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In the last decades, climate change and human pressures have increasingly and dramatically impacted the ocean worldwide, calling for urgent actions to safeguard coastal marine ecosystems. The European Commission, in particular, has set ambitious targets for member states with two major directives, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), both designed to protect the marine environment in EU waters. Diverse biotic indices have accordingly been developed to assess water and habitat quality. The WFD adopts four Biological Quality Elements (BQEs), whereas the MSFD recommends a set of eleven qualitative descriptors. The borderline between water quality and habitat quality is hard to trace and so far most assessments have involved the use of a few indices and were mainly related to a single BQE or qualitative descriptor. In this study, thanks to the availability of a large dataset encompassing a wide array of descriptors, we compared the performance of 11 biotic indices relative to three habitats/biotic components (reefs, seagrass, and fish) of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Capo Carbonara (SE Sardinia, Italy). The aim was to assess whether the indices were consistent in defining the environmental status in the MPA investigated. We used the graphical approach RESQUE (REsilience and QUality of Ecosystem), which enabled us to obtain a single and comprehensive measure of the status of the environment by integrating several metrics. This approach was applied here to different habitats for the first time. All indices were consistent with each other in confirming the good status of Capo Carbonara MPA. The use of RESQUE provided insights to interpret the differences between water quality, defined according to the WFD, and habitat quality, defined according to the MSFD. Differences between the two EU directives, in terms of either requirements or goals, have long been discussed but the present study highlights for the first time that they are congruent in their assessment of the environmental status of marine ecosystems.

Monitoring the spread of non-indigenous species is fundamental to study global warming effects on marine biodiversity. A valuable tool is represented by the continuous updating of the geographic range expansion of non-indigenous species. Lamprohaminoea ovalis is a Lessepsian mollusc initially recorded in the Mediterranean Sea in 2001. This paper reports its range expansion over the last 20 years related to water warming. The first record of Lamprohaminoea ovalis from the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean) is also reported. Two individuals (about 10 mm length) were observed on a sub-vertical rocky bottom at 26 m depth displaying potential trailing behaviour. This recent finding extends the currently known distributional range of Lamprohaminoea ovalis, representing the northernmost occurrence of this non-indigenous species in the western Mediterranean Sea.

Este artículo contiene 18 páginas, 4 figuras., Climate change is causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves (MHWs) and mass mortality events (MMEs) of marine organisms are one of their main ecological impacts. Here, we show that during the 2015–2019 period, the Mediterranean Sea has experienced exceptional thermal conditions resulting in the onset of five consecutive years of widespread MMEs across the basin. These MMEs affected thousands of kilometers of coastline from the surface to 45 m, across a range of marine habitats and taxa (50 taxa across 8 phyla). Significant relationships were found between the incidence of MMEs and the heat exposure associated with MHWs observed both at the surface and across depths. Our findings reveal that the Mediterranean Sea is experiencing an acceleration of the ecological impacts of MHWs which poses an unprecedented threat to its ecosystems' health and functioning. Overall, we show that increasing the resolution of empirical observation is critical to enhancing our ability to more effectively understand and manage the consequences of climate change., This paper was supported by Euromarine. Joaquim Garrabou acknowledges the funding by the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” (CEX2019-000928-S), the MCIU/AEI/FEDER [HEATMED; RTI2018-095346-B-I00], Interreg-Med Programme MPA-Engage (1MED15_3.2_M2_337), the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Futuremares SEP-210597628). Nuria Teixido acknowledges the French National Research Agency (4Oceans-MOPGA grant, ANR-17-MPGA-0001) and internal funds from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. Gil Rilov was supported by the Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection. Hocein Bazairi, Free Spinosa, and Vasilis Gerovasileiou acknowledge the funding by the MAVA Fondation (MedKeyHabitats I Project) and the European Commission (Ecap-MED II Project; projects implemented by UNEP/MAP-RAC/SPA). Alfonso Ramos was supported the CIESM “Tropical Signals,” Stelios Katsanevakis and Maria Sini were supported by the Project “Coastal Environment Observatory and Risk Management in Island Regions AEGIS+” (MIS 5047038), implemented within the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014–2020), co-financed by the Hellenic Government (Ministry of Development and Investments) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund), Stelios Katsanevakis, Maria Sini and Vasilis Gerovasileiou acknowledge the support of the MARISCA Project, co-funded by 85% by the EEA GRANTS, 2009–2014, and 15% by the Public Investments Programme (PIP) of the Hellenic Republic. Ivan Guala and Daniele Grech thanks thank the support of the project “Pinna nobilis—ricerca per la sopravvivenza: un'iniziativa di Citizen Science per tracciare la mortalità di massa di Pinna nobilis in Sardegna” project and the L/7 grant (CUP 87G17000070002) funded by the Regione Autonoma Sardegna. Jean-Baptiste Ledoux was funded by an assistant researcher contract framework of the RD Unit—UID/Multi/04423/2019—Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research—financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through COMPETE2020—Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). This research was supported by the Strategic Funding UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020 through national funds provided by the FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the program PT2020. Bernat Hereu and Cristina Linares acknowledge the support of the long-term monitoring programme of the catalan Natural Parks, funded by the Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Cristina Linares acknowledges the support of the ICREA Academia programme. David Díaz acknowledges the support the research grant CTM2016-77027-R of the Programa Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad and Program of Marines Strategies of Spain funded by MITERD. Jamila Ben Soussi was partially funded by the Fondation Albert 2 Monaco (MIMOSA Project) and the Tropical Signals Program of CIESM. Giovanni Chimienti was supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (PON 2014–2020, AIM 1807508–1, Linea 1), by the Ente Parco Nazionale del Gargano (Research agreement with CoNISMa N. 21/2018), and by the National Geographic Society (Grant EC-176R-18). Nathaniel Bensoussan acknowledges financial support from the European Commission through the programme “Caroline Herschell” in the context of the action “Developing Downstream applications and services on BIO-PHYsical characterization of the seascape for COASTal management” (BIOPHYCOAST). Monica Montefalcone and Annalissa Azzola collected some of their data on MMEs in the frame of the project “Mare Caldo” funded by Greenpeace Italy. Núria Marbà acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministries of Economy and Competitiveness (CTM2012-32603, CGL2015-71809-P) and Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (RTI2018-095441-B-C21). Diego K. Kersting acknowledges support by the postdoctoral fellowship programme Beatriu de Pinós funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801370.