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To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12, 649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea ; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel ; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).

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.

Este artículo contiene 14 páginas, 8 figuras, 3 tablas., Algal habitat-forming forests composed of fucalean brown seaweeds (Cystoseira, Ericaria, and Gongolaria) have severely declined along the Mediterranean coasts, endangering the maintenance of essential ecosystem services. Numerous factors determine the loss of these assemblages and operate at different spatial scales, which must be identified to plan conservation and restoration actions. To explore the critical stressors (natural and anthropogenic) that may cause habitat degradation, we investigated (a) the patterns of variability of fucalean forests in percentage cover (abundance) at three spatial scales (location, forest, transect) by visual estimates and or photographic sampling to identify relevant spatial scales of variation, (b) the correlation between semi-quantitative anthropogenic stressors, individually or cumulatively (MA-LUSI index), including natural stressors (confinement, sea urchin grazing), and percentage cover of functional groups (perennial, semi-perennial) at forest spatial scale. The results showed that impacts from mariculture and urbanization seem to be the main stressors affecting habitat-forming species. In particular, while mariculture, urbanization, and cumulative anthropogenic stress negatively correlated with the percentage cover of perennial fucalean species, the same stressors were positively correlated with the percentage cover of the semi-perennial Cystoseira compressa and C. compressa subsp. pustulata. Our results indicate that human impacts can determine spatial patterns in these fragmented and heterogeneous marine habitats, thus stressing the need of carefully considering scale-dependent ecological processes to support conservation and restoration., This study was supported by the European Union’s EASME (Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprise) and EMFF (European Maritime and Fisheries fund) as part of the project AFRIMED, “Algal Forest Restoration in the Mediterranean Sea” (under grant agreement no. 789059), http:// afrimed-project.eu/.

Este artículo contiene 18 páginas, 4 figuras., Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, buried in scattered repositories or in the personal databases of experts. Through an initiative to collect, harmonize and make such unpublished data for marine alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea available, a large dataset comprising 5376 records was created. It includes records of 239 alien or cryptogenic taxa (192 Animalia, 24 Plantae, 23 Chromista) from 19 countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of records, the most reported Phyla in descending order were Chordata, Mollusca, Chlorophyta, Arthropoda, and Rhodophyta. The most recorded species was Caulerpa cylindracea, followed by Siganus luridus, Magallana sp. (cf. gigas or angulata) and Pterois miles. The dataset includes records from 1972 to 2020, with the highest number of records observed in 2018. Among the records of the dataset, Dictyota acutiloba is a first record for the Mediterranean Sea. Nine first country records are also included: the alga Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla, the cube boxfish Ostracion cubicus, and the cleaner shrimp Urocaridella pulchella from Israel; the sponge Paraleucilla magna from Libya and Slovenia; the lumpfish Cyclopterus lumpus from Cyprus; the bryozoan Celleporaria vermiformis and the polychaetes Prionospio depauperata and Notomastus aberans from Malta., The publication of this article is supported by the Open Access Publishing Fund of the International Association for Open Knowledge on Invasive Alien Species (INVASIVESNET; www.invasivesnet.org). Stelios Katsanevakis, Maria Sini and Konstantinos Tsirintanis 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 Number: HFRI-FM17-1597). Enalia Physis acknowledges Pantelis Patsalou for his support with field-logistics and links with fishers. Fiona Tomas would like to acknowledge funding from FECYT FCT- 14-9319 (¡OJO A LAS INVASORAS! BIODIVERSIDAD Y ESPECIES INVASORAS DEL MEDITERRÁNEO BALEAR). Vasilis Gerovasileiou, Thanos Dailianis and Maria Sini acknowledge the support by the MARISCA project (www.marisca.eu), co-funded (85%) by EEA GRANTS, 2009–2014, and the Public Investments Program (PIP) of the Hellenic Republic (15%). Razy Hoffman acknowledges funding by Yad-Hanadiv foundation, through the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences and Israel Nature and Parks Authority (An integrated program for establishing biological baselines and monitoring protocols for marine reserves in the Israeli Mediterranean Sea). Argyro Zenetos and Paraskevi K. Karachle would like to thank the citizenscientists collaborating with the Ellenic Network on Aquatic Invasive Species (ELNAIS – elnais.hcmr.gr). Nikolaos Doumpas, Ioannis Giovos, Periklis Kleirou and Francesco Tiralongo would like to thank all the citizen-scientists that contributed with their shared records and data in the citizen-science project “Is it alien to you? Share it!!!” (https://www.facebook.com/ groups/104915386661854/). Data from Gyaros Island marine reserve were collected under the “GyarosMPA” project, funded by “MAVA Fondation pour la Nature”. Data from Corsica coastline were mainly collected in the framework of the “Corsica Alien Network” initiated by “Office de l’Environnement de la Corse”. Carla Morri and Carlo Nike Bianchi received financial support from FFARB (funds for basic research activities) by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. Ergün Taşkın has been supported by TÜBİTAK, Ankara, Turkey (Project Number: 114Y238). The Slovenian authors would like to acknowledge their financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P1-0237) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia. Mehmet Fatih Huseyinoglu thanks University of Kyrenia’s Scientific Research Project numbered GRN-20191-004. Fabio Crocetta was funded by the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action TD1209 Alien Challenge project. The FRI (HAO DEMETER) team is very grateful to the Marine Strategy Project for financial support. Records of NIS in Jbel Moussa, the National Park of Al Hoceima and Cap des Trois Fourches sites from Morocco were obtained during surveys conducted within the framework of the MedKeyHabitats and the MedMPAnet Projects implemented by UNEP/MAP-RAC/SPA in close collaboration with the Haut Commissariat aux Eaux et Forêts et à la Lutte Contre la Désertification (HCEFLCD) and financially supported by RAC/SPA, Tunisia and the MAVA Foundation, Switzerland (MedKeyHabitats Project) and the European Commission (EC), the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation to Development (AECID), and the French Global Environment Facility (MedMPAnet Project). Jamila Ben Souissi was partially funded by BiodivMex /Chantier MISTRALS. Konstantinos Tsiamis sampling records were retrieved during his post in the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, which he would like to thank for. Periklis Kleitou and Demetris Kletou were supported by the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union – RELIONMED project [Grant Agreement LIFE16 NAT/ CY/000832]. Some of the data included in the dataset were obtained through the marine citizen science platform Observadores del Mar www.observadoresdelmar.es with the support of FECYT FCT-17-12469, LIFE IP Intemares and Fundació Marilles, and through the citizen science site of the Italian Marine Protected Area of “Regno di Nettuno” (islands of Ischia, Procida and Vivara): www.citizensciencerdn.org. Most data from Lebanon were retrieved from social media dedicated to citizen science (Facebook group: Sea Lebanon https://www.facebook.com/ groups/109615625861815/) or fishers and scuba divers WhatsApp groups). Jamila Rizgalla wishes to thank the administration of Regatta for granting a free pass to conduct field surveys and the security personnel for providing a safe environment. Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi was supported by European Community’s Seventh Framework Program VECTORS (Vectors of Change in Oceans and Seas Marine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors). The long lasting collaboration with the ICES Working Group on Introductions and Transfer of Marine Organisms (WGITMO) has been a good forum where many information and ideas could be exchanged within some of the authors (Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi, Argyro Zenetos, Agnese Marchini, and a wider community of scientists working on biological invasions). A. Rosso and R. Sanfilippo received grants from the Catania University Research Plan 2016/2018. Data from Kuriat island were collected under the “Kuriat project”, funded by “MAVA Fondation pour la Nature” executed by SPA/RAC in partnership with the Coastal Protection and Management Agency (APAL) and Notre Grand Bleu (NGB) NGO. The AIS/ERA (Environment and Resources Authority) Maltese data were obtained from the EU funded project EMFF 8.3.1 under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2014–2020 with a total cost of €1.6 million in public eligible EMFF funds (75% EU 25% MT), managed by AIS/ERA (Environment and Resources Authority). The ultimate goals of this European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF 2014–2020) project are to devise a holistic approach towards marine monitoring and develop a comprehensive database of data collected about the Maltese waters., With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)

