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Climate change represents one of the major drivers of habitat modification that is affecting a wide variety of environments. In coastal environments, great effort is being put in trying to understand and forecast the possible effects of such processes, and the Sea-Level Rise (SLR) is one of the most investigated phenomena. This paper describes the possible effects of different 2100 sea-level scenarios related to greenhouse gas mitigation policies (Representative Concentration Pathways - RCPs). This work was conducted on a supralittoral habitat situated in Genova (Ligurian Sea), and has covered an eventual change of environmental conditions driven by SLR, which might impact the Culicid Acartomyiamariae, a resident species. The wave run-up stemming from the different RCPs was simulated using the XBeach model, and to infer SLR effects on A. mariae life cycle; the results were coupled with data obtained from field surveys. The model outputs highlighted a variation in the wave run-up oscillations under common wave conditions, which might affect the supralittoral area in terms of water input and hydric balance, and the A. mariae life cycle, which is highly dependent on temperature and salinity.

Tigriopus fulvus (Fischer, 1860) is a benthic harpacticoid copepod of the Mediterranean supralittoral zone. The transitional characteristics of this environment forced this species to develop high resistance to changes of environmental parameters. Nevertheless, Tigriopus fulvus life-cycle is influenced from the splashpools physical-chemical parameters. In this paper, we present the results of a supralittoral monitoring performed in 2014, confirming the influence of some of these environmental parameters on population buildups. Because of recent worldwide climate change effects, a threat might have been posed on this particularly exposed organism, whose population density decreased of a sixfold value in the last 30 years. During the three pools (A, B, C) monitoring, the maximum copepod density recorded was 1456 Ind/l (September 2014, Pool C), alongside first records of extinction event for Tigriopus fulvus.

Cnidarians are numbered among the most venomous organisms. Their venoms are contained in intracellular capsules, nematocysts, which inject the content into preys/attackers through an eversion system resembling a syringe needle. Several cnidarian venoms have activity against the nervous system, being neurotoxic, or affect other systems whose functioning is under nerve control. Besides direct damage to nerve cells, the activity on ionic conductance, blockade of neuromuscular junctions, and influence on action potentials and on voltage-gated channels have been described. Therefore, cnidarians can be a useful source of nervous system-targeted compounds which could have, in perspective, a role in the therapy of some nervous system diseases. Following this idea, this article aims to review the existing data about the neuroactive properties of cnidarian venoms and their possible usefulness in tackling some neurological diseases as well as neurodegenerative age-related diseases whose incidence is expected to raise in the next decades owing to the increase of life expectancy.