Shallow water marine sediment bacterial community shifts along a natural CO2 gradient in the Mediterranean Sea Off vulcano, Italy

The effects of increasing atmospheric CO(2) on ocean ecosystems are a major environmental concern, as rapid shoaling of the carbonate saturation horizon is exposing vast areas of marine sediments to corrosive waters worldwide. Natural CO(2) gradients off Vulcano, Italy, have revealed profound ecosystem changes along rocky shore habitats as carbonate saturation levels decrease, but no investigations have yet been made of the sedimentary habitat. Here, we sampled the upper 2 cm of volcanic sand in three zones, ambient (median pCO(2) 419 µatm, minimum Omega (arag) 3.77), moderately CO(2)-enriched (median pCO(2) 592 µatm, minimum Omega (arag) 2.96), and highly CO(2)-enriched (median pCO(2) 1611 µatm, minimum Omega (arag) 0.35). We tested the hypothesis that increasing levels of seawater pCO(2) would cause significant shifts in sediment bacterial community composition, as shown recently in epilithic biofilms at the study site. In this study, 454 pyrosequencing of the V1 to V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene revealed a shift in community composition with increasing pCO(2). The relative abundances of most of the dominant genera were unaffected by the pCO(2) gradient, although there were significant differences for some 5 % of the genera present (viz. Georgenia, Lutibacter, Photobacterium, Acinetobacter, and Paenibacillus), and Shannon Diversity was greatest in sediments subject to long-term acidification (>100 years). Overall, this supports the view that globally increased ocean pCO(2) will be associated with changes in sediment bacterial community composition but that most of these organisms are resilient. However, further work is required to assess whether these results apply to other types of coastal sediments and whether the changes in relative abundance of bacterial taxa that we observed can significantly alter the biogeochemical functions of marine sediments.

Database on the molluscan fauna from the Mediterranean Reef Ecosystems (CorMolDB - Part I)

In the Mediterranean Sea, infralittoral and circalittoral rocky bottoms (from 15 to 120 m) are characterized by a biogenic habitat, named "coralligenous", formed by the concretion of calcareous organisms, mainly algal thalli, and- to a lesser extent- by animal skeletons. This complex habitat is inhabited by a rich fauna that belongs to different taxonomic groups. Sponges, bryozoans, cnidarians and ascidians are the most common sessile organisms that inhabit the area while crustacean and molluscs are the common mobile organisms. Little information on the diversity of the molluscs that thrive in the coralligenous habitat is known while this information is highly important for biodiversity management purposes. After thoroughly studying the available and accessible published literature, a database for the molluscs of the coralligenous habitat has been designed and implemented for the collection and management of this information. From its index compilation more than 511 species of molluscs have been recorded so far from the coralligenous formations, the majority of which belongs to the class Gastropoda (357 sp.) followed by the Bivalvia (137 sp.), Polyplacophora (14 sp.), Cephalopoda (2 sp.) and Scaphopoda (1 sp.). Among these, the gastropod Luria lurida (Linnaeus, 1758) and Charonia lampas (Linnaeus, 1758), the endemic bivalve Pinna nobilis Linnaeus, 1758 and the endolithic bivalve Lithophaga lithophaga (Linnaeus, 1758), are protected by international conventions.

Distribution of planktonic foraminifera in surface sediments of the Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a partillay isolated ocean where excess evaporation over precipitation results in large east to west gradients in temperature and salinity. Recent planktonic foraminiferal distributions have been examined in 66 surface sediment samples from the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to mapping the frequency distribution of 16 species, the faunal data has been subjected to cluster analysis, factor analysis and species diversity analysis. The clustering of species yields assemblages that are clearly temperature related. A warm assemblage contains both tropical and subtropical elements, while the cool assemblage can be subdivided into cool-subtropical, transitional and polar-subpolar groupings. Factor analysis is used to delineate the geographic distribution of four faunal assemblages. Factor 1 is a tropical-subtropical assemblage dominated by Globigerinoiden ruber. It has its highest values in the warmer eastern basin. Transitional species (Globorotalia inflata and Globigerina bulloides) dominate factor 2 with highest values occurring in the cooler western basin. Factor 3 reflects the distribution of Neogloboquadrina dutertrei and is considered to be salinity dependent. Subpolar species dominate factor 4 (Neoglobuquadrina pachyderma and G. bulloides), with highest values occurring in the northern part of the western basin where cold bottom water is presently being formed. The Shannon-Weiner index of species diversity shows that high diversity exists over much of the western basin and immediately east of the Strait of Sicily. This region is marked by equitable environmental conditions and relatively even distribution of individuals among the species. Conversely, in areas where temperature and salinity values are more extreme, diversity values are lower and the assemblages are dominated by one or two species.

Pollen and spores in bottom sediments of the Mediterranean Sea

The paper presents results of palynological analysis of deposits from core VITYAZ4779 (length 6.5 m) that was collected from depth 3090 m in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. These palynological data reveal four distinct strata of sediments, each of which was accumulated under different physiographic conditions.