Macrozoobenthos in the Adriatic Sea ports: Soft-bottom communities with an overview of non-indigenous species

Abstract

Non-indigenous species (NIS) in the Mediterranean Sea. It presents a report on the softbottom macrobenthos from the five Adriatic ports: Bari, Ancona (Italy), Koper (Slovenia), Pula, Rijeka (Croatia), with a focus on the presence and contribution of NIS to native assemblages. Out of 451 species identified, only four were common to all ports. A total of eight NIS were recorded, five in surveyed ports and three in the lagoon connected to the Port of Koper. The highest number of NIS was recorded in Bari, and the highest abundance in Ancona and Bari. Generally, the number, abundance and contribution of NIS seems too low to cause a substantial impact on native communities in surveyed ports. The suitability of methods adopted for PBS for soft-bottom NIS was discussed and suggestion for methodological improvement is provided.

Fouling communities and non-native species within five ports along the Bristol Channel, South Wales, UK

“…Ports are often a key focus in the monitoring of NNS, with a view to identifying novel species introductions early and allowing the most effective system of management to be implemented (Cohen et al, 2005;Marins et al, 2010;Borrell et al, 2017;Travizi et al, 2019).…”

Harbouring Aliens: Ports as Habitats for Non-native Species

“…For these reasons, several longterm NNS monitoring programmes have been established in ports and marinas around the world, following the early work of Martin (1996, 2001). improve the understanding of a range of aspects of port communities in the Adriatic (Di Poi et al, 2019;Kraus et al, 2019;Mandic et al, 2019;Petrocelli et al, 2019;Travizi et al, 2019;Vidjak et al, 2019). This is a very positive initiative; however, it does mean that 6 of the 15 European based studies feature data collected from the same (up to 12) Adriatic ports.…”

“…We are beginning to see elsewhere in Europe how a well-coordinated survey programme can yield large amounts of data covering a range of different biological disciplines and, ultimately, improve our understanding of port environments and how best to manage the introduction of NNS (Di Poi et al, 2019;Kraus et al, 2019;Mandić et al, 2019;Petrocelli et al, 2019;Travizi et al, 2019;Vidjak et al, 2019).…”

“…For example, Travizi et al (2019) were able to survey the macrozoobenthos of five Adriatic Sea ports and identified five NNS within the region, applying the use of SCUBA divers to collect hand cores as well as occasional box coring from a vessel along pre-determined survey transectc.…”

“…Ports are often a key focus in the monitoring of NNS, with a view to identifying novel species introductions early and allowing the most effective system of management to be implemented (Cohen et al, 2005;Marins et al, 2010;Borrell et al, 2017;Travizi et al, 2019). Port fouling communities worldwide are often dominated by sessile benthic organisms, included a large number of ascidians, associated with the hull fouling transport vector (e.g.…”