No abstract

Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate the integration of MFC knowledge into decision support tools for marine management and environmental policies.

The progress on species distribution modelling (SDM) methods has brought new insights into the field of biological invasion management. In particular, statistical niche modelling, for spatio-temporal predictions of marine species’ distribution, is an increasingly used tool, supporting efficient decision-making for prevention and conservation. Earth's climate has changed significantly in the last century and the number of alien species penetrating from Indo-Pacific Ocean and South part of the Atlantic in the Mediterranean will continue to increase over the next decades. The purpose of the present study was to predict the potential geographic distribution and expansion of invasive alien lionfish (Pterois miles and Pterois volitans) with ecological niche modelling along the Mediterranean Sea. Temporal and spatial occurrence data from the first occurrence of a species for each country with coast along the Mediterranean Sea, was used to develop robust predictions of species richness, since the capacity to predict spatial patterns of species richness remains largely unassessed in this region. Marine climatic data layers were collected from the Bio-ORACLE and MARSPEC global databases. Different statistical models were evaluated to establish if these could provide useful predictions of absolute and relative lionfish distribution and expansion. The findings are an important step towards validating the use of SDM for invasive alien lionfish in the Mediterranean Sea.

Nowadays, the majority of marine debris consists of microplastic particles. For that reason, microplastic pollution in marine environments and its potential impacts on marine animals has been extensively studied. This study was developed to investigate the bioindicator potential of Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) for the monitoring of microplastic pollution. A totally, 21 individuals were sampled from Iskenderun Bay, northeastern Mediterranean Sea on April 2022, and their gastrointestinal tracts were examined for microplastic occurrence. Mean microplastic abundance was found as 2.06±1.88 particles/individual in positive samples and 1.47±1.83 particles/individual in total samples. The microplastic detection rate was estimated as 71%. In terms of color, black (55%), blue (32%), red (10%) and brown (3%) microplastic particles were detected. Among all, the majority of the extracted particles were fiber in shape (93%) and followed by fragments (7%). The high frequency of detection and microplastic abundance estimated in this study showed that this specie could be used to monitor microplastic pollution in marine environments.

In this study, we report the length-weight data for Fistularia commersonii in the Iskenderun Bay (NE Mediterranean Sea, Turkey). A study was conducted on F. commersonii specimens from the four fishing localities (Samandag, Arsuz, Pirinclik, Dörtyol) of Iskenderun Bay between September 2018 to March 2019. The significant results of the length-weight relationship were calculated. The length-weight relationship was determined as W= 0.0005xL2.963 (R2= 0.969) with negative allometric growth for both sexes. The total length and total weight of both sexes varied from 23.0-108.1 cm and 4.0-599.58 g. The values of the exponent b of the length-weight relationships (LWRs) were 2.993 for females and 2.925 for males. This present study provides the first comprehensive description of the length-weight relationships of F. commersonii from the northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Turkey according to their sexes. Besides, these data will be useful to scientists and fishery management, and conservation.