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Special issue Vectors of change in the marine environment.-- 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2016.01.002, Investigations on sexual reproduction of jellyfish are essential to understanding mechanisms and patterns of outbreaks formation. Pelagia noctiluca (Forskål, 1775) (Scyphozoa) is known as the predominant jellyfish species with direct development in Western and Central Mediterranean Sea. In this paper we used integrated morphometric, histological, and biochemical approaches to investigate the annual reproductive biology of P. noctiluca from the Strait of Messina (South Thyrrenian Sea), a key proliferation area for this species due to favourable temperatures and high productivity. From November 2011 to September 2012, P. noctiluca sexual reproduction occurred throughout the year, with two seasonal peaks (autumn, spring) of spawning and embryonic development. Gonads of female P. noctiluca were characterized by a large amount of mature eggs of small size (diameter < 200 μm) during high food availability, whereas fewer, larger eggs (diameter > 200 μm) were detected during low availability of prey. Two morphometric indexes were applied: the Gonad-Somatic Index (GSI, gonadal/somatic tissue dry weight ratio) and Fecundity Index (FI, n° eggs mm−2 * gonadal dry weight). The FI showed longer spawning periods than the GSI, providing a better causal-mechanistic explanation for the year-round occurrence of P. noctiluca in the Strait of Messina. Protein contents of the gonads changed seasonally, with the highest concentrations during the pre-spawning periods. We suggest that investigations on jellyfish sexual reproduction can provide biological information relevant for understanding mechanisms of jellyfish blooms as well as for the management of coastal zones affected by outbreaks of gelatinous species, The research leading to these results received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement No. 266445 for the project Vectors of Change in Oceans and Seas Marine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors (VECTORS – http://www.marine-vectors.eu)

The project "Biodiversity MARE Tricase" aims to research and promote coastal and marine biodiversity at the MARE Outpost (Avamposto MARE), a marine station established in Tricase (Lecce, Italy) in 2015. From March 2016 to September 2017, the first biodiversity inventory of the Tricase coastal area (Ionian Sea) was realized with the aid of citizen scientists (e.g. local fishermen, divers, bathers, and tourists). Preliminary results include 556 taxa, of which the 95% were identified at the species level. Despite the broad knowledge on Mediterranean coastal biodiversity, 71 species represented new records for the Ionian Sea. In parallel with the research activities, people's awareness of the value of biodiversity was raised with scientific dissemination initiatives, involving about 1700 people. The "Biodiversity MARE Tricase" project realized a first small-scale species inventory contributing to the distributional, taxonomic, and ecological knowledge of the present Mediterranean biota. The coastal area of Tricase will be soon included in a new Marine Protected Area and this project represents a step forward for the sustainable development of the community of this coast.

Maritime economy, ecosystem-based management and climate change adaptation and mitigation raise emerging needs on coastal ocean and biological observations. Integrated ocean observing aims at optimizing sampling strategies and cost-efficiency, sharing data and best practices, and maximizing the value of the observations for multiple purposes. Recently developed cost-effective, near real time technology such as gliders, radars, ferrybox, and shallow water Argo floats, should be used operationally to generate operational coastal sea observations and analysis. Furthermore, value of disparate coastal ocean observations can be unlocked with multi-dimensional integration on fitness-for-the-purpose, parameter and instrumental. Integration of operational monitoring with offline monitoring programs, such as those for research, ecosystem-based management and commercial purposes, is necessary to fill the gaps. Such integration should lead to a system of networks which can deliver data for all kinds of purposes. Detailed integration activities are identified which should enhance the coastal ocean and biological observing capacity. Ultimately a program is required which integrates physical, biogeochemical and biological observation of the ocean, from coastal to deep-sea environments, bringing together global, regional, and local observation efforts.

The frenzy for evaluation metrics recognizes the value of research based on the impact factor of the journals that publish the results. Only some areas of science are conducive to publication in the best tribunes. In biology, for instance, organismal biology, or taxonomy, are not very fashionable, whereas molecular or global approaches are trendy. The citation system to measure the quality of a scientist’s work is based on the acceptance of what is published: the more the rest of the scientific community likes it, the higher the value. In this framework there is little space for deviation from norms. Some examples are given here, within the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, that show how difficult it is to enforce ideas, either new or old, that do not follow mainstream thought. In order to obtain tenure it is advisable to conform to mainstream, and publish your results in journals with high impact factors. New things can be attempted ‘after’ tenure has been granted; but ‘after’ is very often ‘too late’.

