Submarine caves are environments of great ecological interest because of the occurrence of peculiar conditions, such as the attenuation of light and reduced water turnover, which can determine oligotrophic conditions from the entrance to the interior part of the cave. These environmental gradients may influence the distribution of the communities inhabiting submarine caves. In this study we investigated the meiofaunal communit...

The new Australian alien seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla, after being established along the Turkish Mediterranean coast in 2006, was recorded in Southern Sicily in 2007. Since then local fishermen claimed support to counteract the effects of entanglement of large amounts of the alien strain wrack in their trammel nets, causing the gear to become ineffective. The further northward and westward spread of the new a...

The goal of ecosystem-based marine spatial management is to maintain marine ecosystems in a healthy, productive and resilient condition; hence, they can sustainably provide the needed goods and services for human welfare. However, the increasing pressures upon the marine realm threaten marine ecosystems, especially seabed biotopes, and thus a well-planned approach of managing use of marine space is essential to achieve sustain...

Several diagnostic genetic markers were identified in Pomatoschistus marmoratus and P. tortonesei using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) of allozymes. Twenty‐one loci were resolved, including the electrophoretic pattern of muscle proteins. The MDH*, PGM‐,2*, EST‐1,2*, FUM* and PGI‐2* loci exhibited different alleles which were fixed for the two species being analysed. Genetic distance, as calculated by Nei's index, sh...