ENRICHETTI F.

ALDFGs (abandoned, lost or otherwise discharged fishing gears) represent a major pollutant in the world's oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea, but very little is known about their long-term fate in the underwater environment. Here we investigate the destiny of ALDFGs in a coralligenous benthic community by studying the biofouling growing on...

Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) are characterized by prominent biological features susceptible to anthropogenic disturbances. Following international guidelines, the identification and protection of VMEs require a detailed documentation regarding both the community structure and the fishing footprint in the area. This combined information...

Velella velella, the so-called by-the-wind sailor, is a common member of the open-ocean pleustonic fauna, worldwide distributed in tropical and temperate regions. Thanks to their sail protruding above the sea surface, floating polymorphic colonies of this hydrozoan are carried by winds, and tend to aggregate in large swarms, that often get...

Scuba diving has become an increasingly popular recreational activity, involving approximately 6 million active divers worldwide.The high frequency of diving can impact the benthic communities of marine protected areas (MPAs), possibly jeopardizing the beneficial effects of protection.The Portofino MPA, in the Ligurian Sea, is one of the main...

Several bathyal cold-water coral provinces, characterized by a lush growth of habitat-forming scleractinians, have been recognized in the Mediterranean Sea. However, the search for this biogenic habitat only marginally targeted the Italian coast of the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean basin) despite historical and a few recent local studies in...

Among Mediterranean habitat-forming alcyonaceans, the sea fan Eunicella verrucosa is known to form dense forests at circalittoral depths, providing seascape complexity and sustaining a rich associated fauna. Its occurrence in the Tavolara–Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area (NE Sardinia) has never been deeply investigated despite this area...

Chilean Patagonia hosts one of the extensive fjord systems in the world, spanning more than 1,600 km between 41 and 55S, and with a complex geomorphology and hydrography that supports rich and unique assemblages of marine fauna. The biodiversity of benthic organisms is possibly further enhanced by the geographic position of the region that...

Thanks to the analysis of the population structure and signs of damage on the colonies of the red gorgonian (Paramuricea clavata) found within the Portofino MPA, the impact of fishing activities has been evaluated and discussed.

Compared to their fossil counterparts, living brachiopods are investigated far less often, due to their occurrence in remote environments such as dark caves or deep environments. Due to the scarcity of studies targeting in situ brachiopods' populations, large-scale information on their distribution and ecological preferences is still lacking,...

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Black corals are important habitat-forming species in the mesophotic and deepsea zones of the world's oceans because of their arborescent colony structure and tendency to form animal forests. Although we have started unraveling the ecology of mesophotic black corals, the importance of the associated microbes to their health has remained...

The sea star Hymenodiscus coronata is the only Mediterranean representative of the deepsea order Brisingida. In the North-eastern Atlantic Ocean, this species is known to create dense aggregations, while, in the Mediterranean basin, it is generally reported as scattered individuals. Through the analysis of the video footage obtained from an...

Differently from the North Atlantic Ocean, only few examples of sponge grounds are known from the Mediterranean Sea, mainly thriving in the deep sea. In this study, a novel temperate mesophotic ecosystem dominated by massive keratose sponges is reported from the Ligurian deep continental shelf. An extensive Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)...

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Partial D-loop sequences of museum specimens of brown trout and marble trout (Salmo trutta species complex) collected fromMediterranean rivers in the late 19th century were analysed to help to describe the native distribution of these species. All the individuals studied carried native haplotypes, the geographic distribution of which is...

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1. Detailed knowledge about the distribution of species in need of protection is required for the management of Marine Protected Areas, a major tool to reduce marine biodiversity loss. Such knowledge is deficient for most marine invertebrates. 2. Axinella polypoides is a marine sponge included on the list of protected species by the Barcelona...

Temperate mesophotic reefs (circalittoral and offshore circalittoral hard/firm habitats), host complex threedimensional animal forests and are vulnerable habitats protected by international agreements. In order to evaluate and monitor the environmental status of these ecosystems, the multi-parametric index Mesophotic Assemblages Conservation...