Aquaculture is increasing rapidly to meet global seafood demand. Some hydroid populations have been linked to mortality and health issues in finfish and shellfish, but their dynamics in and around aquaculture farms remain understudied. In the present work, two experiments, each with 36 panels, tested colonization (factors: depth, season of immersion) and succession (factors: depth, submersion duration) over one year. Hydroid surface cover was estimated for each species, and data were analyzed with multivariate techniques. The assemblage of hydrozoans was species-poor, although species richness, frequency and abundance increased with time, paralleling the overall increase in structural complexity of fouling assemblages. Submersion duration and season of immersion were particularly important in determining the species composition of the assemblages in the succession and colonization experiments, respectively. Production of water-borne propagules, including medusae, from the hydroids was observed from locally abundant colonies, among them the well-known fouling species Obelia dichotoma, potentially representing a nuisance for cultured fish through contact-driven envenomations and gill disorders. The results illustrate the potential importance of fouling hydroids and their medusae to the health of organisms in the aquaculture industry.

The positive impressions described in the European Landscape Convention (ELC) simply identify beauty defined as follows in a popular dictionary: ‘a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight’. The ELC is centred on the way the culture of a population perceives and modifies nature, somehow ‘improving’ it with wise management. Protecting beautiful places, and managing the habitats of European Community importance, is a first step towards recognizing the significance of the marine environment, inviting science to design an approach to its management and protection that goes beyond the biases of the current ‘culture’. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been instituted to protect biodiversity and to enhance ecosystem functioning, and so adhere, at least in theory, to all the specifications of Good Environmental Status (GES). The assessment of the efficacy of MPA management should consider the attainment of GES

Open Access (OA) databases and publications are revolutionizing the storage and communication of scientific results. OA databases of physical and chemical measurements have been available for a long time, thanks to automated procedures of data acquisition and processing, whereas this is still not possible with marine biodiversity data. The pay-per-view policy is being replaced by the pay-to-be-viewed policy, with authors paying the expenses of the OA to their work. The ethical side of OA is clear: the whole world should be able to profit from new knowledge, not only those who can afford it, especially because research is often paid with public funds. Since funding agencies increasingly ask their beneficiaries to publish their work with OA, OA journals with unclear quality standards are proliferating, and some are publishing unreliable results. Private companies, with either pay-per-view (Scopus, The Web of Knowledge) or OA (Google Scholar) policies, rate the outputs of research. Funding agencies (e.g. Wellcome) are experimenting a further development of the OA strategy, launching OA platforms that they manage directly, with signed peer reviews. Similar experiments are being conducted with databases of raw data. Public funding agencies should also fully embrace this policy. OA policies are still developing, but the route towards a more democratic fashion of making the results of scientific research openly available is mapped out.

Whether jellyfish are increasing or not in the global ocean is a subject of some debate, but the fact remains that when they bloom, jellyfish can negatively affect local economies. Despite this, there has been no robust debate about the idea of deliberately removing jellyfish as a means of population control. Here, we discuss the effects of fishing for jellyfish, either as a sustainable resource and/or as a way to simply reduce their nuisance value, on both individual jellyfish populations and the ecosystem. Given that the drivers influencing each local bloom are different, or that the effects of more widespread drivers may be manifested differently at each locale, our priority at population control/use needs to be more basic research on jellyfish. While we do not advocate a no-fishing approach, we emphasize the need to be cautious in embracing jellyfish fisheries as a panacea and we need to consider the management of each bloom on a case-by-case basis.

In spite of considerable research effort on the “immortal jellyfish” Turritopsis dohrnii (Weismann, 1883), a comprehensive account including the ontogenetic stages throughout its normal life cycle is still missing. Here, we report the development of the medusa morph, with description of four consecutive stages distinguished by the morphology of the umbrellar apex and the number of marginal tentacles. Medusae reared at two different temperatures (14 and 25°C) showed identical morphological features, but with shorter developmental time at higher temperature. Additional information on the morphology of the polyp stage is also provided. The implications for an easy morphological identification of T. dohrnii medusae from other congeneric species are discussed.

The present note reports a new record of Rosalinda incrustans (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) since its last reliable record in the Mediterranean Sea in 1958. Several colonies were recorded on the spider crab Anamathia rissoana off the Balearic Islands. The taxonomic history of R. incrustans, considered a putatively extinct species in a recent paper, is reviewed.