Este artículo contiene 9 páginas, 7 figuras., [EN]Shallow Mediterranean rocky environments are usually dominated by macroalgae, but the stony colonial zooxanthellate coral Cladocora caespitosa is able to build extensive banks in some particular areas. Although zooxanthellate corals and benthic macroalgae are expected to compete for light and space when overlapping in the same habitat, there is previous evidence that C. caespitosa and Mediterranean macroalgae do not suffer from competitive exclusion when living together. Here we characterize a new and unique Mediterranean habitat where the reef-building coral C. caespitosa and erect seaweeds of the order Fucales (Cystoseira s.l.) coexist. In this new habitat C. caespitosa reaches 34% cover and densities of Cystoseira s.l. (mainly Treptacantha ballesterosii) are much higher than values reported from other sites. Interestingly, abundances of T. ballesterosii and C. caespitosa show a positive relationship, suggesting that some kind of facilitation mechanism is taking place. These findings challenge the theory of competitive exclusion between corals and macroalgae and launch a wide array of possible open discussions on coral-macroalgae interactions.[ES]Los ambientes rocosos someros del Mediterráneo están habitualmente dominados por macroalgas, no obstante, el coral colonial zooxantelado Cladocora caespitosa es capaz de formar bancos extensos en algunos lugares. Aunque es predecible que los corales con zooxantelas y las algas bentónicas compitan por la luz y el espacio cuando coinciden en el mismo hábitat, hay evidencias previas de que C. caespitosa y las algas mediterráneas no se excluyen competitivamente cuando viven juntas. En este trabajo se caracteriza un nuevo y único hábitat mediterráneo donde el coral formador de arrecifes C. caespitosa y algas erectas del orden Fucales (Cystoseira s.l.) coexisten. En este hábitat nuevo C. caespitosa alcanza coberturas del 34% y las densidades de Cystoseira s.l. (principalmente de Treptacantha ballesterosii) son mucho mayores que los valores encontrados en otros lugares. Remarcablemente, las abundancias de T. ballesterosii y C. caespitosa muestran una relación positiva, sugiriendo que existe algún tipo de mecanismo de facilitación. Este hallazgo pone en jaque la teoría de exclusión competitiva entre corales y macroalgas, a la vez que puede iniciar un amplio abanico de discusiones en las interacciones entre corales y macroalgas.

