Long-Term Tracking of Adult Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta)in the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract. The long-term monitoring of basic hydrological parameters (temperature and salinity), collected as time series with adequate temporal resolution (i.e. with a sampling interval allowing the resolution of all important timescales) in key places of the Mediterranean Sea (straits and channels, zones of dense water formation, deep parts of the basins), constitute a priority in the context of global changes. This led CIESM (The Mediterranean Science Commission) to support, since 2002, the HYDROCHANGES programme (http//www.ciesm.org/marine/programs/hydrochanges.htm), a network of autonomous conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, deployed on mainly short and easily manageable subsurface moorings, within the core of a certain water mass. The HYDROCHANGES strategy is twofold and develops on different scales. To get information about long-term changes of hydrological characteristics, long time series are needed. But before these series are long enough they allow the detection of links between them at shorter timescales that may provide extremely valuable information about the functioning of the Mediterranean Sea. The aim of this paper is to present the history of the programme and the current set-up of the network (monitored sites, involved groups) as well as to provide for the first time an overview of all the time series collected under the HYDROCHANGES umbrella, discussing the results obtained thanks to the programme.

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Mediterranean Sea climatic indices: monitoring long term variability and climate changes

10.5194/essd-2018-51 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Athanasia Iona ◽

Athanasios Theodorou ◽

Sarantis Sofianos ◽

Sylvain Watelet ◽

Charles Troupin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Time Series ◽

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Salt Content ◽

Climatic Indices ◽

In Situ Observations ◽

The Mediterranean

Abstract. We present a new product composed of a set of thermohaline climatic indices from 1950 to 2015 for the Mediterranean Sea such as decadal temperature and salinity anomalies, their mean values over selected depths, decadal ocean heat and salt content anomalies at selected depth layers as well as their long times series. It is produced from a new high-resolution climatology of temperature and salinity on a 1/8° regular grid based on historical high quality in situ observations. Ocean heat and salt content differences between 1980–2015 and 1950–1979 are compared for evaluation of the climate shift in the Mediterranean Sea. The spatial patterns of heat and salt content shifts demonstrate in greater detail than ever before that the climate changes differently in the several regions of the basin. Long time series of heat and salt content for the period 1950 to 2015 are also provided which indicate that in the Mediterranean Sea there is a net mean volume warming and salting since 1950 with acceleration during the last two decades. The time series also show that the ocean heat content seems to fluctuate on a cycle of about 40 years and seems to follow the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation climate cycle indicating that the natural large scale atmospheric variability could be superimposed on to the warming trend. This product is an observations-based estimation of the Mediterranean climatic indices. It relies solely on spatially interpolated data produced from in-situ observations averaged over decades in order to smooth the decadal variability and reveal the long term trends with more accuracy. It can provide a valuable contribution to the modellers' community, next to the satellite-based products and serve as a baseline for the evaluation of climate-change model simulations contributing thus to a better understanding of the complex response of the Mediterranean Sea to the ongoing global climate change. The product is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1210100.

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Helminth communities of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) from Central and Western Mediterranean Sea: The importance of host's ontogeny

Parasitology International ◽

10.1016/j.parint.2010.04.009 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 59 (3) ◽

pp. 367-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Mario Santoro ◽

Francisco J. Badillo ◽

Simonetta Mattiucci ◽

Giuseppe Nascetti ◽

Flegra Bentivegna ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Caretta Caretta ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Western Mediterranean Sea ◽

Helminth Communities ◽

Loggerhead Turtles

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Spatio-temporal distribution and migration of adult male loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Mediterranean Sea: further evidence of the importance of neritic habitats off North Africa

Marine Biology ◽

10.1007/s00227-012-2125-0 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 160 (3) ◽

pp. 703-718 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Paolo Casale ◽

Daniela Freggi ◽

Angelo Cinà ◽

Massimiliano Rocco

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

North Africa ◽

Adult Male ◽

Sea Turtles ◽

Temporal Distribution ◽

Caretta Caretta ◽

Loggerhead Sea Turtles ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

And Migration

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Sponge community variation along the Apulian coasts (Otranto Strait) over a pluri-decennial time span. Does water warming drive a sponge diversity increasing in the Mediterranean Sea?

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315419000651 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 99 (7) ◽

pp. 1519-1534 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gabriele Costa ◽

Giorgio Bavestrello ◽

Valerio Micaroni ◽

Maurizio Pansini ◽

Francesca Strano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Benthic Communities ◽

Time Span ◽

Biodiversity Monitoring ◽

Sponge Diversity ◽

Community Variation ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Mass Mortalities

AbstractClimate change and heavy anthropic pressures are giving rise to important modifications in the rocky benthic communities of the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, sponge assemblages have been deeply affected due to the susceptibility of some species to dramatic phenomena such as mass mortalities or widespread variations in the abundance of other species. For this reason, long-term biodiversity monitoring of the sponge assemblages is important for understanding the direction of changes over time. We studied the sponge fauna living off Tricase Porto (Otranto Strait) and compared its composition with the results of a study conducted in the same area 50 years ago. The comparison indicated that the sponge diversity of this area has strongly increased in the last 50 years and a large number of the sponges recorded in the old survey are still present in the recent community. This evidence matches with other results obtained from different localities of the Mediterranean Sea indicating an increase of sponge diversity, possibly due to the present water warming. The description of two new Demosponge species, Diplastrella boeroi sp. nov. and Spirastrella angulata sp. nov., is also provided.

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