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Sharks support ecosystems’ health, but their populations are facing severe declines worldwide. Knowledge gaps on shark distribution and the negative human perception of them still represent a barrier to the implementation of effective conservation measures. Here we carried out a regional-scale analysis in the Mediterranean Sea using data on requiem shark catches and sightings available in the scientific literature and on social media platforms to: 1) depict the distribution of Carcharhinus species across the basin, 2) identify potentially relevant areas for their conservation, and 3) evaluate people’s attitude toward shark protection. In addition, we administered 112 questionnaires in one of the very few shark-diving spots in the Mediterranean Sea to assess the potential role of sustainable shark-tourism activities in enhancing people’s self-perceived knowledge of sharks and supporting positive attitudes toward their conservation. We show that social media content represented a valuable update of literature data from 58 papers contributing to identifying potentially relevant conservation areas for requiem shark populations. Social media data mining revealed a general shift toward positive perceptions of sharks in recent years, whilst negative attitudes still prevail in postings shared by fishers. Moreover, questionnaire surveys suggested that shark diving activities may further improve tourist perceptions of sharks and increase diver willingness to support conservation measures. By integrating different data sources, this study provides useful information for spatial conservation prioritization and for progressing our understanding of human and ecological dimensions of shark conservation, a necessary step toward specific and efficient protection policies.

An in situ reciprocal transplant experiment was carried around a volcanic CO

An in situ reciprocal transplant experiment was carried around a volcanic CO2 vent to evaluate the anti-predator responses of an anemone goby species exposed to ambient (∼380 μatm) and high (∼850 μatm) CO2 sites. Overall, the anemone gobies displayed largely unaffected behaviors under high-CO2 conditions suggesting an adaptive potential of Gobius incognitus to ocean acidification (OA) conditions. This is also supported by its 3-fold higher density recorded in the field under high CO2. However, while fish exposed to ambient conditions showed an expected reduction in the swimming activity in the proximity of the predator between the pre- and post-exposure period, no such changes were detected in any of the other treatments where fish experienced acute and long-term high CO2. This may suggest an OA effect on the goby antipredator strategy. Our findings contribute to the ongoing debate over the need for realistic predictions of the impacts of expected increased CO2 concentration on fish, providing evidence from a natural high CO2 system.

The study of behavior is one of the fundamental aspects of conservation biology. While for animals such as mammals there are well-defined protocols that have been applied for a long time, for marine animals, and fish in particular, studies are available for a limited number of species. The behavior of seahorses, for example, is poorly studied and in this work, we made a first attempt of using video recordings to analyze behavior of these endangered species in Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Southern Italy). The study presents preliminary data on behavioral activities and their comparisons among different life stages of Hippocampus guttulatus, namely females, males, and juveniles. Juveniles and females appeared to be highly active and invested more time in searching activities. Males, on the contrary, were less active and spent more time in inactive behavior. The results of the present study were promising and the differences in behavior between males and females are confirmed by biology of the species. However, it will be necessary to further investigate their behavior over a longer period, including for example courtship and gestation periods.

In recent years, atrial fibrillation (AF) has increasingly become a focus of attention because it represents the most encountered arrhythmia in clinical practice and a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Issues underlying AF have long been debated; nevertheless, electrical, contractile, and structural remodeling is demonstrated to be the pivotal contributor to arrhythmic substrate. Fibrosis is a hallmark of arrhythmogenic structural remodeling, resulting from an accumulation of fibrillar collagen deposits, as a reparative process to replace degenerating myocardium with concomitant reactive fibrosis, which causes interstitial expansion. Although the precise role of fibrosis in AF initiation and maintenance remains to be fully elucidated, a better definition of its extent and distribution may assist in designing individually tailored ablation approaches and improving procedure outcomes by targeting the fibrotic substrates with an organized strategy employing imaging resources. A deep comprehension of the mechanisms underlying atrial fibrosis could be crucial to setting up improved strategies for preventing AF-promoting structural remodeling. Imaging modalities such as echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography, and cardiac magnetic resonance, combined sometimes with invasive electroanatomical mapping, could provide valuable information for the optimal patients' management if their use is not limited to cardiac anatomy study but extended to characterize abnormal left atrial substrate. Although pulmonary vein isolation is usually efficacious in treating paroxysmal AF, it is not sufficient for many patients with nonparoxysmal arrhythmias, particularly those with longstanding persistent AF. Noninvasive imaging techniques play a pivotal role in the planning of arrhythmic substrates ablation and show a strong correlation with electro-anatomic mapping, whose novel multipolar mapping catheters allow nowadays a more precise comprehension of atrial substrate. This review aims to explore the impact of the various imaging modalities for the detection of atrial fibrosis and their role in the management of AF.