Este artículo contiene 11 páginas, 7 figuras, 2 tablas., Stochastic perturbations can trigger major ecosystem shifts. Marine systems have been severely affected in recent years by mass mortality events related to positive thermal anomalies. Although the immediate effects in the species demography affected by mortality events are well known, information on the mid- to long-term effects at the community level is much less documented. Here, we show how an extreme warming event replaces a structurally complex habitat, dominated by long-lived species, by a simplified habitat (lower species diversity and richness) dominated by turf-forming species. On the basis of a study involving the experimental manipulation of the presence of the gorgonian Paramuricea clavata, we observed that its presence mitigated the effects of warming by maintaining the original assemblage dominated by macroinvertebrates and delaying the proliferation and spread of the invasive alga Caulerpa cylindracea. However, due to the increase of sediment and turf-forming species after the mortality event we hypothesize a further degradation of the whole assemblage as both factors decrease the recruitment of P.clavata, decrease the survival of encrusting coralligenous-dwelling macroinvertebrates and facilitate the spreading of C. cylindracea., Financial support has been provided by a Spanish Ministry Project ANIMA (CGL2016-76341-R), OAPN project (CORCLIM 759S/2012 and 766S/2012) and European Union’s Horizon 2020 (grant agreement No. 689518) MERCES Project. This output reflects only the authors’ view and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. J.V. has been funded by a IFUdG2016 grant. Managers of ACNP are acknowledged for sampling permissions. We also thank to David Díaz, Eneko Aspillaga, Pol Capdevila, Bernat Hereu and Fiona Tomas for their collaboration in fieldwork. J.V., C.L. and E.C. are members of the Marine Conservation Research Group (www.medrecover.org; 2017 SGR 1521) and R.C. is part of the Marine Biogeochemistry and Global Change Research Group (2017SGR1011) from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Este artículo contiene 18 páginas, 8 figuras, 1 tabla., Historical information on marine organisms needs to be incorporated to develop effective management plans and conservation targets. In the Mediterranean Sea most species of brown seaweeds of the order Fucales are threatened or endangered and need protection. Here we merge data on historical and current records to create the first reference dataset on past and present distributions of Fucales from shallow and sheltered shores of Catalonia (NW Mediterranean Sea). Most Cystoseira sensu lato populations were found in the northern shores, where the most suitable environments exist. Carpodesmia mediterranea and Cystoseira compressa are far more abundant in exposed than in shallow, sheltered shores. Populations of most of the taxa (i.e. Carpodesmia crinita, Treptacantha elegans, T. sauvageauana, T. barbata f. aurantia) have suffered an important regression and two taxa have apparently become locally extinct (Cystoseira foeniculacea, Treptacantha barbata f. barbata). Carpodesmia caespitosa is still widespread in sheltered environments from the northern shores and a previously unreported taxon has been found (T. ballesterosii var. tenuior). Our regional-scale study makes available a solid, comprehensive baseline for future monitoring and application of conservation measures for the several threatened species of Fucales., Financial support to this research came from the projects ‘‘Cartografia dels Hàbitats Litorals a Catalunya’’ (Departament de Territori i Sosteniblitatand Institut Cartogàfic, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain), CTN1500528 of the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua, Spain, and the INTRAMURAL CSIC PIE201730E033. Jana Verdura and Alba Medrano benefitted of funding from the Horizon 2020 EU Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement No. 689518 (MERCES). Partial funding came from the Sustainable Blue Economy program, European Union under the grant agreement AFRIMED EASME/EMFF/2017/1.2.1.12/S4/01/SI2.789059 to Jana Verdura.

Macroalgal forests have gone missing from most temperate rocky shores during the last decades, triggering an important biodiversity loss. Cystoseira species are some of the main marine habitat-forming species on shallow water Mediterranean rocky bottoms and follow the same tendency, mainly related to habitat destruction and pollution. However, here we suggest that anormal positive thermal events may contribute to this widespread Cystoseira decline. Monitoring thorough natural populations showed a drastic decline on a natural and relict C. crinita population in terms of density and structure coinciding with anormal high temperatures experienced during a summer period. Additionally, we experimentally test in the laboratory the cause-effect of those temperatures and UV radiation conditions experienced in the field on C. crinita populations. Although, C. crinita is able to resist high temperature picks, usually reached in Mediterranean summers, exceptional and maintained periods as those experienced during extreme events (28ºC) lead to the death of all individuals, compromising the viability and conservation of these forest-forming populations. We show how climate change may seriously compromise algal populations and synergically act with historical drivers of macroalgal decline (pollution, habitat destruction and herbivorism). Financial support from EU2020 (R+I) under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES), MINECO (CGL2016-76341-R) and from University of Girona under congress assistance fellowship program for PhD and master students.

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