19.5% to Cymodocea nodosa, 3.1% to Zostera noltii (=Nanozostera noltii), 0.3% to Zostera marina and 1.2% to Halophila decipiens. Species distribution maps are presented (including Ruppia spp.), together with maps of the main impacts and pressures that has affected or threatened their conservation status, as well as the management tools established for their protection and conservation. Despite this considerable effort, and the fact that Spain has mapped wide shelf areas, the information available is still incomplete and with weak precision in many regions, which will require an investment of major effort in the near future to complete the whole picture and respond to demands of EU directives

Atlas de las praderas marinas de España

Knowledge of the distribution and extent of seagrass habitats is currently the basis of management and conservation policies of the coastal zones in most European countries. This basic information is being requested through European directives for the establishment of monitoring programmes and the implementation of specific actions to preserve the marine environment. In addition, this information is crucial for the quantification of the ecological importance usually attributed to seagrass habitats due to, for instance, their involvement in biogeochemical cycles, marine biodiversity and quality of coastal waters or global carbon budgets. The seagrass atlas of Spain represents a huge collective effort performed by 84 authors across 30 Spanish institutions largely involved in the scientific research, management and conservation of seagrass habitats during the last three decades. They have contributed to the availability of the most precise and realistic seagrass maps for each region of the Spanish coast which have been integrated in a GIS to obtain the distribution and area of each seagrass species. Most of this information has independently originated at a regional level by regional governments, universities and public research organisations, which explain the elevated heterogeneity in criteria, scales, methods and objectives of the available information. On this basis, seagrass habitats in Spain occupy a total surface of 1,541,63 km2, 89% of which is concentrated in the Mediterranean regions; the rest is present in sheltered estuarine areas of the Atlantic peninsular regions and in the open coastal waters of the Canary Islands, which represents 50% of the Atlantic meadows. Of this surface, 71.5% corresponds to Posidonia oceanica, 19.5% to Cymodocea nodosa, 3.1% to Zostera noltii (=Nanozostera noltii), 0.3% to Zostera marina and 1.2% to Halophila decipiens. Species distribution maps are presented (including Ruppia spp.), together with maps of the main impacts and pressures that has affected or threatened their conservation status, as well as the management tools established for their protection and conservation. Despite this considerable effort, and the fact that Spain has mapped wide shelf areas, the information available is still incomplete and with weak precision in many regions, which will require an investment of major effort in the near future to complete the whole picture and respond to demands of EU directives.Versión del edito

Filling gaps: closing the life cycle of the endangered Mediterranean limpet Patella ferruginea Gmelin, 1791 (Gastropoda, Patellidae)

Several reproductive issues and the larval development of the ferruginous limpet, Patella ferruginea Gmelin, 1791, an endangered species endemic from the western Mediterranean Sea, were studied to fill gaps in the knowledge of its life cycle. Average diameter of mature oocytes was 141.83 μm and mean oocyte density in the ovary was 283,800 oocytes/gram. No significant correlations were found between both oocyte diameter or density and female shell length. Female fecundity (number of oocytes per gonad) was significantly correlated with shell length and varied between 189,200 oocytes in a 40.0 mm female and 5,019,200 oocytes in an 86.4 mm female. However, there was considerable variability, in particular for the largest females. Spawning induction was not achieved using usual molluscan aquaculture methods. Thus, oocytes obtained after dissection of females were used for fertilisations trials. Alkalinisation treatments of seawater were used to test improvement in oocyte maturation and later fertilisation rates. Treatment at pH 9 during 2 h produced the highest increase in the percentage of mature oocytes and in the fertilisation rate; but these results showed high variability and were mainly significant when the initial degree of maturation was low. Sperm concentration experiments determined that best in vitro fertilisation was performed at 10 and 5×10 spermatozoids/ml. The sequence and timing of the complete larval development of Patella ferruginea in laboratory conditions is described and illustrated here for the first time. At 20 °C, larvae became competent for metamorphosis 3 days after fertilisation, but some crawling pediveliger larvae with a still well-developed velum were found even 7 days after fertilisation. Recruits 1–2 mm in length were achieved in low numbers from two of the assays and were first detected between 131–141 days after fertilisation. The resulting juveniles were monitored for two years and sex determination of five survivors at the end of this period showed that two were mature males, two mature females and one indeterminate. Our results show that the main reproductive traits or larval development of P. ferruginea hardly differ from those of other non-endangered Mediterranean or NE Atlantic limpet species. Therefore, its decline cannot be mainly attributed to constraints of these traits as was previously suggested, but to human impact. On the other hand, it is feasible to complete the life cycle of this species in laboratory conditions, from fertilised eggs to mature individuals. However, an important part of the process like spawning induction was not achieved as gonads needed to be dissected fatally from females, although sperm could be obtained from males through non-lethal biopsies. At present, large-scale aquaculture production for reintroduction, restocking or stock enhancement purposes is neither possible nor an advisable conservation tool yet. Further study is required and meanwhile, the appropriate design of a network of effectively protected marine areas that ensures connectivity among extant populations is necessary.This work was funded at initial stages (2006-2011) by contracts made by the Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (OAPN) and the Dirección General de Conservación de la Naturaleza of the former Spanish Ministerio de Medio Ambiente (1996-2008), Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino (2008-2011) and Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente (2011-2016). At its late stage (2011-2012), was funded by the project “Action plan for viability proposals of the endangered limpet, Patella ferruginea” (Project Cero of the Spanish Research Council-CSIC Foundation)

Paleoenvironmental significance of C and O isotopic signal in last interglacial gastropod Dendropoma shell concentrations from Canary (Spain) and Sal (Cape Verde) islands.

