Scientific watch

Narratives help frame our thinking and action. This editorial of the journal Science stresses the need for a new narrative for the ocean, one that reflects current scientific knowledge and inspires new science and effective action. For most of human

Anthropogenic climate change, and global warming in particular, has strong and increasing impacts on marine ecosystems. The Mediterranean region is a climate change hotspot, where the respective impacts of warming are very pronounced and relatively well documented. One of the

In the Anthropocene, marine ecosystems are rapidly shifting to new ecological states. Achieving effective conservation of marine biodiversity has become a fast-moving target because of both global climate change and continuous shifts in marine policies. The authors of this paper

Seawater warming is impacting marine ecosystems, but proper evaluation of change requires the availability of long-term biological data series. Mesco Reef (Ligurian Sea, Italy) offers one of the longest Mediterranean data series on sessile epibenthic communities, based on underwater photographic

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly deployed spatial management tool. MPAs are primarily designed for biodiversity conservation, with their success commonly measured using a narrow suite of ecological indicators. However, for MPAs to achieve their biodiversity conservation goals they

Coralline algae have occurred in the Mediterranean area for about 140 My. Some Mediterranean corallines are key ecosystem engineers that produce or consolidate biogenic habitats (e.g., coralligenous concretions, rhodolith beds, Lythophyllum rims). Although bioconstructions build by corallines exist virtually in

The pen shell Pinna nobilis is a critically endangered bivalve threatened by mass mortality events throughout the Mediterranean, but the Alfacs Bay (Ebro Delta, Spain) still hosts many healthy individuals. This study assessed the main factors controlling recruitment patterns in

Compared to the vast area covered by the open sea, shallow coastal environments are subjected to disproportionately higher pressures due to their dynamic interplay with the terrestrial realm and the direct effects of human activities. Many important Mediterranean rocky reef

Complex social structure may lead to behavioural diversity not only among populations, but also within a single population, where different subsets of a population may exhibit different types of behaviour. Understanding social structure is not only interesting biologically, but may

Pinna nobilis is a sensitive and vulnerable species and is hence considered a good indicator of anthropogenic pressures on marine ecosystems. This study provides data on the density and distribution of P. nobilis on the coasts of Turkey, and assessed