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Biogenic reefs, such as those produced by tube-dwelling polychaetes of the genus Sabellaria, are valuable marine habitats which are a focus of protection according to European legislation. The achievement of this goal is potentially hindered by the lack of essential empirical data, especially in the Mediterranean Sea. This study addresses some of the current knowledge gaps by quantifying and comparing multi-scale patterns of abundance and distribution of two habitat-forming species (Sabellaria alveolata and S. spinulosa) and their associated fauna along 190 km of coast on the Italian side of the Sicily Channel. While the abundance of the two sabellariids and the total number of associated taxa did not differ at any of the examined scales (from tens of centimetres to tens-100 of kilometres), the structure (composition in terms of both the identity and the relative abundance of constituting taxa) of the associated fauna and the abundance of several taxa (the polychaetes Eulalia ornata, Syllis pulvinata, S. garciai, Nereis splendida and Arabella iricolor, and the amphipods Apolochus neapolitanus, Tethylembos viguieri and Caprella acanthifera) varied among locations established ~50e100 km apart. Syllis pulvinata also showed significant variation between sites (hundreds of metres apart), analogously to the other syllid polychaetes S. armillaris and S. gracilis, the nereidid polychaete Nereis rava, and the amphipod Gammaropsis ulrici. The largest variance of S. spinulosa, of the structure of the whole associated fauna and of 56% of taxa analysed individually occurred at the scale of replicates (metres apart), while that of the dominant bio-constructor S. alveolata and of 25% of taxa occurred at the scale of sites. The remaining 19% and the total richness of taxa showed the largest variance at the scale of locations. Present findings contribute to meet a crucial requirement of any future effective protection strategy, i.e., identifying relevant scales of variation to be included in protection schemes aiming at preserving representative samples not only of target habitats and organisms, but also of the processes driving such variability.

Marine ecosystems are globally threatened by human activities, but some areas, such as those affected by abandoned industrial plants, show an overlap of acute and chronic impacts, which determine a considerable deterioration of their health status. Here we report the results of a research conducted on coastal sewers that discharge their loads in the highly contaminated area of Bagnoli-Coroglio (Tyrrhenian Sea, Western Mediterranean). The sampling area is characterized by heavy industrial activities (a steel plant using coal, iron and limestone) started in 1905 and ceased in 1990, which left widespread heavy metals and hydrocarbon contamination. After taking into account the potential influence of sediment grain size ranges through their inclusion as covariates in the analysis, we tested the potential impact of sewage discharge on the total abundance and multivariate structure of meiofaunal assemblages, as well as on the abundance of single taxa. The organic matter was analysed in terms of total phytopigment and biopolymeric carbon concentrations. Nematoda, Copepoda (including their nauplii), and Tardigrada were the most abundant meiofaunal taxa at all sites, but nematodes did not show a consistent pattern relative to the sewage outfalls. However, the sewer located in the historically most contaminated area showed a minimal abundance of all taxa, including nematodes, while copepods were relatively less abundant at the two southernmost sewers. Comparing the north vs. south site of the sewers, higher meiofaunal abundances were observed in the southward part, likely as a result of the local circulation. The results of this study indicate the general adaptation of meiofauna to multiple stressors (sewage discharge, superimposed to chronic industrial contamination) and its likely modulation by other local processes. They also provide relevant baseline information for future restoration interventions that would take into account the spatial variation of target organisms as needed.

Dismissed industrial plants with chronic environmental contamination globally affect all levels of biological organization in concert with other natural and anthropogenic perturbations. Assessing the impact of such perturbations and finding effective ways to mitigate them have clear ecological and societal implications. Through indoor manipulative experiments, we assessed here the effects of the temporal regime of reworking of contaminated sediment from the Bagnoli-Coroglio brownfield (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) on the fertilization process in Paracentrotus lividus. Adult sea urchins were kept for one month in tanks containing contaminated sediment that was re-suspended according to two temporal patterns of water turbulence differing in the time intervals between consecutive events of agitation (mimicking the storms naturally occurring in the study area) in seawater with natural vs. supersaturated oxygenation levels. At the end of the treatment, gametes were collected and used to test the hypothesis that the regime of contaminated sediment reworking negatively, but reversibly, affects morphological and physiological traits of the fertilized eggs. We found that aggregated events of sediment re-suspension had profound negative effects on gamete interactions and Ca2+ signaling at fertilization. The same experimental condition also inflicted marked ultrastructural changes in eggs. Importantly, however, such detrimental effects were inhibited by increased oxygenation. By contrast, the regime of sediment re-working with a longer interval between consecutive turbulent events had only marginal effects. Thus, the current and predicted changes of climate-related disturbance appear to modulate the biological effects of chronic contamination in post-industrial areas, suggesting that environmental rehabilitation via restoration of habitat-forming primary producers such as seagrasses or algal canopies could alleviate the pollutants' effects on resident biota.