Organisms may respond to changing environmental conditions by adjusting their behaviour (i.e., behavioural plasticity). Ocean acidification (OA), resulting from anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO

Phenotypic plasticity in parental care investment allows organisms to promptly respond to rapid environmental changes by potentially benefiting offspring survival and thus parental fitness. To date, a knowledge gap exists on whether plasticity in parental care behaviors can mediate responses to climate change in marine ectotherms. Here, we assessed the plasticity of parental care investment under elevated temperatures in a gonochoric marine annelid with biparental care, Ophryotrocha labronica, and investigated its role in maintaining the reproductive success of this species in a warming ocean. We measured the time individuals spent carrying out parental care activities across three phases of embryonic development, as well as the hatching success of the offspring as a proxy for reproductive success, at control (24℃) and elevated (27℃) temperature conditions. Under elevated temperature, we observed: (a) a significant decrease in total parental care activity, underpinned by a decreased in male and simultaneous parental care activity, in the late stage of embryonic development; and (b) a reduction in hatching success that was however not significantly related to changes in parental care activity levels. These findings, along with the observed unaltered somatic growth of parents and decreased brood size, suggest that potential cost‐benefit trade‐offs between offspring survival (i.e., immediate fitness) and parents' somatic condition (i.e., longer‐term fitness potential) may occur under ongoing ocean warming. Finally, our results suggest that plasticity in parental care behavior is a mechanism able to partially mitigate the negative effects of temperature‐dependent impacts., In this study, we assessed the plasticity of parental care investment under elevated temperatures in a gonochoric marine annelid with biparental care, Ophryotrocha labronica, and investigated its role in maintaining the reproductive success of this species in a warming ocean. These findings, along with the observed unaltered somatic growth of parents and decreased brood size, suggest that potential cost‐benefit trade‐offs between offspring survival (i.e., immediate fitness) and parents' somatic condition (i.e., longer‐term fitness potential) may occur under ongoing ocean warming. Finally, our results suggest that plasticity in parental care behavior is a mechanism able to partially mitigate the negative effects of temperature‐dependent impacts.

Robust assessments of taxonomic and functional diversity are essential components of research programmes aimed at understanding current biodiversity patterns and forecasting trajectories of ecological changes. Yet, evaluating marine biodiversity along its dimensions is challenging and dependent on the power and accuracy of the available data collection methods. Here we combine three traditional survey methodologies (underwater visual census strip transects [UVCt], baited underwater videos [BUV] and small-scale fishery catches [SSFc]), and one novel molecular technique (environmental DNA metabarcoding [eDNA]-12S rRNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 [COI]) to investigate their efficiency and complementarity in assessing fish diversity. We analysed 1,716 multimethod replicates at a basin scale to measure the taxonomic and functional diversity of Mediterranean fish assemblages. Taxonomic identities were investigated at species, genus and family levels. Functional identities were assessed using combinations of morphological, behavioural and trophic traits. We show that: (a) SSFc provided the higher taxonomic diversity estimates followed by eDNA, and then UVCt and BUV; (b) eDNA was the only method able to gather the whole spectrum of considered functional traits, showing the most functionally diversified and least redundant fish assemblages; and (c) the effectiveness of eDNA in describing functional structure reflected its lack of selectivity towards any considered functional trait. Our findings suggest that the reach of eDNA analysis stretches beyond taxon detection efficiency and provides new insights into the potential of metabarcoding in ecological studies.

Organisms may respond to changing environmental conditions by adjusting their behaviour (i.e., behavioural plasticity). Ocean acidification (OA), resulting from anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), is predicted to impair sensory function and behaviour of fish. However, reproductive behaviours, and parental care in particular, and their role in mediating responses to OA are presently overlooked. Here, we assessed whether the nesting male ocellated wrasse Symphodus ocellatus from sites with different CO2 concentrations showed different behaviours during their breeding season. We also investigated potential re-allocation of the time-budget towards different behavioural activities between sites. We measured the time period that the nesting male spent carrying out parental care, mating and exploring activities, as well as changes in the time allocation between sites at ambient (~400 μatm) and high CO2 concentrations (~1000 μatm). Whilst the behavioural connectance (i.e., the number of linkages among different behaviours relative to the total amount of linkages) was unaffected, we observed a significant reduction in the time spent on parental care behaviour, and a significant decrease in the guarding activity of fish at the high CO2 sites, with a proportional re-allocation of the time budget in favour of courting and wandering around, which however did not change between sites. This study shows behavioural differences in wild fish living off volcanic CO2 seeps that could be linked to different OA levels, suggesting that behavioural plasticity may potentially act as a mechanism for buffering the effects of ongoing environmental change. A reallocation of the time budget between key behaviours may play a fundamental role in determining which marine organisms are thriving under projected OA.

SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published