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This study investigated demographic structure and reproductive characteristics of the Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus, in relation to landing trends in the northern-central Adriatic Sea. Results highlighted the occurrence of only small-sized and young-age individuals, and a marked decline from the 1990s to the present in maximum age (from 8 to 3 years) and total length ( LT; from 420 to 360 mm). Fecundity ranged between 40 000 and 190 000 eggs, and was related to female LT. High levels of atresia implied lower values of actual fecundity. Sexual maturity was attained by 72·8% of individuals in their first year of life at 200 mm. The reduction in maximum LT resulted in a marked decline in the population egg production, while the reduction in maximum age implied that females participated in fewer spawning events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in a marine community in the northern Adriatic Sea were explored over a period of 65 years using landings data from a commercial fishing fleet, and the role of fishing pressure and environmental variations in driving these changes was investigated. A total of 40 taxonomic categories, including one or several species, were analysed, representing 93·7% of the total landings. From 1945 to 2010 a significant decrease in the evenness index was observed, indicating a trend towards landings dominated by fewer taxa. The composition of the landings showed a temporal shift during the 1980s; from 1945 to the 1980s a continuous, clear change in composition took place, probably driven by an increase in fishing pressure as well as riverine nutrient inputs. Since the 1980s, a different trend of changing composition emerged. Among the analysed predictors, fishing capacity, summer seawater temperature, inflow from the Po River (the major river of the northern Adriatic Sea) and nutrients were related to the changes in landings. In relation to life-history traits of the landed species, the community shifted from large, late-maturing species to more fecund, smaller and earlier-maturing species. A high fishing pressure is probably the major cause of these changes, possibly acting synergistically with environmental variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource partitioning in two congeneric sparids, pandora Pagellus erythrinus and axillary seabream Pagellus acarne, was investigated using stomach content analysis integrated with data on stable isotopes ( δN and δC). The study was carried out on coastal muddy bottoms in the Gulf of Castellammare (southern Tyrrhenian Sea, western Mediterranean Sea) in seasons (autumn, November 2004; winter, March 2005; spring, early June 2005), at depths between 50 and 100 m. Stomach content analysis suggested low trophic niche overlap between the two species. Pagellus erythrinus mainly preyed on strictly benthic organisms (polychaetes, brachyuran crabs and benthic crustaceans). Although it consumed benthic prey, P. acarne preferred suprabenthic prey such as peracarid crustaceans from the benthic boundary layer a few metres above the bottom. The two species showed different isotopic values, with P. erythrinus exhibiting higher δN and more enriched δC than P. acarne, in accordance with its marked benthic behaviour and high predation on carnivore polychaetes. Significant temporal variability in both diet and isotopic values caused trophic differences between the two species. The autumn and winter diet differed from the spring diet and the trophic levels of both species increased from autumn and winter to spring, in accordance with variations in food availability and changes in prey δN and δC. These temporal variations may be linked to an increase in energy requirements for reproduction, together with the differing availability of preferred prey throughout the year. Significantly, lower δC was recorded in fishes collected in winter (March), suggesting the influence of river inputs as a source of particulate organic matter in this zone after the flooding season. In conclusion, these sympatric congeneric fish species displayed clear food partitioning throughout the temporal scale analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollutants alter marine systems, interfering with provisioning of ecosystem services; understanding their interaction with ecological communities is therefore critical to inform environmental management. Here we propose a joint compositional- and interaction-based analysis for ecological status assessment and apply it on the benthic communities of the Bagnoli Bay. We found that contamination differentially affects the communities' composition in the bay, with prokaryotes influenced only by depth, and benthos not following the environmental gradient at all. This result is confirmed by analyses of the community structure, whose network structure suggest fast carbon flow and cycling, especially promoted by nematodes and polychaetes; the benthic prey/predator biomass ratio, adjusted for competition, successfully synthesise the status of predator taxa. We found demersal fish communities to separate into a deep, pelagic-like community, and two shallow communities where a shift from exclusive predators to omnivores occurs, moving from the most polluted to the least polluted sampling units. Finally, our study indicate that indices based on interspecific interactions are better indicators of environmental gradients than those defined based on species composition exclusively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, life-history traits (maximum and average size, size at maturity and fecundity) of two congeneric smooth-hounds, Mustelus mustelus and Mustelus punctulatus, which share a geographical distribution and experience a similar fishing exploitation, were estimated and compared between species. The results indicated a lower maximum and average size, a lower size at maturity and a higher fecundity in M. punctulatus compared with those in M. mustelus. Considering that these two species co-occur in the same areas and are caught by the same fishing gears, the results indicate a higher vulnerability to exploitation of M. mustelus compared with that of M. punctulatus., (© 2020 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

