Tracking a mass mortality outbreak of pen shell Pinna nobilis populations: A collaborative effort of scientists and citizens

A mass mortality event is devastating the populations of the endemic bivalve Pinna nobilis in the Mediterranean Sea from early autumn 2016. A newly described Haplosporidian endoparasite (Haplosporidium pinnae) is the most probable cause of this ecological catastrophe placing one of the largest bivalves of the world on the brink of extinction. As a pivotal step towards Pinna nobilis conservation, this contribution combines scientists and citizens' data to address the fast- and vast-dispersion and prevalence outbreaks of the pathogen. Therefore, the potential role of currents on parasite expansion was addressed by means of drift simulations of virtual particles in a high-resolution regional currents model. A generalized additive model was implemented to test if environmental factors could modulate the infection of Pinna nobilis populations. The results strongly suggest that the parasite has probably dispersed regionally by surface currents, and that the disease expression seems to be closely related to temperatures above 13.5 degrees C and to a salinity range between 36.5-39.7 psu. The most likely spread of the disease along the Mediterranean basin associated with scattered survival spots and very few survivors (potentially resistant individuals), point to a challenging scenario for conservation of the emblematic Pinna nobilis, which will require fast and strategic management measures and should make use of the essential role citizen science projects can play

Zazie@60: some linguistic considerations

This article considers the colloquial language used in Zazie dans le métro from a sociolinguistic viewpoint. To the extent that a fictional work can be said to provide evidence of linguistic variation, Zazie offers glimpses into the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of French at the time it was written, as well as confirmation of other sources regarding social variation, notably working-class speech and the style dimension, partly in relation to regional variation, or rather its absence. For this reason, the novel remains a valuable point of reference for contemporary linguists. The novel, in conjunction with other works by Queneau, prompts further questions to do with the level of cognition at work when linguistic variation takes place

Spread of the introduced tropical green alga Caulerpa taxifolia in northern Mediterranean waters

International audienc

Modeling the ultimate seeweed expansion

International audienc

Côtes méditerranéennes françaises : inventaire et impact des aménagements gagnés sur la mer. Ed. Lab. ECOMERS, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis. 153p.

Rapport scientifiqueCôtes méditerranéennes françaises : inventaire et impact des aménagements gagnés sur la mer

Use of smartphones (iPhone, Android, etc.) for the field identification of European crayfish

Species identification keys are the most precise and unambiguous tools to properly identify a specimen down to the species or infra-species level. This is especially true when the key is richly illustrated with precise pictures or videos. Recent smartphones (iPhone, Android, etc.) can access through the 3G network to an unlimited and rapidly growing set of multimedia data on each species (photos, videos, audios). They become convenient tools to use in the field instead of traditional paper field-guides with a limited number of illustrations. A student project at the University of Nice, France, proposed to adapt to smartphones the Holdich and Vigneux “key to crayfish in Europe”. A prototype, in English, has been prepared and presented to the European Crayfish Congress in Poitiers, France, 26–29 October, 2010. It needs now to be discussed with taxonomy and field specialists in order to (1) increase the number of photos and videos and (2) complete and improve its audio part. Then, a multilingual version could be designed, so that field specialists of all European countries may use it. As the database underlying the project is wiki-compatible, a multilingual version could be designed as a collaborative effort within the crayfish community. Data on each species (biology, ecology, distribution, etc.) could be added in a second phase, as a geolocalisation module is linked to the database. Then the identification of invasive species could be quickly related to maps, in order to alert the crayfish community

MEDAM.org : inventaire et impact des aménagements gagnés sur le domaine marin - côtes méditerranéennes françaises. Laboratoire Ecomers, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis. Publication électronique : www.medam.org.

Site internetMEDAM.org : inventaire et impact des aménagements gagnés sur le domaine marin - côtes méditerranéennes françaises. Laboratoire Ecomers, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis. Publication électronique : www.medam.org