First regional reference database of northern Adriatic diatom transcriptomes.

Marine microbial communities form the basis for the functioning of marine ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity. With the application of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics in marine environmental studies, significant progress has been made in analysing the functioning of microbial communities as a whole. These molecular techniques are highly dependent on reliable, well-characterised, comprehensive and taxonomically diverse sequenced reference transcriptomes of microbial organisms.

A metabarcode based (species) inventory of the northern Adriatic phytoplankton.

Background: The northern Adriatic is characterised as the coldest and most productive marine area of the Mediterranean, which is due to high nutrient levels introduced by river discharges, the largest of which is the Italian Po River (at the same time also the largest freshwater input into the Mediterranean). The northern Adriatic is a very shallow marine ecosystem with ocean current patterns that result in long retention times of plankton in the area. The northern Adriatic phytoplankton biodiversity and abundance are well-studied, through many scientific and long-term monitoring reports.

Identification of the heterotrophic nanoflagellate Bilabrum latius in the southern Adriatic (Mediterranean Sea).

Heterotrophic flagellates (HF) represent an important protist group in marine ecosystem functioning. Characterised by high taxonomic diversity, identification and classification of HF is often difficult using classical methods of light microscopy (LM). Complementing LM with molecular methods, such as barcoding, enables reliable taxonomic identification of even small size nanoflagellates that share similar or unnoticeable morphological features.

Jellyfish-Associated Microbiome in the Marine Environment: Exploring Its Biotechnological Potential.

Despite accumulating evidence of the importance of the jellyfish-associated microbiome to jellyfish, its potential relevance to blue biotechnology has only recently been recognized. In this review, we emphasize the biotechnological potential of host⁻microorganism systems and focus on gelatinous zooplankton as a host for the microbiome with biotechnological potential. The basic characteristics of jellyfish-associated microbial communities, the mechanisms underlying the jellyfish-microbe relationship, and the role/function of the jellyfish-associated microbiome and its biotechnological potential are reviewed.

Comparative analysis of the ecosystems in the northern Adriatic Sea and the Inland Sea of Japan: Can anthropogenic pressures disclose jellyfish outbreaks?

A prominent increase in the moon jellyfish (genus Aurelia) populations has been observed since 1980 in two semi-enclosed temperate seas: the northern Adriatic Sea and the Inland Sea of Japan. Therefore, we reviewed long-term environmental and biotic data from the two Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, along with the increase in the moon jellyfish occurrence to elucidate how these coastal seas shifted to the jellyfish-dominated ecosystems. The principal component analysis of atmospheric data revealed a simultaneous occurrence of similar climatic changes in the early 1980s; thereafter, air temperature increased steadily and precipitation decreased but became more extreme.

Jellyfish modulate bacterial dynamic and community structure.

Jellyfish blooms have increased in coastal areas around the world and the outbreaks have become longer and more frequent over the past few decades. The Mediterranean Sea is among the heavily affected regions and the common bloom-forming taxa are scyphozoans Aurelia aurita s.l.