Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).peer-reviewe

ENVIRONMENTAL SUPERVISORS AND LAW VIOLATIONS IN PROTECTED AREAS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA

Ozemlje Republike Slovenije je sicer razmeroma majhno, a je na njem moč najti bogato biotsko raznovrstnost, raznolik relief in najrazličnejše habitatne tipe. Ljudje, ki so (bili) v stalnem stiku z vsem naštetim, so prišli do pomembnega spoznanja in zavedanja, da je treba naravo in njene vrednote nekako ohraniti ― če ne že zaradi nje same ― vsaj zaradi tega, da bi v njej lahko uživali tudi prihodnji rodovi. Sčasoma so pričeli ustanavljati zavarovana območja, ki so eden izmed najpomembnejših in najstarejših ukrepov ohranjanja narave. Zavarovana območja delimo na ožja in širša, njihov skupni delež se kontinuirano veča in trenutno predstavlja okoli 13 % površine naše države. Ukrepi, ki določajo ohranjanje biotske raznovrstnosti in sistem varstva naravnih vrednot so zbrani v Zakonu o ohranjanju narave (2014). Nadzor nad omenjenim zakonom vršijo inšpektorji za ohranjanje narave in nekateri drugi inšpektorji, ter naravovarstveni in prostovoljni nadzorniki, ki izvajajo neposredni nadzor v naravi. Kršitve zakona so ― odvisno od zavarovanega območja ― različne in specifične. Ker enotna evidenca zaznanih kršitev Zakona o ohranjanju narave ne obstaja, ostaja to področje precej neraziskano. Namen diplomskega dela je bil predstaviti trenutno stanje neposrednega nadzora v naravi, osvetliti glavne probleme naravovarstvenega nadzora pri nas in število ter vrste kršitev Zakona o ohranjanju narave. V ta namen smo izvedli anketo med članicam Skupnosti naravnih parkov Slovenije. Ugotovili smo, da bi za učinkovit neposredni nadzor na zavarovanih območjih potrebovali še vsaj enkrat toliko naravovarstvenih nadzornikov, kot jih deluje trenutno, prav tako pa bi morali izobraziti še več prostovoljnih nadzornikov. Nujno bi bilo sprejetje podzakonskega akta, ki bi vzpostavil pogoje za organizacijsko, vsebinsko in teritorialno usklajeno izvajanje neposrednega nadzora v naravi. Tako bi lahko zagotovili ustrezen nadzor nad zavarovanimi območji in posledično zmanjšali število kršitev Zakona o ohranjanju narave ter s tem ― kar je navsezadnje najpomembneje ― škodljive vplive na naravo.The territory of the Republic of Slovenia is otherwise quite small, but one can here find a rich biodiversity, varied relief and a wide range of habitat types. People in constant contact with all of the above have come up with important knowledge and awareness of the conservation of nature ― if not because of the nature itself ― for the next generations, to enjoy in it and live in a harmony with it. Eventually we began to establish protected areas, which are one of the most important and oldest measures of nature conservation. Those protected areas are divided into narrower and wider, and their total share is continuously growing and currently accounts for around 13 % of our country. Measures that provide the conservation of biodiversity and the system of protection of natural values are collected in the Nature Conservation Act (2014). The supervision of the mentioned act is performed by the nature conservation inspectors and some other inspectors as well as the environmental and voluntary supervisors who carry out the direct supervision of nature. The violations of the law are ― depending on the protected area ― various and specific. As the single record of the detected violations of the Nature Conservation Act does not exist, this field of research remains substantially unexplored. The aims of this thesis are to present the current status of the direct supervision of nature, to highlight the main problems of the direct supervision of nature in our country and to stress the numbers and types of the violation of the Nature Conservation Act. For this purpose we conducted a survey among the members of the Community of Natural Parks of Slovenia. We have found out that for an effective direct control over protected areas we would need at least twice as many environmental supervisors as they currently operate, but would also need to train more volunteer supervisors. It is also essential to adopt a regulatory provision, which would establish conditions for the organizationally, conceptually and territorially compliant implementation of the control in nature. This would ensure an adequate control over protected areas and consequently reduce the number of violations of the Nature Conservation Act and thereby ― which is, after all the most important thing ― detrimental effects on nature

New records of rarely reported species in the Mediterranean Sea (March 2024)

This Collective Article presents information about 30 species with records in eight countries (Greece, Israel, Italy, Monte- negro, Slovenia, Spain, Syria and Türkiye) and six ecoregions extending from the Alboran to the Levantine Seas. The recorded species belong to eight Phyla (4 Chlorophyta, 1 Rhodophyta, 1 Porifera, 3 Cnidaria, 2 Platyhelminthes, 2 Arthropoda, 2 Mollusca and 15 Chordata) as follows: Chlorophyta: Didymosporangium repens, Ochlochaete hystrix and Phaeophila hirsuta are reported for the first time from the Aegean coasts of Türkiye and Penicillus capitatus is firstly recorded in Slovenian coastal waters; Rho- dophyta: Ptilophora dentata is recorded for the first time in Turkish coasts, from the entrance of a marine cave; Porifera: Tethya meloni is reported from Montenegrin waters; Cnidaria: Savalia savaglia and Dendrophyllia ramea are firstly observed north of the Almeria-Oran front in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, while Spinimuricea cf. atlantica is firstly recorded in the Gulf of Lion constituting the easternmost record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea; Platyhelminthes: the polyclad flatworms Thys- anozoon brocchii and Planocera graffi are reported for the first time from Greek waters, observed inside marine caves; Mollusca: Ascobulla fragilis is firstly reported from the Eastern Levantine Sea while the blanket octopus Tremoctopus violaceus is recorded in Izmir Bay constituting its fifth sighting in the Aegean Sea after a quarter of a century; Arthropoda: the copepod Ditrychoco- rycaeus africanus is firstly recorded in the Ionian Sea while the tufted ghost crab Ocypode cursor is detected further north in the Tyrrhenian Sea; Chordata: the bothid flounder Arnoglossus grohmanni is firstly reported in Spain while specimens of the rare bythitid Bellottia apoda are presented for the Adriatic Sea; the chondrichthyans Chimaera monstrosa, Dalatias licha, Heptranchi- as perlo, Leucoraja circularis, Mustelus mustelus, Oxynotus centrina, Squatina aculeata and Torpedo marmorata are presented as collected within 13 continuous years in the bathyal zone of the Antalya Bay; the speleophilic fish Grammonus ater is firstly recorded in the Alboran Sea, observed in a marine cave; the critically endangered sandy ray Leucoraja circularis is reported from the eastern Ionian Sea; the crested oarfish Lophotus lacepede is reported for the first time from Sardinia, based on evidence dating back 20 years; the white trevally Pseudocaranx dentex is firstly recorded in Tremiti Islands (Adriatic Sea, Italy) while the phaeton dragonet Synchiropus phaeton and the gobid Zebrus pallaoroi are firstly reported from Syrian and Italian waters, respectively

Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia)