Submerged caves in the Mediterranean Sea are unique ecosystems, sustaining diverse benthic communities shaped by environmental gradients. This study focused on the Jubilee Shoals cave system in the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus), providing a quantitative analysis of benthic community composition, spatial distribution across cave zones, and the influence of environmental factors. The data were collected using closed-circuit reb...

The identification of areas resistant to climate change is a strategy to support biodiversity conservation on a warming planet. Such ‘refugia’ are often detected by modeling future climate and species distributions. More rarely, refugia hypotheses are tested in the field. The easternmost sector of the Eastern Mediterranean is affected by the largest climate-driven collapse of native biodiversity hitherto documented. However, a...

The environmental problem of abandoned fishing gear (e.g., ghost nets) exists on a world scale. It impacts marine biodiversity for decades after the nets has become lost in the ocean. In Cyprus (eastern Mediterranean), ghost nets are found almost everywhere around the island, threatening marine life and human activities, such as scuba diving, fishing and navigation. To achieve meaningful outcomes for biodiversity conservation...

Chemical pollution in marine ecosystems is a factor of stress interacting in multiple and complex ways with other major causes of deterioration, such as warming seas due to climate change. Here we surveyed epibenthic communities from a shipwreck in the Levantine Basin for temporal and spatial changes in the community in relation to chronic oil pollution, comparing results collected from an area of the wreck characterized by ch...

Biological invasions may pose a serious threat to ecosystems and economies. In this study, the presence of the non-indigenous species Fistularia petimba in Cyprus is documented. A total of 76 individuals were collected by bottom trawls and trammel nets in June 2020, March 2021, August 2021, and September 2021. Morphometric measurements, meristic counts, sex, stomach content, and maturity stages were recorded, and notes were ma...

The Eastern Mediterranean Sea is an exceptional habitat. Its relative isolation and distinct characteristics create a unique ecosystem recognized as a marine biodiversity hot spot, where one-fifth of the species are endemic. Yet, native Mediterranean biodiversity is under increasing threat, mainly due to massive alien species invasions of Indo-Pacific origin. To date, more than 800 non-indigenous species have been reported in...

Global warming and Marine Heat Waves (MHWs) are having large-scale impacts on the seagrasses and their effects on the Mediterranean endemic Posidonia oceanica need to be properly defined. This research aimed to sharpen the knowledge on P. oceanica response to the warming by correlating the shoot morphology and the productivity of the seagrass to temperature conditions and MHW occurrence. Two correlative studies, along a Medite...

In November 2021, a female bigeye thresher shark was incidentally caught by a pelagic drifting longline off southern Cyprus, corresponding to the second documented species record at country level. Main biological features and an extended list of morphometric measurements are presented in comparison with the previous species records in the Mediterranean. The diet analysis highlighted the impact of marine species invasion in the...