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This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria: new records of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus; Spain: further spread and establishment of the sea slug Lamprohaminoea ovalis in continental shores; Tunisia: first record of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Gabes; Italy: a new occurrence of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in Northern Ionian waters; first record of Cephalopholis taeniops in the Ionian Sea; first record of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius atlanticus in the Ionian Sea; Slovenia: first record of the isopod Paranthura japonica in Slovenia; Greece: first record of the molluscs Eunaticina papilla, Plocamopherus ocellatus and the fish Cheilodipterus novemstriatus; first record of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata in Kriti; the long-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum in the Ionian Sea; Turkey: first record of the sea spider Ammothea hilgendorfi; the stomatopod Cloridina cf. ichneumon; the fishes Pempheris rhomboidea from the Sea of Marmara and Paranthias furcifer from the Aegean Sea; Lebanon: new records of the fishes Arothron hispidus, Rachycentron canadum, Heniochus intermedius and Acanthurus monroviae; first record of Acanthostracion polygonius. The records of Cloridina cf. ichneumon from southern Turkey and the fish Acanthostracion polygonius from Lebanon, both being the first Mediterranean records, are noteworthy.

This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria: new records of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus; Spain: further spread and establishment of the sea slug Lamprohaminoea ovalis in continental shores; Tunisia: first record of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Gabes; Italy: a new occurrence of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in Northern Ionian waters; first record of Cephalopholis taeniops in the Ionian Sea; first record of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius atlanticus in the Ionian Sea; Slovenia: first record of the isopod Paranthura japonica in Slovenia; Greece: first record of the molluscs Eunaticina papilla, Plocamopherus ocellatus and the fish Cheilodipterus novemstriatus; first record of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata in Kriti; the long-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum in the Ionian Sea; Turkey: first record of the sea spider Ammothea hilgendorfi; the stomatopod Cloridina cf. ichneumon; the fishes Pempheris rhomboidea from the Sea of Marmara and Paranthias furcifer from the Aegean Sea; Lebanon: new records of the fishes Arothron hispidus, Rachycentron canadum, Heniochus intermedius and Acanthurus monroviae; first record of Acanthostracion polygonius. The records of Cloridina cf. ichneumon from southern Turkey and the fish Acanthostracion polygonius from Lebanon, both being the first Mediterranean records, are noteworthy., European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme [730984]; Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation [HFRI-FM17-1597]; Ege University Scientific Research Projects CouncilEge University [2011 SUF/020]; Kamal Shair CRSL research fund at the American University of Beirut [24584/103599], N. Abdelali and S. Grimes wish to express their sincere gratitude to Mahjoubi Ramy, aquaculture technician at Aquadora farm, from Bonaine, who provided them with the photos of the specimen reported and handed it over to them, and to Haseine Youcef Yasser, fisherman who captured the specimen. M. Pontes and F. Crocetta are grateful to Daniel Munoz Rodriguez (Madrid, Spain) for sharing the observation data and photos of Lamprohaminoea ovalis. R. El Zrelli and L. Rabaoui would like to thank all local fishermen who provided information about the Atlantic Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus, in the Gulf of Gabes (south-eastern Tunisia). C. Licchelli and F. Denitto would like to thank Vincenzo Bruno, the local fisherman who shared data and information about their record. Andrea Spinelli and Dyana Vitale are grateful to Mr. Concetto Felice who filmed the C. taeniops specimen studied. F. Tiralongo and E. Azzurro are grateful to Giorgio Cavallaro (G.R.O. Sub Catania) for providing them with photos documenting the presence of Ophioblennius atlanticus in the Ionian Sea. A. Fortic and B. Mavric would like to thank Lovrenc Lipej and Domen Trkov for their help and support with the determination of specimens. F. Montesanto and F. Mastrototaro were supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 730984, ASSEMBLE Plus project and thank G. Chatzigeorgiou and P. Kasapidis for the assistance provided. Michail Ragkousis, Alexandros Tsatiris, Markos Digenis, Vasilis Gerovasileiou and Stelios Katsanevakis were supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the "First Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant" (Project ALAS -`ALiens in the Aegean-a Sea under siege'; Project Number: HFRI-FM17-1597). C. Kocak's work was supported by the Ege University Scientific Research Projects Council, Project Number 2011 SUF/020. C. Kocak would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Atakan Sukatar (Ege University, Faculty of Science, Izmir) for his help in identifying the algal species and Naciye Alan for her helpful assistance in the fieldwork. S. Yapici and F.Yalgin would like to thank Orhan Yilmaz for providing video and information on their specimen. M. Bariche and S. Mavruk would like to express their gratitude to the citizen scientists Messrs Wahib Nini, Ramzi Allenby Gargour, Ali Haydar, Mostafa Saeed, Georges Taza, and Mohamad Ali Ibrahim for regularly reporting their observations and findings. Their study was partly supported by the Kamal Shair CRSL research fund (24584/103599) at the American University of Beirut. G. Bitar and A. Badreddine wish to thank Dr. Ricardo Aguilar for his help on the identification of their specimen, the professional fisher Amin Mezher for providing them with photos and a video recording of the species, and the director of the "Lebanese fishermen" Facebook page Mr. Georges Taza for his cooperation.

