State of the knowledge on European marine habitat mapping and degraded habitats

During the last decades, several EU Directives and other international legislations have generated a large number of national initiatives (e.g. marine atlases) and EU programmes on habitat mapping. Nevertheless, the outcomes of these initiatives are fragmented and, to our best knowledge, to date there is no systematic assessment regarding the nature, quality and availability of information across the European seas. One of the main goals of the MERCES project (www.merces-project.eu) is to produce a census of available maps of European key marine habitats, along with their degradation status and restoration potential in the European Seas, providing a potential basis for future discussion on restoration activities. MERCES is producing a census of European marine key habitat maps, degraded habitat maps and investigating key habitat restoration potential. To do this MERCES has i. reviewed known existing habitat maps of European regional seas and provided source citations for all of the information ii. reviewed degraded habitat map resources by regional sea and habitat type (e.g. seagrass, macroalgae, coral gardens, sponge aggregations, seamounts, vents), associated habitat deterioration (e.g. extent of decline), the most common human activities and pressures reported, and the recovery and restoration potential of these habitats iii. reviewed 6 key habitats (including kelp and macroalgal forests, seagrass meadows, coralligenous assemblages, coral gardens and deep-sea bottom communities) and linked 6 major habitat features, such as dynamics, connectivity, structural complexity and vulnerability, to consequences for restoration and the likelihood of restoration succes

Collaborative Database to Track Mass Mortality Events in the Mediterranean Sea

Anthropogenic climate change, and global warming in particular, has strong and increasing impacts on marine ecosystems (Poloczanska et al., 2013; Halpern et al., 2015; Smale et al., 2019). The Mediterranean Sea is considered a marine biodiversity hot-spot contributing to more than 7% of world's marine biodiversity including a high percentage of endemic species (Coll et al., 2010). The Mediterranean region is a climate change hotspot, where the respective impacts of warming are very pronounced and relatively well documented (Cramer et al., 2018). One of the major impacts of sea surface temperature rise in the marine coastal ecosystems is the occurrence of mass mortality events (MMEs). The first evidences of this phenomenon dated from the first half of'80 years affecting the Western Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea (Harmelin, 1984; Bavestrello and Boero, 1986; Gaino and Pronzato, 1989; Voultsiadou et al., 2011). The most impressive phenomenon happened in 1999 when an unprecedented large scale MME impacted populations of more than 30 species from different phyla along the French and Italian coasts (Cerrano et al., 2000; Perez et al., 2000). Following this event, several other large scale MMEs have been reported, along with numerous other minor ones, which are usually more restricted in geographic extend and/or number of affected species (Garrabou et al., 2009; Rivetti et al., 2014; Marbà et al., 2015; Rubio-Portillo et al., 2016, authors' personal observations). These events have generally been associated with strong and recurrent marine heat waves (Crisci et al., 2011; Kersting et al., 2013; Turicchia et al., 2018; Bensoussan et al., 2019) which are becoming more frequent globally (Smale et al., 2019). Both field observations and future projections using Regional Coupled Models (Adloff et al., 2015; Darmaraki et al., 2019) show the increase in Mediterranean sea surface temperature, with more frequent occurrence of extreme ocean warming events. As a result, new MMEs are expected during the coming years. To date, despite the efforts, neither updated nor comprehensive information can support scientific analysis of mortality events at a Mediterranean regional scale. Such information is vital to guide management and conservation strategies that can then inform adaptive management schemes that aim to face the impacts of climate change.MV-L was supported by a postdoctoral contract Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación (IJCI-2016-29329) of Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. AI was supported by a Technical staff contract (PTA2015-10829-I) Ayudas Personal Técnico de Apoyo of Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (2015). Interreg Med Programme (grant number Project MPA-Adapt 1MED15_3.2_M2_337) 85% cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund, the MIMOSA project funded by the Foundation Prince Albert II Monaco and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 689518 (MERCES). DG-G was supported by an FPU grant (FPU15/05457) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. J-BL was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020

MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF PUFFER FISH LAGOCEPHALUS SCELERATUS (GMELIN, 1789) AND LAGOCEPHALUS SPADICEUS (RICHARDSON, 1845) FROM EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, TURKEY

WOS: 000378967600015The Mediterranean Sea is home to numerous invasive marine species. The Suez Canal is considered as the major route of migrating Indo-Pacific species known as Lessepsian species, from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. One of those species Lagocephalus sceleratus and Lagocephalus spadiceus has serious impact on the ecosystem, fisheries and human health within a decade. DNA based methods are frequently preferred and reliable techniques in species identification studies. The 16S rRNA genes and cytochrome b genes are relatively conserved mitochondrial genes, used for this purpose. 16S rRNA gene primers and cytochrome b gene specific pirmers were used to identify Turkish L. sceleratus and L. spadiceus specimens from Gokova Bay via PCR analysis. Obtained gene sequence deposited in GenBank databse. Consequently, it was obtained that cytochrome b gene sequence is more useful than 16S rRNA gene region for identification of L. spadiceus samples while both gene region give reasonable results for L. sceleratus species.United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under Small Grants Programme (SGP) [TUR/SGP/OP5/STAR/BD/13/02]This work was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under Small Grants Programme (SGP) number TUR/SGP/OP5/STAR/BD/13/0

Association of Prototheca species and protothecosis in man and animals

WOS: 000244621700002Prototheca is an aerobic, achlorophilic and unicellular organism with ovoid shape; it is often confused with yeasts. Prototheca cells are fairly common in a variety of enviroments such as sewage, freshwater, soil, rotting leaves, faeces, skin and various mammals (deer, cat, dog, cattle and humans). Prototheca species are widespread in housing areas, pens and pastures used by dairy cattle and can cause mastitis in dairy cattle. Protothecosis is an uncommon infection of humans and animals. Most infections are clinical and remain as chronic infections. Five species of Prototheca have been identified: P. moriformas, P. stagnora, P. ulmea, P. wickerhamii, P. zopfii; only the last two of these cause infection in humans and animals. Little is known about the ecology of Prototheca. Failure to isolate Prototheca spp. may be explained by the fact that they are readly over-grown by bacteria and fungi when culture is attemped from contaminated sources, as well as the fact that they superficially resemble yeasts. For this reason a specific culture media has been developed for Prototheca spp. (c) 2006 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

DNA extraction protocol from Brown Algae

Denizel alglerden DNA izolasyonu için çeşitli yöntemler bulunmaktadır. Ancak bu yöntemler diğer canlılar için kullanılan DNA izolasyon yöntemlerinin modifikasyonlarıdır. Alglerden DNA izolasyonu talluslarında bulunan polisakkaritler ve fenolik bileşiklerden dolayı zor bir işlemdir. Bu çalışmada, Izmir Körfezi’nde toplanan kahverengi alglerden (Scytosiphon lomentaria ve Cystoseira sp., Ectocarpus sp. ) CTAB (cetiltrimethylamonium bromide) yöntemiyle DNA izolasyonu gerçekleştirilmiş ve elde edilen DNA PCR yöntemi ile çoğaltılmıştır. Bu modifiye yöntem ile moleküler amaçlı çalışmalar için uygun DNA eldesi sağlanmıştır.There are various methods published about DNA extraction from marine algae. These methods are the modifications of several DNA extraction methods from other organisms. Extraction of DNA from seaweeds are difficult processes because of the polysaccharide and polyphenole compounds of their thallus. In this study, DNA is extracted from a brown alga (Scytosiphon lomentaria and Cystoseira sp., Ectocarpus sp. ) collected from the Bay of Izmir by using modified CTAB (cetiltrimethylamonium bromide) protocol and used in PCR analysis. This modified method was also found efficient and applicaple for other molecular purposes

MOLECULAR AND MORPHOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CYSTOSEIRA C. AGARDH, 1820 SPECIES IN NORTHERN MEDITERRANEAN COASTS OF TURKEY

