Anchovy egg and larval distribution in relation to biological and physical oceanography in the Strait of Sicily

Comparative Characterization of the Spawning Environments of European Anchovy, <I>Engraulis Encrasicolus</I>, and Round Sardinella, <I>Sardinella Aurita</I> (Actinopterygii: Clupeiformes) in the Eastern Coast of Tunisia

“…The positive gradient of SST and SSS from north to south seems to be related to the entrance of Atlantic waters at Cape Bon, as showed by Brandhost (1977) and Sammari et al (1999). This current can form a frontal zone between two water masses with different densities; the surface waters of recent Atlantic origin, less saline, and the already modified and saltier surface Mediterranean waters that can Spawning environments of anchovy and sardinella in Tunisia 13 (Cuttitta et al 2003. The high proportions represented by anchovy and round sardinella eggs and larvae in the analyzed samples (around 50%) are in agreement with previous studies carried out in Tunisian waters (Zarrad et al 2006, Zarrad unpublished * ), and reflect the abundance of these species in the Tunisian waters.…”

“…No recent data are available on the anchovy eggs distribution and the only single paper was published over 30 years ago by Ktari-Chakroun (1979) who sampled scattered stations along the tuniso-sard and siculo-tunisien channels. There have been some recent contributions dealing with anchovy egg and larval distribution in adjacent areas (Cuttitta et al 2003, García Lafuente et al 2005, Zarrad et al 2006 and on the early life stages of round sardinella (Regner 1977, Tsikliras et al 2005.…”

Stochastic Dynamics of Two Picophytoplankton Populations in a Real Marine Ecosystem

“…In order to analyze the picophytoplankton dynamics, we consider an ecosystem which possesses the hydrological characteristics typical of the Strait of Sicily and is known to be a biologically rich area of the Mediterranean Sea with a key role in terms of fisheries [26][27][28][29]. Moreover, the two picophytoplankton groups considered belong to the smaller size fraction (less than 3 µm) of phytoplankton and are mainly represented by picoprokaryotes and picoeukaryotes.…”

Habitat Suitability Modeling to Identify the Potential Nursery Grounds of the Atlantic Mackerel and Its Relation to Oceanographic Conditions in the Mediterranean Sea

“…It has a fairly narrow (15 nmi) continental shelf in the middle of the southern coast but it widens in both its eastern and western parts. The surface circulation is largely determined by the Atlantic-Ionian Stream and its interannual variability has a large impact on upwelling extent and the formation of frontal structures (Cuttitta et al, 2003;Basilone et al, 2013;Bonanno et al, 2014). The upwelling is further reinforced by wind-induced events (Patti et al, 2010).…”