This is the second collective paper issued in 2019, currently amalgamates new knowledge on the Mediterranean geographic distributions of 17 species from five phyla (six aliens, three cosmopolitans, two east Atlantic records and six natives). The acknowledged species were reported from ten countries, mentioned here from west to east: Spain: first report of the east Atlantic grouper Cephalopholis taeniops in the western Mediterranean and an inclusion of Pontarachna puntulum and Litarachna communis to the pontarachnid fauna of Spain; Morocco: first record of Solea senegalensis from the Moroccan Mediterranean coast; Algeria: a valid confirmation for the presence of Sardinella maderensis; Malta: a first record of the Red Sea stomatopod Erugosquilla massavensis; Italy: a rare observation of the crab Paragalene longicrura from Siciliy and a further integration of the alien brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus to the commercial catch in Sicily; Montenegro: a first record of the Lessepsian bigfin reef squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana from the Adriatic Sea; Turkey: northernmost documentation of the Mediterranean flatworm Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii in the Aegean Sea; Israel: a solid confirmation for the population establishment of both the alien rock shrimp Sicyonia lancifer and two species of angelfish, and a first and deepest record of the crystalline goby Odondebuenia balearica; Lebanon: first record of the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca; Syria: first records of the crown jellyfish Nausithoe punctate and the smallscale codlet Bregmaceros nectabanus.

