ASNAGHI , Valentina

Blooms of toxic dinoflagellates belonging to the genus Ostreopsis in coastal areas are a topic of increasing interest due to the potential hazard that these species might pose to marine organisms and to human health, and the consequent negative effect on tourism, fishery and aquaculture economy. For the last 15 years, blooms of Ostreopsis...

Relationships between habitat complexity and biodiversity are a cornerstone of ecology. On many rocky shores, the cryptic macrofauna that live in the biogenic habitat created by larger organisms adds considerably to biodiversity. Algal turfs are commonly considered to facilitate high species richness of resident organisms by moderating the...

Harmful algal blooms have been increasing in frequency in recent years, and attention has shifted from describing to modeling and trying to predict these phenomena, since in many cases they pose a risk to human health and coastal activities. Predicting ecological phenomena is often time and resource consuming, since a large number of field...

Continuous anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and uptake by the oceans will cause a reduction of seawater pH and saturation state (U) of CaCO3 minerals from which marine calcifiers build their shells and skeletons. Sea urchins use the most soluble form of calcium carbonate, high-magnesium calcite, to build their skeleton, spines and...

Ostreopsis cf. ovata is a harmful benthic dinoflagellate, widespread along most of the Mediterranean coasts. It produces a wide range of palytoxin-like compounds and variable amounts of mucus that may totally cover substrates, especially during the stationary phase of blooms. Studies on different aspects of the biology and ecology of Ostreopsis...

The genus Ostreopsis E.J. Schmidt includes harmful benthic species that have been reported worldwide in both tropical and temperate regions. To date, genetic studies stated that Mediterranean Sea hosts two genotypes corresponding to the morphotypes of O. cf. ovata and O. cf. siamensis; moreover, a new genotype of Ostreopsis sp. was found along...

Blooms of benthic dinoflagellates of the genus Ostreopsis (mainly O. cf. ovata and occasionally O. cf. siamensis) represent a serious concern for humans in the Med- iterranean area, due to production of palytoxin-like com- pounds listed among the most potent marine toxins known. In this work, six strains of Ostreopsis sp. from Cyprus Island...

Patella ferruginea is a limpet endemic to the Western Mediterranean Sea. It is presently considered the most threatened marine macroinvertebrate in the region and has been included in several international conservation directives. Its populations were widespread throughout the Western Mediterranean in the late Pleistocene period, and remained...

The new benthic toxic dinoflagellate, Ostreopsis fattorussoi sp. nov., is described from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon and Cyprus coasts, and is supported by morphological and molecular data. The plate formula, Po, 30 , 7′′, 6c, 7s, 5′′′, 20 0 0 0 , is typical for the Ostreopsis genus. It differs from all other Ostreopsis species in...

During the last several decades, the Mediterranean littoral shallow water benthic communities have suffered significant changes in their structure and taxa composition. Despite numerous studies conducted to characterize these changes at various levels, it has always been very difficult to disentangle the effects of natural factors from...

Temperate marine rocky habitats may be alternatively characterized by well vegetated macroalgal assemblages or barren grounds, as a consequence of direct and indirect human impacts (e.g. overfishing) and grazing pressure by herbivorous organisms. In future scenarios of ocean acidification, calcifying organisms are expected to be less...

Recovery from disturbance is an important attribute of community dynamics. Temperate rocky shores will expe- rience increases in both the type and intensity of impacts under future expected global change. To gauge the community response to these potential changes in the disturbance regime it is important to assess space occu- pancy and the...

Ostreopsis cf. ovata is a harmful benthic dinoflagellate, widespread along most of the Mediterranean coasts. It produces several toxins and variable amounts of mucus that may totally cover substrates, especially during the stationary phase of blooms, when cells are aggregated into a mucilaginous matrix. Studies on different aspects of the...