In marinas and harbours, the accumulation of pollutants in sediments, combined with poor exchange of water with the open sea, poses a major environmental threat. The presence of photosynthetic organisms and the related oxygen production, however, may alleviate the negative effects of environmental contamination on heterotrophic organisms, enhancing their physiological defences. Furthermore, possible transgenerational buffer effects may increase the ability of natural populations to face environmental stress. Here we tested the occurrence of transgenerational effects on larvae of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, whose parents were exposed, during the gametogenesis, to contaminated sediments subject to two temporal patterns of water re-suspension events and normal- (90%) vs. super-saturated (200%) levels of O2. The study site was Bagnoli-Coroglio (Gulf of Naples, southern Tyrrhenian Sea), a historically polluted brownfield and Site of National Interest for which environmental restoration options are currently under exploration. Larvae from different adult populations were significantly, although not linearly, affected by the interaction of all factors to which parents were exposed, at both 24h and 48h post fertilization. Specifically, the exposure of larvae to elutriates from contaminated sediments determined a developmental delay, a reduction in size and an increased percentage of abnormalities in all larval populations independently of their parental exposure. On the contrary, larvae from parents exposed to contaminated sediments, when reared in clean filtered sea water, succeeded in developing until the echinopluteus stage after 48h, with size and abundance comparable to those of larvae from control parents. Pre-exposure of parents to contaminated sediments did not successfully buffer the negative effects of elutriates on their offspring, and no positive effects of ‘super-saturated’ levels of O2 in response to contaminants were observed, suggesting that the Bagnoli-Coroglio area is currently not suitable for the re-stocking or re-introduction of this species.

Amphipod assemblages associated with the biogenic reefs built by the honeycomb worm Sabellaria alveolata were studied at two sites (Praia da Aguda and Belinho) along the northwestern coast of Portugal. A total of 3909 specimens were collected, comprising 14 different amphipod species. A first record from the northeastern Atlantic coast was registered here for the species Caprella santosrosai, which was, up to now, recorded only along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. A male specimen collected from the Sabellaria-reef located in Belinho allowed an update to the known distribution of C. santosrosai, thus altering its previous status as an endemic Mediterranean species. The most common species collected during the study were Microdeutopus chelifer (n = 1828), Jassa ocia (n = 1426), and Hyale stebbingi (n = 452). Forty-three percent of the total recorded species were encountered in both study sites, whereas the remaining 57% were restricted to a single site (Belinho). The majority of the collected species (93%) showed an Atlantic-Mediterranean distribution, confirming the close affinity between eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean amphipod assemblages and the role of the Portuguese coast as a transition zone through which numerous warm-water species, coming from North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea, could enter into the Atlantic and possibly get mixed with species coming from the North Sea and the Arctic, typically having affinity for colder waters.

Brown macroalgae belonging to the genus Cystoseira (Fucales: Sargassaceae) are canopy-forming organisms the recent decline of which at a basin and local scale has been widely documented, which urgently calls for research to fill knowledge gaps and support new and effective measures for protection. We, hereby, characterised the molluscan assemblages associated with three Cystoseira taxa (C. amentacea, C. compressa and C. crinita) from Ischia Island (Italy, Tyrrhenian Sea), and tested whether different congeneric taxa may syntopically support a different biota. In particular, these assemblages were compared among three Cystoseira species, between two times of sampling (June–July 2015 and June–July 2016), and among six sites in terms of multivariate structure (identity and relative abundances of constituting taxa combined, and presence–absence composition), as well as for synthetic measures of diversity, including the total richness of taxa, the exponential Shannon index and the reciprocal Simpson index. In total, 24736 molluscan individuals were collected, overall belonging to 52 taxa. The majority of the identified species included micrograzers and filter feeders, which is in agreement with similar previous studies. The composition of associated molluscan assemblages, which was mainly represented by juvenile individuals, differed among the three Cystoseira species, suggesting that even congeneric taxa do not support an analogous benthic fauna. The present findings have shed light on the molluscan biota associated with Cystoseira taxa in the Gulf of Naples and strengthened the importance of such habitat-forming macroalgae in structuring the local infralittoral invertebrate biodiversity and as a nursery for species-specific associated molluscs.

International audience; Compensatory dynamics, overyielding and statistical averaging are mechanisms promoting the temporal stability of natural communities. Using the model of European intertidal rocky shore assemblages and collating 17 datasets, we investigated how the strength of these stability-enhancing mechanisms varies with latitude and how it can be altered by the loss of habitat-formers (e.g. canopy-forming macroalgae). Community stability decreased with increasing latitude, mostly as a consequence of a greater synchronization of species fluctuations. Statistical averaging and overyielding (i.e. richness effect) promoted stability, but their strength did not vary with latitude. An experimental removal of macroalgal canopies caused a strengthening of the statistical averaging effect that was consistent across the latitudinal gradient investigated. Nonetheless, the loss of canopies depressed stability by enhancing the synchronization of species fluctuations on southernmost shores, while it had weak effects on shores at higher latitudes. Variation in life-history traits among canopy-forming species and/or in prevailing environmental conditions across a gradient of latitude could underlie variable effects of habitat-formers on species fluctuations. Our study shows 1) that the stability of intertidal assemblages and strength of compensatory dynamics varies with latitude, 2) that canopy-forming macroalgae, exerting a strong control on understorey species, can influence the strength of compensatory dynamics and 3) that biological forcing (i.e. facilitation) can be as important as environmental forcing in enhancing the synchronization of species fluctuations.