Aim The life cycle of many organisms is all but fixed across their distribution range. Most commonly, populations respond to environmental variation by shifting the timing of reproductive events (phenology). More profoundly, populations may (partly) shift their mode of reproduction from sexual to asexual. Life cycle variation can impact reproductive success, gene flow, genetic diversity and, ultimately, the evolutionary trajec...

Over historical time, Berre Lagoon (SE France, NW Mediterranean Sea) had undergone various changes. These became more significant, transforming and even disruptive since the 19th century when the channel connecting the lagoon to the sea was deepened and the surrounding areas were industrialized and urbanized. Pollution and anoxic crises were major consequences. Concomitantly, many non-indigenous species (NIS) arrived in the la...

The Mediterranean Sea, a biodiversity hotspot, faces significant threats from non-indigenous species (NIS), which drive biodiversity changes. Over the past century, the introduction of NIS has accelerated due to maritime traffic, aquaculture, and interoceanic canals, fostering biological invasions. Marine protected areas (MPAs), established to preserve biodiversity, are increasingly impacted. This review quantified and charact...

Introduction Coastal detrital bottoms (CDB) are one of the most extensive habitats of the continental shelf worldwide, in the upper levels of the circalittoral zone. Hosting a diverse community structured by sediment grain size, trophic interactions and calcified organisms, CDB exhibit important ecological functions. In the Mediterranean Sea, CDB are constituted by recent elements partly provided by adjacent infralittoral and...

Dispersal is a central process that affects population growth, gene flow, and ultimately species persistence. Here we investigate the extent to which gene flow occurs between fragmented populations of the deep-water brown algae Ericaria zosteroides (Turner) Greville (Sargassaceae, Fucales). These investigations were performed at different spatial scales from the bay of Marseille (western Provence) to Corsica. As dispersal of z...

Posidonia oceanica is an iconic and highly productive Mediterranean seagrass. As most studies focused on the fate of this production, temporal and plant part-specific variations of isotopic composition and biochemical content were overlooked. Combined seasonal and plant-part stable isotope composition and biochemical concentrations were measured at the lower depth limit of a P. oceanica meadow (~ 25 meter depth), and explained...

Nine currently accepted species of the genus Sargassum (Phaeophyceae) have been recorded from the Mediterranean Sea: S. acinarium, S. desfontainesii, S. flavifolium, S. furcatum, S. hornschuchii, S. muticum, S. ramentaceum, S. trichocarpum and S. vulgare. Two of them, S. desfontainesii and S. furcatum, are Atlantic species, the Mediterranean range of which is restricted to the Alboran Sea, close to the Strait of Gibraltar. Thr...

With globalization, agriculture and aquaculture activities are increasingly affected by diseases that are spread through movement of crops and stock. Such movements are also associated with the introduction of non‐native species via hitchhiking individual organisms. The oyster industry, one of the most important forms of marine aquaculture, embodies these issues. In Europe disease outbreaks affecting cultivated populations of...