WOS: 000504749700017, This paper is a collection of novel distributional records of 20 species belonging to 8 phyla (Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda and Chordata) from 11 Mediterranean countries, namely, Spain: an additional record of the Canary dentex Dentex canariensis is reported from Spain (Valencia), this is the northernmost record of this species in the Mediterranean; Algeria: the first documented record of Caulerpa chemnitzia is reported from the Algerian coast; France: the first record of the Spotted sea hare Aplysia dactylomela is reported from the eastern coast of Corsica; Italy: the first records of the Lessepsian polychaete Dorvillea similis and the alien bivalve Isognomon legumen are reported from Italian waters while additional records of Mnemiopsis leidyi in the south Adriatic are provided; Libya: the first record of an alien mollusc Crepidula fornicata is reported from Libyan waters; Malta: multiple sightings of gelatinous species Apolemia uvaria, Phacellophora camtschatica and Physophora hydrostatica are reported for the first time from Maltese waters, as well as the first tentative record of the Orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus cfr. coioides; Greece: an occurrence of a rare Bigeye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus is reported from Hellenic Ionian waters, while the first records of the alien Mertens' prawn-goby Vanderhorstia mertensi, the recently described cyclopoid copepod Oithona davisae and the alien red seaweed Asparagopsis armata are reported from the Aegean Sea. The presence of the micromollusc Euthymella colzumensis is confirmed for Greece; Cyprus: the first record of the red cornetfish Fistularia petimba is reported from Cyprus; Turkey: the first record of the alien jellyfish Marivagia stellata is reported from south-eastern Turkey; Israel: the first records of the sea nettle Chrysaora sp. in the Levant are reported., International Ocean Institute (IOI); Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) [IP-2016-06-5251]; Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia; Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences; GoJelly project-EU Horizon 2020 [774499], Langeneck J. and Tempesti J. are grateful to M. El-Metwally and J. Ferrario for providing Red Sea specimens of D. similis, and to M. Lezzi for his support in the preparation of permanent slides. Deidun A. and Piraino S. wish to thank Mr. Pete Bullen (www.oceanfoto.co.uk), Roy Davidson, Hans Messler, Alexander Ferrante and Lyndsey Bee for making their photographs of the three gelatinous species in caption available to the authors, as well as to the International Ocean Institute (IOI) for sponsoring the Spot the Jellyfish campaign since 2010. Thanks are also due to Andre C. Morandini (Brasil) for supporting advice on P. camtschatica identification. Deidun A. and Zava B. are indebted to the angler Romario Pace for donating the photo of the fish individual reported hereunder. Dragicevic B. and Dulcic J. are thankful to Mr. Nikola Cvitan who provided photographs and videos of the specimen as well as additional information. Their work was partly supported by the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) under project IP-2016-06-5251. Tirelli V. and Goruppi A. wish to thank the citizen scientists for providing sightings and photographic material through avvistAPP (Michele Cravati, V. D., Vincenzo Frezza, S. I., R. M., S. M., I. T. and C. V.) and the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia for funding the NOCE di MARE project. Michailidis N. and Manitaras I. thank fishmonger George Karamanos and fisher Christos Efrem for providing the specimen and information on its catch. Edelist D., Kuplik Z., Guy-Haim T. and Angel D. thank Dror Gilat and Inbar Margulis for recording and sharing their observations, and Mark J Gibbons, Andre C Morandini and Stefano Piraino for their useful taxonomic contributions. "Medusot Baam" is funded by the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, as well as the GoJelly project -EU Horizon 2020 grant No 774499.

This is the second collective paper issued in 2019, currently amalgamates new knowledge on the Mediterranean geographic distributions of 17 species from five phyla (six aliens, three cosmopolitans, two east Atlantic records and six natives). The acknowledged species were reported from ten countries, mentioned here from west to east: Spain: first report of the east Atlantic grouper Cephalopholis taeniops in the western Mediterranean and an inclusion of Pontarachna punctulum and Litarachna communis to the pontarachnid fauna of Spain; Morocco: first record of Solea senegalensis from the Moroccan Mediterranean coast; Algeria: a valid confirmation for the presence of Sardinella maderensis; Malta: a first record of the Red Sea stomatopod Erugosquilla massavensis; Italy: a rare observation of the crab Paragalene longicrura from Siciliy and a further integration of the alien brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus to the commercial catch in Sicily; Montenegro: a first record of the Lessepsian bigfin reef squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana from the Adriatic Sea; Turkey: northernmost documentation of the Mediterranean flatworm Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii in the Aegean Sea; Israel: a solid confirmation for the population establishment of both the alien rock shrimp Sicyonia lancifer and two species of angelfish, and a first and deepest record of the crystalline goby Odondebuenia balearica; Lebanon: first record of the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca; Syria: first records of the crown jellyfish Nausithoe punctate and the smallscale codlet Bregmaceros nectabanus., peer-reviewed

The data obtained from the 2016 Deep-Sea Lebanon Expedition provided a wealth of information about deep-sea benthic communities along the Lebanese coast. This information provides a scientific foundation for the development of a plan to manage and protect vulnerable ecosystems, habitats, and species in Lebanese waters, in the face of current and future threats. This plan should be developed in line with the relevant Action Plans developed by UNEP-MAP RAC/SPA, with measures being developed to protect VMEs within GFCM fisheries, and with Lebanon’s legal obligations to protect species listed on Annex II of the SPA/BD Protocol of the Barcelona Convention. One critical element of this plan will be the declaration of new MPAs under the framework of a Lebanese network of MPAs. These areas may be designated to protect important geological features (e.g., submarine canyons), habitats, or community types, in order to ensure the coherence and connectivity of marine protection in Lebanese waters, and to help safeguard the natural corridor of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.

