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This Collective Article presents information on 17 taxa belonging to five (5) Phyla and extending from the Alboran Sea to the Levantine Sea. These new records were found in six (6) different ecoregions as follows: Alboran Sea: Second and easternmost record of the sponge Chalinula nigra in the Mediterranean Sea; Western Mediterranean: first record of the rare gobid Gobius couchi for Spain, based on both morphological and molecular data; new records for the rare ascidian Ciona edwardsi from the Marine Protected Area of Tavolara, Sardinia; several records for four (4) different species of black coral, Antipathella subpinnata, Antipathes dichotoma, Leiopathes glaberrima and Parantipathes larix from the Aeolian Archipelago, all of which are currently threatened and/or protected at a Mediterranean level; the first documented records of the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus in Calabria, which is considered “Critically Endangered” in Italy; first record in the Tyrrhenian Sea and second record in the Ionian Sea for the crab Ocypode cursor, which seems to be rapidly expanding its distribution range across Italian waters; Adriatic Sea: Additional records of yellowmouth barracuda, Sphyraena viridensis, in the northern Adriatic, which seems to be experimenting a meridionalization process in the region; Aegean Sea: First confirmed record of the iconic gastropod Bursa scrobilator scrobilator in the eastern Mediterranean Sea; an additional record for the vulnerable shark Dalatias licha, also being the largest individual caught in eastern Mediterranean waters till the time of capture; an additional record for the rare crab Distolambrus maltzami, suggesting the species might be more morphologically variable than originally thought; first documented record for the myctophid Hygophum hygomii in both Turkish waters and the north Aegean Sea; additional records for the tuna Katsuwonus pelamis and the sunfish Ranzania laevis in the eastern Mediterranean, pointing out that both species might not be as rare in the area as previously thought; Levantine Sea: additional records for the rare stingray Taeniura grabata in Turkish waters. © 2021

Until 2014, the management of invasive alien species has been poorly addressed in Europe. Recently, the Regulation 1143/14 on invasive alien species (IAS) was issued by the European Community. A first list of "IAS of Union Concern" was presented in 2016 and subsequently updated in 2017. The species included in that list are subjected to a number of commercial restrictions, and EU member states are required to control or eradicate them. The inclusion of an IAS in this list is based on the results of a risk-assessment procedure. At present, this list contains 49 IAS, none of which marine. Member states can decide either to adopt the EU list as it is, or to integrate it with additional "IAS of national concern". Italy has opted for the second way and is currently developing its own national list, which may eventually include marine IAS. Italy is a major "first hub" for marine introductions in the Mediterranean Sea, with over 200 multicellular marine alien species reported so far. Italy, with its central position in the Mediterranean Sea, shares several species with the Western European countries, carried by ships or with shellfish stocks, as well as a number of Indo-Pacific species with the Eastern Mediterranean countries, entered through the Suez Canal. Therefore, the roadmap that Italy is currently tracing towards the possible inclusion of marine species in the list of IAS to be managed and controlled, is also relevant for other European and Mediterranean countries. This presentation will show how the process has been organized and conducted, and the preliminary outcomes

Si riportano i primi risultati dell'esercizio di prioritizzazione delle specie aliene dei mari italiani condotto per conto di ISPRA dagli esperti dei singoli gruppi tassonomici iscritti al Gruppo Alloctone della Società Italiana di Biologia Marina

In the Mediterranean biogenic habitat built by coralline algae (orders Corallinales, Hapalidiales and Sporolithales) show a great diversity and a large bathymetric extent. The genus Lithophyllum is the most species-diverse coralline genus. and plays a key role in the formation of extensive bioconstructions, as the coralligenous concretions in the circalittoral and the “trottoirs” in the mid littoral. As part of a large-scale investigation of the marine bioconstructions of the Italian shores, we account here some results on the distribution, diversity and ecology for L. byssoides, L. cabiochae and L. stictaeforme.

Lagoons are ecotone ecosystems, naturally exposed to immigration from their freshwater and marine input environments; strictly lagoonal species are rare, if ever occurring, and lagoon community are likely to be organised through loItery competition processes. These evidences suggest the study of lagoons as models address ecosystem fragility to alien species. Here, we present an analysis of lagoon guild fragility to alien species carried out using the e-Science facilities of LifeWatch, the European Research Infrastructure on biodiversity and ecosystem research. The analysis has been performed on two EUNIS habitat (X02 and X03) using data existing on 18 Italian lagoons. The analysis has been carried out taking into account that rarity, redundancy and singularity are key properties of different guilds in lagoon ecosystems at every geographical area, affecting B (Beta) and y (Gamma) diversity. At every area an high regional biodiversity is determined by a large number of rare species and a high dissimilarity among lagoons. Life cycle traits and the behaviour of larval stages, at the species level, as well as lagoon openness and vigour, at the ecosystem level, seem to have a major role to explain the difference in patterns of biodiversity between study areas at a biogeographical scale. The same species and ecosystem level properties, together with spatial patchiness, seem also to be key factors downscaling biodiversity analysis at the landscape level.

