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Este artículo contiene 10 páginas, 5 figuras, 1 tabla., The process of site selection and spatial planning has received scarce attention in the scientific literature dealing with marine restoration, suggesting the need to better address how spatial planning tools could guide restoration interventions. In this study, for the first time, the consequences of adopting different restoration targets and criteria on spatial restoration prioritization have been assessed at a regional scale, including the consideration of climate changes. We applied the decision-support tool Marxan, widely used in systematic conservation planning on Mediterranean macroalgal forests. The loss of this habitat has been largely documented, with limited evidences of natural recovery. Spatial priorities were identified under six planning scenarios, considering three main restoration targets to reflect the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Results show that the number of suitable sites for restoration is very limited at basin scale, and targets are only achieved when the recovery of 10% of regressing and extinct macroalgal forests is planned. Increasing targets translates into including unsuitable areas for restoration in Marxan solutions, amplifying the risk of ineffective interventions. Our analysis supports macroalgal forests restoration and provides guiding principles and criteria to strengthen the effectiveness of restoration actions across habitats. The constraints in finding suitable areas for restoration are discussed, and recommendations to guide planning to support future restoration interventions are also included., This study was funded by the EASME–EMFF (Sustainable Blue Economy) Project AFRIMED (http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N. 789059), supported by the European Community.

The deep southern Adriatic Sea is home of widespread cold-water coral colonization (Madrepora oculata, Lophelia pertusa, Desmophyllum dianthus) which is at present limited by large to its western (Apulian) margin and central part, including the Bari Canyon system. On the contrary, the eastern side is today almost deprived of significant coral growth and this asymmetrical distribution has been ascribed primarily to the action of the North Adriatic Dense Water (NAdDW) that impinges more efficiently on the Apulian margin. The collection of subfossil specimens of M. oculata, L. pertusa and D. dianthus provided the very first dates for cold-water coral colonization along the eastern margin. Once combined with known distribution of live cold-water corals and fossil occurrences in the southern Adriatic Sea, uranium-series dating provides evidence of (i) coral presence in the southeastern Adriatic during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), followed by (ii) a time of basin-wide colonization after the post-Last Glacial Maximum and encompassing the Younger Dryas, (iii) another time of undocumented coral presence with the onset of Sapropel S1. Perturbations of the thermohaline circulation in this sector of the Mediterranean basin might have governed the presence and demise of the resident cold-water coral populations interfering with strength and trajectories of main water masses. It is hypothesized that the achievement of the current asymmetrical distribution did occur since the end of S1 protracting to present time. The post-S1 reorganization likely brought to the current hydrological situation where the influence of NAdDW prevails in the western side and corals are doing at best on its trajectory. The scarcity of datable material makes the proposed scenario open to debate and in need of further supporting evidence.

In the last years, there has been an advancement in technology, thus, new tools have become available for the study of marine sciences. Scientists and engineers have worked together to give a plethora of tools to help in marine sciences, either environment monitoring, statistical data or numeric models. We use different tools in marine sciences, such as ArcGIS for display and manipulation of geospatial data, R for statistical analysis, SPSS for statistical data. The addressed question is which one of these tools is the most suitable for use. This paper explores the most commonly used tools, the advantages and drawbacks of using them as well as their prospective challenges.

