Els ascidis: faunística i distribució

En aquest treball es presenta una llista faunística de 41 espècies d'ascidis per als fons infra i circalitorals de l'Arxipèlag de Cabrera, fruit dels treballs efectuats a l'Illa i de dades extretes de la bibliografia. Ecteinascidia herdmanni (Lahille) i Sidnyum turbinatum Savigny són primeres citacions per a les Illes Balears. S'afegeixen notes sobre l'abundància i distribució de cada espècie. Igualment s'analitza en detall la distribució batimètrica d'algunes espècies i es realitzen, per primera vegada en aquest grup, corbes espècies/àrea per esbrinar les àrees mínimes qualitatives i l'estructura espacial de les taxocenosis d'ascidis a la zona.The results of a faunistic survey, together with data from the literature, led to a listing of 41 ascidian species in the infra- and circalittoral bottoms of the Cabrera Archipelago. Two of them, Ecteinascidia herdmanni (Lahille) and Sidnyum turbinatum Savigny are new records for the Balearic Islands. Notes are added on the distribution and abundance of the species found. The bathymetric distribution of some representative species is studied in detail, and species/area curves are used for the first time in this group in order to estimate minimal sampling areas and spatial structure of asci dian taxocoenoses

Dynamical streams in the solar neighbourhood

The true nature of the Hyades and Sirius superclusters is still an open question. In this contribution, we confront Eggen's hypothesis that they are cluster remnants with the results of a kinematic analysis of more than 6000 K and M giants in the solar neighbourhood. This analysis includes new radial velocity data from a large survey performed with the Coravel spectrometer, complemented by Hipparcos parallaxes and Tycho-2 proper motions (Famaey et al. 2004). A maximum-likelihood method, based on a bayesian approach, has been applied to the data, in order to make full use of all the available data (including less precise parallaxes) and to derive the properties of the different kinematic subgroups. Two such subgroups can be identified with the Hyades and Sirius superclusters. Stars belonging to them span a very wide range of age, which is difficult to account for in Eggen's scenario. These groups are thus most probably "dynamical streams" related to the dynamical perturbation by spiral waves rather than to cluster remnants. In this scenario, the Hyades and Ursa Major clusters just happen to be in the Hyades and Sirius streams, which are purely dynamical features that have nothing to do with the remnants of more massive primordial clusters. This mechanism could be the key to understanding the presence of an old metal-rich population, and of many exoplanetary systems in our neighbourhood. Moreover, a strong spiral pattern seems to be needed in order to yield such prominent streams. Since spiral structure is usually baryonic, this would leave very little room for dark matter. This may be an indication that the era of the dark-matter paradigm explaining the dynamics of the Galaxy may come to an end, and is being superseded by modified gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in The Three Dimensional Universe with GAIA, eds M. Perryman & C. Turo

Cryptic diversity and database errors challenge non-indigenous species surveys: An illustration with Botrylloides spp. in the English Channel and Mediterranean Sea

Molecular tools have been extensively used in recent decades to examine biological invasion processes, and are increasingly being adopted as efficient tools to support non-indigenous species surveys, notably through barcoding approaches, i.e., the use of a reference sequence specific to a given species to validate its identification. The technique is easy to use but requires reliable reference sequences to be available in public databases. In addition, the increasing discovery of cryptic species in marine taxa may complicate taxonomic assignment. We illustrate these two issues in the ascidian genus Botrylloides, in which at least three global marine invaders have been recognized, including B. violaceus and B. diegensis. We obtained COI sequences from >750 colonies of Botrylloides spp. sampled in W Europe or provided by expert colleagues from other regions. Phylogenetic trees clearly distinguished our targeted taxa [i.e., B. violaceus, B. diegensis and B. leachii (native)]. They also revealed another discrete lineage apparently related to a recently described eastern Mediterranean species. By examining public databases, we found sequences of B. diegensis erroneously assigned to B. leachii. This observation has major implications as the introduced B. diegensis can be misidentified as a putatively native species. We also checked published sequences of the genus Botrylloides in the Mediterranean Sea, complemented with new samples. Based on our custom reference database, all published sequences of B. leachii corresponded to B. diegensis, although this NIS has hardly been reported at all in the Mediterranean region. Such database errors are unfortunate, as the barcoding approach is a powerful tool to identify the recognized Botrylloides species currently present in European seas. This is of particular importance because a trait often used during field assessment, i.e., single-color vs. two-color colonies, is misleading to distinguish B. violaceus and B. diegensis respectively: a substantial proportion of the single-color morph are actually B. diegensis in both the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. Altogether, this study exemplifies the advantages and disadvantages of molecular barcoding in NIS surveys and studies. The limitations that were identified are all easy to resolve once proper vouchers and collections are set up