Dark habitats are environments where the luminosity is extremely weak, or even absent (aphotic area) leading to an absence of macroscopic autochthonous photosynthesis. The bathymetric extension of this lightless area depends to a great extent on the turbidity of the water and corresponds to benthic and pelagic habitats starting from the deep circa-littoral. Caves which show environmental conditions that favour the installation on of organisms characteristic of dark habitats, are also taken into account. Dark habitats are dependent on very diverse geomorphological structures (e.g. underwater caves, canyons, slopes, isolated rocks, abyssal plains, cold seeps, brine anoxic lakes, hydrothermal springs and seamounts). Dark habitats represent outstanding and potential ecosystems with regard to their: Frailty and vulnerability to any land-based pressure Play an important part in the way the Mediterranean ecosystem functions, insofar as they constitute the main route for transferring matter between the coast and the deep sea Considered as biodiversity hotspots and recruiting areas forming a veritable reservoirs of knowledge and biodiversity Natural habitats that come under Habitat Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora and appear as such as priority habitats requiring protection (Directive 92/43). A certain number of underwater caves enjoy protection status because they fall within the geographical boundaries of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Understanding of these functions is necessary for a better understanding and management of the biodiversity of Mediterranean coastal zones and continental shelf., peer-reviewed

Schizoretepora hassi sp. nov., one of the most frequent bryozoans in shaded rocky habitats sampled along the coasts of Lebanon between 3 and 36 m depth, is described here. Its status as steno-endemic in the Levantine basin versus successful Erythraean immigrant is unresolved. Colonies erect and typically with a distinct abfrontal surface occupied by kenozooids, are variable in shape, from ramose with dichotomic branching to reteporiform. The great similarity of its autozooids and avicularia with those of the bilaminate Schizotheca serratimargo argues for classing the latter in the genus Schizoretepora.

Direction de l'ouvrage : Pr. Gérard PERGENT

Vermetid reefs are a key intertidal habitat in the warm-temperate part of the Mediterranean Sea and in some subtropical and tropical regions in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This unique and highly diverse ecosystems is under siege due to both the high anthropogenic pressure and the global climate change, with documented local population declines in the Eastern Mediterranean. This study aims at evaluating the conservation state of vermetid reefs along the Lebanese coast (Eastern Mediterranean), where seawater warming, habitat degradation and coastal urbanization likely threaten their presence. In order to assess the conservation status of vermetid reefs in Lebanon, five sites were randomly selected among those belonging to three impact classes: i) not impacted (i.e. protected), ii) moderately impacted, and iii) impacted. Two different non-destructive methods were applied to assess the presence of living vermetids Dendropoma anguliferum (Monterosato, 1878) and Vermetus triquetrus (Bivona-Bernardi, 1832) which shape the reef, and the associated communities. Our results highlight that no living vermetid reefs were recorded in the impacted sites where evident signs of bio-physical erosion of the reef are already underway. Living individuals of Vermetus triquetrus were found in some not impacted and moderately impacted sites, while living individuals of the endemic reef-builder Dendropoma anguliferum were found only at very low densities at the not impacted (protected) site. Such findings corroborate preliminary observations of population decline in the Eastern Mediterranean, and of vermetid reefs vulnerability to human disturbances. This raises concerns about the near future persistence of vermetid reefs in the region, and represents a call for management and conservation actions to preserve this reef-building species in the Mediterranean Sea.