Complementarity and sensitivity of benthic state indicators to bottom-trawl fishing disturbance.

Many indicators have been developed to assess the state of benthic communities and identify seabed habitats most at risk from bottom trawling disturbance. However, the large variety of indicators and their development and application under specific geographic areas and management contexts has made it difficult to evaluate their wider utility. We compared the complementarity/uniqueness, sensitivity, and selectivity of 18 benthic indicators to pressure of bottom trawling.

Polychaetes of Greece: an updated and annotated checklist.

Background: The last annotated checklist of marine polychaetes in Greece was published in 2001. Since then, global taxonomic progress, combined with many new species records for Greece, required a thorough review of the taxonomic, nomenclatural and biogeographic status of the national species list. This checklist revises the status of all extant polychaete species reported from the Greek Exclusive Economic Zone since 1832.

Macrobenthic molluscs from a marine - lagoonal environmental transition in Lesvos Island (Greece).

Background: This paper describes an occurence dataset, also including numerical abundance and biomass data, pertaining to the macrobenthic molluscan assemblages from a marine - lagoonal environmental transition. The study system was the soft-substrate benthoscape of the area of the Kalloni solar saltworks (Lesvos Island, Greece). Specifically, the study area extended from the infralittoral zone of the inner Kalloni Gulf (marine habitat) to the bottoms of the first two evaporation ponds of the Kalloni solar saltworks (lagoonal habitat).

The rare subgroup C1 of Marphysa (Polychaeta, Eunicidae): re-description of species and first records in the Mediterranean Sea.

Marphysa is one of the largest genera in the family Eunicidae, containing 76 valid species. However, among them there are only five species that share the diagnostic characters of having only composite falcigers in inferior setae and branchiae confined in the anterior body. These species are relatively rare and less described while in their original descriptions their differentiation is mainly based on features believed to be age-specific today.