Areas subjected to anthropogenic impacts are important to test the effect of stressors on local biota. We assessed with trawl net the composition and abundance of megafauna, litter, and litter-fouling communities in the soft bottoms of the National Interest Priority Site (NIPS) of Bagnoli-Coroglio (Gulf of Naples, Tyrrhenian Sea) at different depths. The megafauna accounted for 3444 specimens referred to 133 taxa (91 invertebrates and 42 fishes), for a biomass of ~102 kg and including species of wide ecological and commercial interest. Metrics of community structure yielded high values. The NIPS, hence, is characterized by a high biodiversity. Litter accounted for 3590 items, mostly in plastic and ranging between 10< × ≤20 cm, for a weight of ~260 kg, with values of 299.2 item/km 2 and 21.67 kg/km 2 . The putative origin of most items was land-based (83.6%), whereas sea-based litter accounted for 16.4%. More than 50% of the litter items found showed colonization by invertebrates and/or molluscan egg masses. Marine benthic litter, thus, locally constitutes a complex issue since litter items hosted complex communities of fouling organisms. Future remediation procedures should take the resident NIPS biota into account and not disrupt the environmental balance of the area., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pivotal life history traits concerning age structure and reproduction of the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias, Linnaeus 1758) were investigated in the Adriatic Sea from mid February 2012 to mid July 2013 and in 2016. The whole sample consisted of 176 females and 150 males, ranging between 217-1025 mm and 219-875 mm, respectively. The individual age, which was estimated using a cross-sectioning technique of the second dorsal-fin spine, ranged from 0 to 13+ years for females and from 0 to 9+ years for males. Based on the length-at-age estimates, the Gompertz growth parameters were L ∞  = 1130 mm, k = 0.18 and L ∞  = 920 mm, k = 0.24 for females and males, respectively. The size at sexual maturity (L 50 ) was 659 mm for females and 575 mm for males, corresponding to 7.5 and 5.5 years of age (A 50 ), respectively. Mean biennial fecundity was approximately 11 embryos/female and 12 ripe oocytes/female. Mature males occurred during much of the sampling period, while mature females with nearly full-term embryos were exclusively recorded in May 2013 and July 2016. Monitoring of catches conducted in a sample port of the north Adriatic (Chioggia) over the past 20 years has shown fluctuating trends in landings, with peaks during the summer reproductive season.

We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of the spider crabs Maja crispata and Maja squinado (Majidae, Brachyura). Both genomes contain the whole set of 37 genes characteristic of Bilaterian genomes, encoded on both α- and β-strands. Both species exhibit the same gene order, which is unique among known animal genomes. In particular, all the genes located on the β-strand form a single block. This gene order was analysed together with the other nine gene orders known for the Brachyura. Our study confirms that the most widespread gene order (BraGO) represents the plesiomorphic condition for Brachyura and was established at the onset of this clade. All other gene orders are the result of transformational pathways originating from BraGO. The different gene orders exhibit variable levels of genes rearrangements, which involve only tRNAs or all types of genes. Local homoplastic arrangements were identified, while complete gene orders remain unique and represent signatures that can have a diagnostic value. Brachyura appear to be a hot-spot of gene order diversity within the phylum Arthropoda. Our analysis, allowed to track, for the first time, the fully evolutionary pathways producing the Brachyuran gene orders. This goal was achieved by coupling sophisticated bioinformatic tools with phylogenetic analysis.