WOS: 000439087100003The brown algae species, Cystoseira spp., forms an important habitat for many marine species. Changes in ecological conditions as salinity, seawater temperature and other factors such as urbanization, costal development, domestic and chemical pollutions effect the distribution and existence of these species. To protect and maintain their existence it is needed to identify and monitor Cystoseira spp. accurately. For this reason the distribution of the Cystoseira species in Northern Aegean Turkish Coasts were compared with previous data. The species were identified by both morphologically and phylogenetically. 35 Cystoseira samples were collected from 20 stations. Morphological features were used to identify 29 samples out of 35. From these species 10 of them gave appropriate results with sequence analysis. The genus Cystoseira has been identified as a potential indicator of water quality in Mediterranean waters, and our preliminary results suggest that Cystoseira species may also be good bioindicators for ecological conditions.Ege University, Faculty of Science, Scientific Research Project [2007/FEN/025]This study was funded by Ege University, Faculty of Science, Scientific Research Project # 2007/FEN/025

Effects of external polyamines on DNA under the highest copper toxicity in Ulva lactuca L. and genotoxicity detection by RAPD-PCR assay

WOS: 000252144300008Copper is essential to living organisms, but at elevated concentrations, copper may become toxic for living systems. During this research the effects of copper were evaluated at molecular levels in a marine green algae Ulva lactuca. In addition, the protection role of polyamines against DNA mutations and strand breaks against the copper treatment searched by RAPD-PCR analysis. The main changes observed in the RADP profiles have been resulted both in appearance or disappearance of different bands and variation of their intensity

Identification complexity of critically endangered Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) and Squatina aculeata Cuvier, 1829 in the Mediterranean Sea (Turkey)

Sharks and rays, besides their economic importance, are ecologically important organisms with a diverse group. After a pregnant Squatina sp. was captured as by-catch, Akyol et al. (2015) published this species as Squatina squatina while the COI and 16S rDNA analysis demonstrated that the species is S. aculeata. This complexity revealed that utilizing morphologic identification solely might not be enough to distinguish these two Squatina species accurately. We aim to compare morphologic and molecular techniques during species identification of critically endangered S. squatina and S. aculeata. Two different gene regions were used for molecular identification of 3 Squatina specimens obtained from the Aegean coasts of Turkey. Sequence analysis of two gene regions was conducted after PCR analysis. An aligned data set was used for creating phylogenetic trees. The results demonstrated that the previously identified S. squatina specimen was revealed as S. aculeata after molecular analysis. Two other specimens which were morphologically identified as S. squatina demonstrated the same results both with molecular and morphological analysis. Our results suggest that adopting morphological identification as the only tool is not enough to accurately determine the Squatina species; both morphological and molecular tools should be used for taxonomical identification of shark species, especially the endangered ones, to assure their conservation status

Assessment of Water Quality in Brackish Lake Bafa (Muğla, Turkey) by Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques

Lake Bafa is one of the biggest lake in the western part of Turkey. It has a great importance in terms of both historical and biodiversity. Lake Bafa which was fed by Büyük Menderes River has become an area where the pollutant factors carried by the river accumulated over time. In this context, the complex physicochemical characteristics of Lake Bafa were evaluated and water quality classes were determined in order to constitute a monitoring pattern. In this research, the water samples were taken monthly from eight different stations located in the Lake Bafa during the two years study period (2015-2017). Total of 22 water quality parameters including atmospheric pressure, temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolution solids, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, oxygen saturation, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, chloride, sulphate total phosphorus and total nitrogen were investigated in water samples. The data obtained were statistically evaluated by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Pearson Correlation Analysis and compared with the limit values reported by various national and international organizations. According to the results PCA, three factors (PCA 1, PCA 2 and PCA 3) explained 79.05% of the total variance while CA results exhibited three statistically significant clusters. Overall the results suggested that Lake Bafa has been exposed to high amount of pollution and it is generally classified in “Class III-IV” water quality level based on both Klee’s method and Turkish Water Pollution Control Regulation