Se estudia el significado paleoambiental de los isótopos estables de C y O de la concha del gasterópodo irregular Dendropoma, considerado un marcador del nivel medio del mar, procedentes de terrazas pertenecientes al Ultimo Interglaciar de Fuerteventura y Lanzarote (Islas Canarias, España), y de la isla de Sal (Cabo Verde). Se compara con la señal actual de Dendropoma sp. de la isla de Sal, y D. petraeum del Cabo de Palos (Murcia, España). El rango de valores es casi siempre menor a 1 ä, excepto para ä13C de los ejemplares de Fuerteventura (3,57‰) y ä18O de los de Cabo de Palos (2,09‰). La diferencia entre ä18O de los ejemplares de Fuerteventura con respecto a los de la isla de Sal, si la salinidad no cambió, probablemente refleja una diferencia de 3-4 ºC en la temperatura de la superficie del agua del mar (SST) de ambas zonas, similar a la que existe actualmente. Para la isla de Sal, en ausencia de cambios de salinidad y volumen de hielo, la diferencia de SST entre el Ultimo Interglacial y el Presente Interglacial sería de 2 ºC. [ABSTRACT] We study the paleoenvironmental significance of the C and O isotopes of the irregular coiled gastropod Dendropoma, a remarkable biological marker of mean sea level, of sediments aged as Last Interglacial from Fuerteventura and Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain), and from the Sal Island (Cape Verde). Recent Dendropoma sp. from the Sal Island and D. petraeum from Cabo de Palos (Murcia, Spain) are also utilized. Range of results generally is lower than 1 ä, both for the C and O, except for the ä18O in Cabo de Palos (2,09‰), and for the ä13C from Fuerteventura (3,57‰). Differences between ä18O shells of the Last Interglacial (LI) from Fuerteventura with respect to that of Cape Verde, if salinity do not changed, probably reflects differences of 3-4 ºC in the sea surface temperature (SST), similar to the Recent. In Sal Island, if salinity and ice-volume do not changed, the difference between SST of the LI and Recent probably was of 2 ºC

Molecular Phylogeny of Euthyneura (Mollasca: Gastropoda)

A new phylogenetic hypothesis for Euthyneura is proposed based on the analysis of primary sequence data (mitochondrial cox1, trnV, rrnL, trnL(cun), trnA, trnP, nad6, and nad5 genes) and the phylogenetic utility of two rare genomic changes (the relative position of the mitochondrial trnP gene, and an insertion/deletion event in a conserved region of the mitochondrial Cox1 protein) is addressed., Both sources of phylogenetic information clearly rejected the monophyly of pulmonates, a group of gastropods well supported so far by morphological evidence. The marine basommatophoran pulmonate Siphonaria was placed within opisthobranchs and shared with them the insertion of a Glycine in the Cox 1 protein. The marine systellommatophoran pulmonate Onchidella was recovered at the base of the opisthobranch + Siphonaria clade. Opisthobranchs, Siphonaria, and Onchidella shared the relative position of the mitochondrial trnP gene between the mitochondrial trnA and nad6 genes. The land snails and slugs (stylommatophoran pulmonates) were recovered as an early split in the phylogeny of advanced gastropods. The monophyly of the Euthyneura (Opisthobranchia + Pulmonata) was rejected by the inclusion of the heterostrophan Pyramidella.C.G. was sponsored by a predoctoral fellowship of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. This work received financial support from projects of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología to J.T. (REN2000-0890/GLO), to J.L.C. (REN2001-1956-C17-02/GLO), and to R.Z. (REN2001-1514/GLO).Peer Reviewe

The complete mitochondrial genome of the nudibranch Roboastra europaea (Mollusca: Gastropoda) supports the monophyly of opisthobranchs

The complete nucleotide sequence (14,472 bp) of the mitochondrial genome of the nudibranch Roboastra europaea (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) was determined. This highly compact mitochondrial genome is nearly identical in gene organization to that found in opisthobranchs and pulmonates (Euthyneura) but not to that in prosobranchs (a paraphyletic group including the most basal lineages of gastropods). The newly determined mitochondrial genome differs only in the relative position of the trnC gene when compared with the mitochondrial genome of Pupa strigosa, the only opisthobranch mitochondrial genome sequenced so far. Pupa and Roboastra represent the most basal and derived lineages of opisthobranchs, respectively, and their mitochondrial genomes are more similar in sequence when compared with those of pulmonates. All phylogenetic analyses (maximum parsimony, minimum evolution, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian) based on the deduced amino acid sequences of all mitochondrial protein-coding genes supported the monophyly of opisthobranchs. These results are in agreement with the classical view that recognizes Opisthobranchia as a natural group and contradict recent phylogenetic studies of the group based on shorter sequence data sets. The monophyly of opisthobranchs was further confirmed when a fragment of 2,500 nucleotides including the mitochondrial cox, rrnL, nad6, and nad5 genes was analyzed in several species representing five different orders of opisthobranchs with all common methods of phylogenetic inference. Within opisthobranchs, the polyphyly of cephalaspideans and the monophyly of nudibranchs were recovered. The evolution of mitochondrial tRNA rearrangements was analyzed using the cox1+rrnL+nad6+nad5 gene phylogeny. The relative position of the trnP gene between the trnA and nad6 genes was found to be a synapomorphy of opisthobranchs that supports their monophyly.C.G. was sponsored by a predoctoral fellowship of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. This work received financial support from projects of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología to J.T. (REN2000-0890/GLO) and to R.Z. (REN2001-1514/GLO).Peer Reviewe