Invasive species and other factors contributing to global change can interact, leading to potentially synergistic impacts on marine ecosystems and the services they provide. The ongoing spread of the invasive, thermophilic and stinging fireworm Hermodice carunculata (Amphinomidae) along the Italian coasts has attracted special attention from the scientific community and the public. In 2021, we established the citizen science p...

The fireworm Hermodice carunculata (Annelida) is emerging as a native invader and a neonative species in the Central Mediterranean basins. Its ongoing areal expansion has probably been triggered and pursued by the climate alterations which are affecting the Mediterranean environments and biota. However, increased H. carunculata abundance and distribution may be miscalculated and underestimated due to the lack of effective tool...

Global change and the overall raise of seawater temperature are causing a poleward shift in species distribution, increasing the occurrence of warm-water biota in many ecosystems worldwide. In the Mediterranean, the ongoing sea warming is promoting native subtropical species to invader status. The bearded fireworm Hermodice carunculata (Amphinomida) is a thermophilic generalist predator spreading in the Central Mediterranean S...

Species of the genus Ophryotrocha are a well‐studied group of organisms but, despite the relatively large body of biological studies, little is known about their intra‐specific patterns of genetic diversity. In the present study, we analysed the patterns of genetic variation in samples of Ophryotrocha labronica (Polychaeta, Dorvilleidae) collected along the Italian coasts within three regions with different thermal regimes: th...

In this paper we looked for the most suitable method for benthic ecological quality status (EcoQS) assessment of the North‐western Adriatic Sea. Taking into account the historical and present information, we inter‐compared our expectations in terms of EcoQS, with the Bentix, AMBI and M‐AMBI classification metrics results, and investigated the sensitivity of these indices to the spatial, seasonal and inter‐annual variability of...

The life cycle of a brackish water population of Marphysa sanguinea (Polychaeta Eunicidae), from the Venice Lagoon (Italy), was investigated from April 1993 to August 1994. Marphysa sanguinea is a large‐sized gonochoric species with annual iteroparous strategy and synchronous spawning at population level. The sex‐ratio was close to 1:1. There were no morphological differences between males and females and spawning occurred wit...