Search

Sicyonia lancifer (Olivier, 1811), a widely distributed Indo-West Pacific rock shrimp, was recently collected off the Mediterranean coasts of Turkey and Israel. This is the first record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. The species is illustrated, and differentiated from its native Mediterranean congener, S. carinata (Brünnich, 1768). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species, Elanella haifensis, is described from off the coast of Israel, collected in depths ranging from 9.8–22.4 m. It is easily distinguishable from congeners by the spinulate bulbous setae III and IV of the female caudal ramus, and the shape of the male antennule. A new diagnosis is presented for the genus Elanella. This is the first record of the genus in Mediterranean waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report new data on non-indigenous invertebrates from the Mediterranean Sea (four ostracods and 20 molluscs), including five new records for the basin: the ostracods Neomonoceratina iniqua , Neomonoceratina aff. mediterranea , Neomonoceratina cf. entomon , Loxoconcha cf. gisellae (Arthropoda: Crustacea)-the first records of non-indigenous ostracods in the Mediterranean-and the bivalve Striarca aff. symmetrica (Mollusca). Additionally, we report for the first time Electroma vexillum from Israel, and Euthymella colzumensis , Joculator problematicus , Hemiliostraca clandestina , Pyrgulina nana , Pyrgulina microtuber , Turbonilla cangeyrani , Musculus aff. viridulus and Isognomon bicolor from Cyprus. We also report the second record of Fossarus sp. and of Cerithiopsis sp. cf. pulvis in the Mediterranean Sea, the first live collected specimens of Oscilla galilae from Cyprus and the northernmost record of Gari pallida in Israel (and the Mediterranean). Moreover, we report the earliest records of Rugalucina angela , Ervilia scaliola and Alveinus miliaceus in the Mediterranean Sea, backdating their first occurrence in the basin by 3, 5 and 7 years, respectively. We provide new data on the presence of Spondylus nicobaricus and Nudiscintilla aff. glabra in Israel. Finally, yet importantly, we use both morphological and molecular approaches to revise the systematics of the non-indigenous genus Isognomon in the Mediterranean Sea, showing that two species currently co-occur in the basin: the Caribbean I. bicolor , distributed in the central and eastern Mediterranean, and the Indo-Pacific I . aff. legumen , at present reported only from the eastern Mediterranean and whose identity requires a more in-depth taxonomic study. Our work shows the need of taxonomic expertise and investigation, the necessity to avoid the unfounded sense of confidence given by names in closed nomenclature when the NIS belong to taxa that have not enjoyed ample taxonomic work, and the necessity to continue collecting samples-rather than relying on visual censuses and bio-blitzes-to enable accurate detection of non-indigenous species., Competing Interests: Tamar Guy-Haim is an Academic Editor for PeerJ., (© 2024 Albano et al.)

Native biodiversity loss and invasions by nonindigenous species (NIS) have massively altered ecosystems worldwide, but trajectories of taxonomic and functional reorganization remain poorly understood due to the scarcity of long-term data. Where ecological time series are available, their temporal coverage is often shorter than the history of anthropogenic changes, posing the risk of drawing misleading conclusions on systems' current states and future development. Focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, a region affected by massive biological invasions and the largest climate change-driven collapse of native marine biodiversity ever documented, we followed the taxonomic and functional evolution of an emerging "novel ecosystem", using a unique dataset on shelled mollusks sampled in 2005-2022 on the Israeli shelf. To quantify the alteration of observed assemblages relative to historical times, we also analyzed decades- to centuries-old ecological baselines reconstructed from radiometrically dated death assemblages, time-averaged accumulations of shells on the seafloor that constitute natural archives of past community states. Against expectations, we found no major loss of native biodiversity in the past two decades, suggesting that its collapse had occurred even earlier than 2005. Instead, assemblage taxonomic and functional richness increased, reflecting the diversification of NIS whose trait structure was, and has remained, different from the native one. The comparison with the death assemblage, however, revealed that modern assemblages are taxonomically and functionally much impoverished compared to historical communities. This implies that NIS did not compensate for the functional loss of native taxa, and that even the most complete observational dataset available for the region represents a shifted baseline that does not reflect the actual magnitude of anthropogenic changes. While highlighting the great value of observational time series, our results call for the integration of multiple information sources on past ecosystem states to better understand patterns of biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene., (Global Change Biology© 2024 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)