Ecological systems depend on both constraints and historical contingencies, both of which shape their present observable system state. In contrast to ahistorical systems, which are governed solely by constraints (i.e. laws), historical systems and their dynamics can be understood only if properly described, in the course of time. Describing these dynamics and understanding long-term variability can be seen as the mission of long time series measuring not only simple abiotic features but also complex biological variables, such as species diversity and abundances, allowing deep insights in the functioning of food webs and ecosystems in general. Long time-series are irreplaceable for understanding change, and crucially inherent system variability and thus envisaging future scenarios. This notwithstanding current policies in funding and evaluating scientific research discourage the maintenance of long term series, despite a clear need for long-term strategies to cope with climate change. Time series are crucial for a pursuit of the much invoked Ecosystem Approach and to the passage from simple monitoring programs of large-scale and long-term Earth observatories — thus promoting a better understanding of the causes and effects of change in ecosystems. The few ongoing long time series in European waters must be integrated and networked so as to facilitate the formation of nodes of a series of observatories which, together, should allow the long-term management of the features and characteristics of European waters. Human capacity building in this region of expertise and a stronger societal involvement are also urgently needed, since the expertise in recognizing and describing species and therefore recording them reliably in the context of time series is rapidly vanishing from the European Scientific community.

Hypotheses on the spatial and temporal distribution of sessile assemblages in sub- merged marine caves have rarely been tested. Classically, the distribution of cave benthos has been related mainly to the physical gradients along the exterior-interior axis. Using a multifactorial sam- pling design, we examined the distribution of species assemblages within 3 different caves in South- ern Italy. Non-destructive sampling was repeated at 4 different times over a period of 11 mo. Results showed an overall pattern of change in the structure of the assemblages along the exterior-interior axis of the 3 caves (i.e. among sectors). Significant differences in species assemblages, however, were also observed within sectors (i.e. among areas), and changes in assemblages varied inconsistently with time and among caves. This result suggests a high complexity of the processes determining spatio-temporal distribution patterns in marine caves, which are context- and scale-dependent. Results also showed the uniqueness of these assemblages, which has important implications for their conservation and management.

Rare evidences support that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) enhance the stability of marine habitats and assemblages. Based on nine years of observation (2001-2009) inside and outside a well managed MPA, we assessed the potential of conservation and management actions to modify patterns of spatial and/or temporal variability of Posidonia oceanica meadows, the lower midlittoral and the shallow infralittoral rock assemblages. Significant differences in both temporal variations and spatial patterns were observed between protected and unprotected locations. A lower temporal variability in the protected vs. unprotected assemblages was found in the shallow infralittoral, demonstrating that, at least at local scale, protection can enhance community stability. Macrobenthos with long-lived and relatively slow-growing invertebrates and structurally complex algal forms were homogeneously distributed in space and went through little fluctuations in time. In contrast, a mosaic of disturbed patches featured unprotected locations, with small-scale shifts from macroalgal stands to barrens, and harsh temporal variations between the two states. Opposite patterns of spatial and temporal variability were found for the midlittoral assemblages. Despite an overall clear pattern of seagrass regression through time, protected meadows showed a significantly higher shoot density than unprotected ones, suggesting a higher resistance to local human activities. Our results support the assumption that the exclusion/management of human activities within MPAs enhance the stability of the structural components of protected marine systems, reverting or arresting threat-induced trajectories of change. © 2013 Fraschetti et al.

Shallow rocky habitats in SW Apulia (SE Italy, Mediterranean Sea) were surveyed in late spring 2002 to assess distribution patterns of sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula) and barren habitats (coralline barrens and bare substrates) in rocky reefs impacted by the destructive fishery of the rock-boring date-mussel Lithophaga lithophaga. Sea urchin density, test size-structure and biomass, and the percent cover of barrens were evaluated at four locations (5-6 km apart from each other), two heavily impacted by the date-mussel fishery and two controls. Sea urchin density and barren habitat cover were assessed at two and three sites (100-300 m apart), respectively, within each location. Sea urchin biomass was evaluated only at the scale of locations. Average density of P. lividus did not significantly change between impacted locations and controls, whereas A. lixula showed a greater density at the impacted locations. Distribution patterns of A. lixula, in addition, differed at the spatial scale of a few metres between impacted locations and controls, being generally more aggregated at the controls. The size-frequency distribution (test diameter) of P. lividus showed a mode at 3-4 cm at the impacted locations compared to a mode at 2-3 cm in the controls. The size-frequency of A. lixula was bimodal at the damaged locations (with modes at 1-2 and 4-5 cm, respectively) and unimodal (with the mode at 4-5 cm) at the controls. Average biomass of both sea urchins (P. lividus and A. lixula) was two- to fourfold greater at the impacted locations (similar to600 g wet wt m(-2)) than at the controls (150-250 g wet wt m(-2)). Barren habitats had a far greater average cover (mainly of macroalgae) at the impacted locations (from 79% to 96%) than at control locations (from 7% to 21%). These results show that the date-mussel fishery may have the potential to affect distribution patterns of sea urchins and to greatly enhance the percent cover of barren grounds in shallow Mediterranean rocky reefs.