Multiple paternity appears to be a common trait of elasmobranch mating systems, with its occurrence likely driven by convenience, due to females seeking to minimize the stress of male harassment. Here we use molecular markers to analyse the frequency of multiple paternity in two related viviparous sharks, Mustelus mustelus and Mustelus punctulatus. We first applied molecular methods to assign pregnant females, embryos and additional reference adults (N = 792) to one of the two species. Paternity analysis was performed using a total of 9 polymorphic microsatellites on 19 females and 204 embryos of M. mustelus, and on 13 females and 303 embryos of M. punctulatus. Multiple paternity occurs in both species, with 47% of M. mustelus and 54% of M. punctulatus litters sired by at least two fathers. Female fecundity is not influenced by multiple mating and in 56% of polyandrous litters paternity is skewed, with one male siring most of the pups. Genetic analyses also revealed hybridization between the two species, with a M. punctulatus female bearing pups sired by a M. mustelus male. The frequency of polyandrous litters in these species is consistent with aspects of their reproductive biology, such as synchronous ovulation and possible occurrence of breeding aggregations.

The smooth-hounds represent a significant proportion of the elasmobranch catch in the Adriatic basin of the Mediterranean Sea, where the common (Mustelus mustelus) and blackspotted (Mustelus punctulatus) smooth-hounds co-occur. The 2 species share several morphological and morphometric characters that lead to frequent misidentification. In order to provide information useful for their species identification, we performed a morphological identification of several Mustelus specimens to select individuals unambiguously attributed to 1 of the 2 species, and assayed these with 3 new molecular tests. First, we developed and validated a mitochondrial DNA assay based on species-specific amplification of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI). Second, a fragment analysis of 15 microsatellites cross-amplified from several triakid species was performed to identify diagnostic loci. Finally, a length difference was identified in the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region and a diagnostic test based on its amplification was established. All the samples classified morphologically as M. mustelus and M. punctulatus showed a species-specific profile using all the 3 molecular tests. In addition, cross-amplification of microsatellites allowed identification of 9 highly polymorphic loci that will be useful for the study of the mating system and population differentiation of the 2 species., (© The American Genetic Association 2014. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Long-term time series of species abundances can depict population declines and changes in communities in response to anthropogenic activities, climate changes, alterations of trophic relationships. Here we present a database of historical marine fishery landing data, covering a remarkably long time series (1945-2013) and referring to one of the most exploited areas of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea. The database includes two time series of landing data, 1945-2013 and 1997-2013, from the official statistics of the fish market of Chioggia, where the major fishing fleet of the area operates. Comparisons between the landing data of the database and landing data from other fisheries or data from scientific surveys support the reliability of the time series in depicting changes in species abundances. The database is expected to be used by fishery biologists and ecologists interested in depicting and understanding temporal variations in species abundances and community composition, in relation to environmental and anthropogenic factors.

Background: Overexploitation and the impact of several types of human activities have caused declines of marine resources. The direct and active involvement of fishermen in the management of marine resources is effective not only for resource conservation, but also for changing fishermen's attitudes. In this study, we proposed and tested the efficacy and suitability of a measure for mitigating the impact of a trap fishery on cuttlefish eggs in the North Adriatic Sea. This measure directly involves fishermen in promoting the conservation of the early, and more vulnerable, stages of the cuttlefish life cycle., Methodology/principal Findings: Through surveys on fishing boats and interviews with fishermen, we found that traps placed in coastal areas during the cuttlefish breeding season have a high impact on cuttlefish eggs, with over 3 million eggs likely being destroyed by 3750 traps of 15 fishermen in less than 3 miles of coast. The use of removable ropes attached inside traps as an additional substrate for egg deposition allowed the recovery of 23.7% of the eggs deposited on the traps on average, without affecting the catch rate of adults. Experiments examining hatching success in the field highlighted the need for a careful choice of hatching sites to maximise the efficacy of the mitigation measure., Conclusions/significance: The proposed mitigation measure reduced the impact of fishing on cuttlefish eggs, with no significant effect on the commercial catch. Fishermen showed a positive attitude towards the application of this measure, which is inexpensive and easy to employ. The direct involvement of fishermen in the management of this resource and the maintenance of traditional fishing methods are a novel aspect of the proposed measure and represent the basis for its success.