This work was funded by theFrench CoastalProtectionAgency (Conservatoire de l'Espace Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres ; in short: Conservatoire du Littoral) within the framework of the Mediterranean Small Islands Initiative PIM. Thanks are due to Michael Paul, an English native speaker, for proof-reading the English and to an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions.; International audience; The CARLIT methodology is an Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR) widely used in the Mediterranean Sea to assess the ecological status of coastal water bodies, within the framework of the European Water Directive (European Union, EU) of 2000. It is based upon the exhaustive mapping of a set of mid-littoral and shallow infralittoral species and communities. This methodology was applied, for the first time in a non-EU country, Albania, three years after the establishment of a Marine Protected Area (MPA). The observed range of ecological status was wide (‘high’ through ‘bad’) and was overall among the lowest assessed to date in the Mediterranean Sea. The bioconstructions (algal rims) edified in the lower mid-littoral zone by the calcified rhodobiont Lithophyllum byssoides were in poor condition and sometimes even dead, possibly in relation with the pollution and the on-going global sea-level rise. In addition, Cystoseira amentacea, a brown alga whose weight in the index is high, could be less sensitive to pollution than previously expected. The occurrence of extensive sea-urchin barren-grounds, though not taken into consideration by the CARLIT index, confirmed the poor condition of large sectors of the study area. Overall, the assessed ecological status could prove to be overestimated by the CARLIT methodology and some methodological improvements should therefore be considered.

The fauna collected associated with subfossil Lophelia pertusa and Dendrophyllia cornigera coral samples and hardgrounds from Albanian waters between 190?230 m is discussed. Eighty-three benthic species are recorded: 2 Foraminifera, 22 Porifera, 6 Cnidaria, 25 Mollusca, 14 Annelida, 1 Arthropoda, 12 Bryozoa, and 1 Echinodermata. Seventy-four species are new records for the poorly investigated Albanian deep waters.

Este artículo contiene 12 páginas, 5 figuras, 2 tablas., The assessment of the genetic structuring of biodiversity is crucial for management and conservation. For species with large effective population sizes a low number of markers may fail to identify population structure. A solution of this shortcoming can be high-throughput sequencing that allows genotyping thousands of markers on a genome-wide approach while facilitating the detection of genetic structuring shaped by selection. We used Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) on 176 individuals of the endemic East Atlantic peacock wrasse (Symphodus tinca), from 6 locations in the Adriatic and Ionian seas. We obtained a total of 4,155 polymorphic SNPs and we observed two strong barriers to gene flow. The first one differentiated Tremiti Islands, in the northwest, from all the other locations while the second one separated east and south-west localities. Outlier SNPs potentially under positive selection and neutral SNPs both showed similar patterns of structuring, although finer scale differentiation was unveiled with outlier loci. Our results reflect the complexity of population genetic structure and demonstrate that both habitat fragmentation and positive selection are on play. This complexity should be considered in biodiversity assessments of different taxa, including non-model yet ecologically relevant organisms., Acknowledgements This work was supported by project CTM2013-48163 from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and by the European FP7 CoCoNet project (Ocean 2011-4, grant agreement #287844). CC, EM and MP are part of the research groups 2014SGR-1364, 2014SGR-120 and 2014SGR-336 of the Generalitat de Catalunya. CC was supported by a grant of the Beatriu de Pinós program of the Generalitat de Catalunya. LZ was supported by the University of Padua grant CPDA148387/14.

International audience; Understanding the distribution of genetic diversity in the light of past demographic events linked with climatic shifts will help to forecast evolutionary trajectories of ecosystems within the current context of climate change. In this study, mitochondrial sequences and microsatellite loci were analysed using traditional population genetic approaches together with Bayesian dating and the more recent approximate Bayesian computation scenario testing. The genetic structure and demographic history of a commercial fish, the black scorpionfish, Scorpaena porcus, was investigated throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The results suggest that the species recently underwent population expansions, in both seas, likely concomitant with the warming period following the Last Glacial Maximum, 20 000 years ago. A weak contemporaneous genetic differentiation was identified between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. However, the genetic diversity was similar for populations of the two seas, suggesting a high number of colonizers entered the Black Sea during the interglacial period and/or the presence of a refugial population in the Black Sea during the glacial period. Finally, within seas, an east/west genetic differentiation in the Adriatic seems to prevail, whereas the Black Sea does not show any structured spatial genetic pattern of its population. Overall, these results suggest that the Black Sea is not that isolated from the Mediterranean, and both seas revealed similar evolutionary patterns related to climate change and changes in sea level.