The examined bathyal area, ranging from about 300 to 1100 m water depth, is located along the southern Apulian continental slope. It includes the so-called Cold-Water Coral (CWC) Mound Province of Santa Maria di Leuca and is characterized by three main physiographic domains: from east to west (1) a large mass-transport deposition area where mound-like features occur, (2) a prominent ridge covered by sparse debris deposits where drift sedimentation is documented, and (3) a series of narrow ridges and fault scarps that outline large erosive features (e.g., canyons). The analysis of videos, samples and acoustic facies from ten selected sites shows that both live and dead CWCs (mostly represented by the scleractinian species Madrepora oculata, Lophelia pertusa and Desmophyllum dianthus) occur in all three domains. In particular, video and sample analyses have allowed us to distinguish three main habitat groups (coral-, hardground- and muddominated habitats) which contain diverse subhabitats, generally grading into each other. By combining sample/video data with acoustic facies, we can assert that (a) extensive coral thickets, formed by dead and live colonies of M. oculata and L. pertusa, characterize the upper part of several mound-like structures of the eastern sector and, most probably, the top of elongated ridges from the western sector, (b) small-scale bioconstructions, dominated by the solitary gregarious species D. dianthus, preferentially occur along subvertical and overhanging walls of the western sector, (c) mud-dominated facies are spread on horizontal to gently sloping bottoms of all three sectors. Our study highlights a significant spatial heterogeneity of the bathyal benthic habitats from the southern Apulian slope. This seems to well reflect the complexity of variable geomorphic and/or hydrographic processes acting upon the slope. Moreover, remarkable variations of skeletonized faunal assemblages, observed along several sediment cores (from 30 to 150 cm long), reveal that benthic communities have been locally affected by recurrent short-term changes over time.

Prosperous deep coral mounds including living colonies of Lophelia pertusa together with Madrepora oculata and Desmophyllum dianthus (= D. cristagalli) have been discovered in 2000, by fishery operations on the eastern side of the Ionian Sea. The living coral mounds are located between ca. 300 and 1,100 m on a gently dipping shelf off Apulia at Santa Maria di Leuca (SML), and characterized by a complex seabed topography. Side scan sonar, shallow high-resolution seismics and sampling indicate that these Lophelia-bearing coral mounds colonize quasi-indurate (firmground) Pleistocene sediment. At places live corals were found on Pleistocene coral-hardgrounds. The fauna associated with these Ionian modern coral mounds is less diversified than modern Eastern Atlantic counterparts. The core of living coral mounds colonies is at present located in 500–700 m and is tentatively suggested that their survival is mostly controlled by oceanographic factors. The SML coral banks represent so far a unique example of living Lophelia-bearing coral mounds in the Mediterranean basin.

WOS: 000288831000015, The state-of-art on alien species in the Mediterranean Sea is presented, making distinctions among the four subregions defined in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive: (i) the Western Mediterranean Sea (WMED); (ii) the Central Mediterranean Sea (CMED); (iii) the Adriatic Sea (ADRIA); and (iv) the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMED). The updated checklist (December 2010) of marine alien species within each subregion, along with their acclimatization status and origin, is provided. A total of 955 alien species is known in the Mediterranean, the vast majority of them having being introduced in the EMED (718), less in the WMED (328) and CMED (267) and least in the Adriatic (171). Of these, 535 species (56%) are established in at least one area. Despite the collective effort of experts who attempted in this work, the number of introduced species remains probably underestimated. Excluding microalgae, for which knowledge is still insufficient, aliens have increased the total species richness of the Mediterranean Sea by 5.9%. This figure should not be directly read as an indication of higher biodiversity, as spreading of so many aliens within the basin is possibly causing biotic homogenization. Thermophilic species, i.e. Indo-Pacific, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Tropical Atlantic, Tropical Pacific, and circum(sub)tropical, account for 88.4% of the introduced species in the EMED, 72.8% in the CMED, 59.3% in the WMED and 56.1% in the Adriatic. Cold water species, i.e. circumboreal, N Atlantic, and N Pacific, make up a small percentage of the introduced species, ranging between 4.2% and 21.6% and being more numerous in the Adriatic and less so in the EMED. Species that are classified as invasive or potentially invasive are 134 in the whole of the Mediterranean: 108 are present in the EMED, 75 in the CMED, 53 in the Adriatic and 64 in the WMED. The WMED hosts most invasive macrophytes, whereas the EMED has the lion's share in polychaetes, crustaceans, molluscs and fish., SEBI2010 - Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Expert Group 5; EUEuropean Union (EU) [036949]; Italian Ministry for the Environment, The work was initiated under the auspices of the SEBI2010 - Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Expert Group 5: Numbers and costs of invasive alien species.; Further research on the distribution of alien species in the Mediterranean Sea has been carried out in the frame of the Integrated Project 'SESAME' (Southern European Seas: Assessing and Modelling Ecosystem changes: Project no: 036949) funded by the EU [A. Zenetos, I. Siokou and N. Streftaris] and in the frame of the research project The impacts of biological invasions and climate change on the biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea' (C.N. Bianchi and C. Morri), an Italy-Israel co-operation funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment. Special thanks are due to C. Salas Casanova and A. Logan whose constructive criticism and suggestions have improved the manuscript.

First records of the rare starfish Marginaster capreensis (Echinodermata: Poraniidae) for the Strait of Sicily are reported. Two specimens were collected in 2004 at 87m and 136m depth on the off-shore African shelf. Detailed information on the first specimen, recently reported in literature from the Ionian Sea, is also given. It was collected in 2000 at 707-742 m depth off the Corfù island (Eastern Ionian).

The presence and me disrriburion of seven exoric species (4 seaweeds and 3 animals) in me seas of Taranto are discussed. The seaweeds are: Caulerpa racemosavaro cylindracea, Codium fragile subsp. tomentosoides (Chiorophyceae), Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyceae), and Womersleyella setacea (Rhodophyceae), ali well-known as invasive species. The animai species are: Branchiomma luctuosum (Polychaera), Microcosmus squamiger (Ascidiacea), and Musculista senhousia (Bivalvia).