Building the cosmic distance scale: from Hipparcos to Gaia

Hipparcos, the first ever experiment of global astrometry, was launched by ESA in 1989 and its results published in 1997 (Perryman et al., Astron. Astrophys. 323, L49, 1997; Perryman & ESA (eds), The Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues, ESA SP-1200, 1997). A new reduction was later performed using an improved satellite attitude reconstruction leading to an improved accuracy for stars brighter than 9th magnitude (van Leeuwen & Fantino, Astron. Astrophys. 439, 791, 2005; van Leeuwen, Astron. Astrophys. 474, 653, 2007). The Hipparcos Catalogue provided an extended dataset of very accurate astrometric data (positions, trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions), enlarging by two orders of magnitude the quantity and quality of distance determinations and luminosity calibrations. The availability of more than 20000 stars with a trigonometric parallax known to better than 10% opened the way to a drastic revision of our 3-D knowledge of the solar neighbourhood and to a renewal of the calibration of many distance indicators and age estimations. The prospects opened by Gaia, the next ESA cornerstone, planned for launch in June 2013 (Perryman et al., Astron. Astrophys. 369, 339, 2001), are still much more dramatic: a billion objects with systematic and quasi simultaneous astrometric, spectrophotometric and spectroscopic observations, about 150 million stars with expected distances to better than 10%, all over the Galaxy. All stellar distance indicators, in very large numbers, will be directly measured, providing a direct calibration of their luminosity and making possible detailed studies of the impacts of various effects linked to chemical element abundances, age or cluster membership. With the help of simulations of the data expected from Gaia, obtained from the mission simulator developed by DPAC, we will illustrate what Gaia can provide with some selected examples.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, Conference "The Fundamental Cosmic Distance scale: State of the Art and the Gaia perspective, 3-6 May 2011, INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

El Bentos: les coves

Es descriuen les comunitats bentòniques de les coves i túnels de l'Arxipèlag de Cabrera, en funció dels principals grups d'organismes que les habiten. L'estudi s'ha basat concretament en la Cova des Calamars, la Cova Blava i el Túnel de l'Estell des Coll. Les comunitats de coves de l'Arxipèlag corresponen a les típiques de les coves balears, caracteritzades per la manca o escassesa d'octocoralaris (p. e. Corallium rubrum), i per la proliferació dels briozous. La comparació de les coves de Cabrera amb les d'altres indrets de la Mediterrània Occidental (Costa Catalana, Marsella i Nàpols) mostren diferències qualitatives i quantitatives importants que semblen estar condicionades per la distància geogràfica, la profunditat i la topografia de les coves.The benthic communities of caves and tunnels of the Cabrera Archipelago are described on the basis of the groups of organisms they harbour. The Calamars Cave, Blava Cave and Estell des Coll tunnel have been used as a model for the study. The communities found correspond to those typical from the Balearic caves, characterized by the absence or paucity of Octocorallia (e. g. Corallium rubrum), and the abundance of Bryozoans. Comparisons of the Cabrera caves with those from other localities in the Western Mediterranean (Catalonia, Marseilles and Naples) show sizeable qualitative and quantitative differences. Geographical distance, cave topography and depth are likely the main factors responsible for these differences

Els Bentos: les comunitats

Es descriuen les comunitats bentòniques de l'Arxipèlag de Cabrera en funció dels principals organismes animals i vegetals que les constitueixen. També es detalla la localització d'aquestes comunitats en l'espai a partir d'una sèrie de transsectes efectuats entre el nivell zero i la fondària màxima de -115 metres. Són destacables: (a) la representació en l'Arxipèlag de la majoria de comunitats bentòniques de plataforma continental descrites a la zona de la Mediterrània Central; (b) la gran riquesa especifica i el bon estat de conservació general de les comunitats; (c) la presència de parets submergides ininterrompudes entre O i-50 (-65) metres, la qual cosa fa de Cabrera un lloc privilegiat per a l'estudi de la zonació i les causes que la determinen; (d) les baixes cotes batimètriques enregistrades com a límit de la zona infra lit oral (-40 a -45 metres) i com a límit dels poblaments algals (-110 metres); i (e) l'elevat nombre d'endemismes mediterranis i de determinades espècies de mars càlids que reafirmen l'existència d'una província biogeogràfica centromediterrània. Finalment, es localitzen les zones submergides de l'Arxipèlag amb un valor biològic més elevat, per tal de prioritzar i facilitar la seva conservació.The benthic communities of the archipelago of Cabrera are described attending to their main faunistic and floristic components. Each community is spatially located and its bathymetric range is given, starting from different transects made between O and -115 meters of maximum depth. The main results obtained are: (a) most of the littoral and the continental shelf benthic communities described from the Central Mediterranean are well represented in the area; (b) species diversity and conservation of the communities is very high for Mediterranean standards; (c) the presence of some undisturbed and continuous underwater cliffs between O and -50 (-65) meters are of major interest to carry out future studies on zonation in Mediterranean benthic communities and on environmental factors forcing it; (d) lowermost bathymetric limits for the infralittoral zone (-40 to -45 meters) and algal growth (-110 meters) have been determined by SCUBA and submersible dives; and (e) the abundance of mediterranean endemisms and warm-water species reassert the existence of a centro-mediterranean biogeographic province. Finally, the areas of highest biological interest in the submersed part of the archipelago are indicated, in order to priorize its immediate preservation