Basin scale variability of Ostreopsis spp. blooms provides evidence of effectiveness of an integrated sampling approach.

Ostreopsis spp. blooms have been occurring in the last two decades in the Mediterranean Sea in association with a variety of biotic and abiotic substrata (macroalgae, seagrasses, benthic invertebrates, sand, pebbles and rocks). Cells proliferate attached to the surfaces through mucilaginous trichocysts, which lump together microalgal cells, and can also be found in the plankton and on floating aggregates: such tychoplanktonic behavior makes the quantitative assessment of blooms more difficult than planktonic or benthic ones.

Can thermal anomalies impair the restoration of Cystoseira s.l. forests?

Marine macroalgal forests are facing unprecedented challenges worldwide due to the accelerating impacts of climate change. These ecosystems play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, coastal ecosystem functions and services, and are indeed object of several conservation and restoration measures. The Mediterranean Sea is warming faster than the oceans and thermal anomalies are occurring with increasing intensity, frequency and duration.

Photoprotective and Anti-Aging Properties of the Apical Frond Extracts from the Mediterranean Seaweed .

There is a growing interest in using brown algal extracts thanks to the bioactive substances they produce for adaptation to the marine benthic environment. We evaluated the anti-aging and photoprotective properties of two types of extracts (50%-ethanol and DMSO) obtained from different portions, i.e.

The role of habitat in the facilitation of Ostreopsis spp. blooms.

In recent decades, recurrent Ostreopsis spp. blooms have been recorded throughout the globe, causing public health issues and mass mortalities of invertebrates. Ostreopsis species are benthic and develop in shallow waters in close relation with a substrate, but possible substrate preferences are still ambiguous.

A Novel Xeno-Free Method to Isolate Human Endometrial Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (E-MSCs) in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Conditions.

The cyclic regeneration of human endometrium is guaranteed by the proliferative capacity of endometrial mesenchymal stromal cells (E-MSCs). Due to this, the autologous infusion of E-MSCs has been proposed to support endometrial growth in a wide range of gynecological diseases. We aimed to compare two different endometrial sampling methods, surgical curettage and vacuum aspiration biopsy random assay (VABRA), and to validate a novel xeno-free method to culture human E-MSCs.

An integrated assessment of the Good Environmental Status of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas.

Local, regional and global targets have been set to halt marine biodiversity loss. Europe has set its own policy targets to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of marine ecosystems by implementing the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) across member states. We combined an extensive dataset across five Mediterranean ecoregions including 26 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), their reference unprotected areas, and a no-trawl case study.

The Remarkable Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Potential of the Extracts of the Brown Alga var. .

Inflammation and oxidative stress are part of the complex biological responses of body tissues to harmful stimuli. In recent years, due to the increased understanding that oxidative stress is implicated in several diseases, pharmaceutical industries have invested in the research and development of new antioxidant compounds, especially from marine environment sources. Marine seaweeds have shown the presence of many bioactive secondary metabolites, with great potentialities from both the nutraceutical and the biomedical point of view.

Future HAB science: Directions and challenges in a changing climate.

There is increasing concern that accelerating environmental change attributed to human-induced warming of the planet may substantially alter the patterns, distribution and intensity of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Changes in temperature, ocean acidification, precipitation, nutrient stress or availability, and the physical structure of the water column all influence the productivity, composition, and global range of phytoplankton assemblages, but large uncertainty remains about how integration of these climate drivers might shape future HABs. Presented here are the collective deliberations from a symposium on HABs and climate change where the research challenges to understanding potential linkages between HABs and climate were considered, along with new research directions to better define these linkages.

The impact of ocean acidification on the gonads of three key Antarctic benthic macroinvertebrates.

CO atmospheric pressure is increasing since industrial revolution, leading to a lowering of the ocean surface water pH, a phenomenon known as ocean acidification, with several reported effects on individual species and cascading effects on marine ecosystems. Despite the great amount of literature on ocean acidification effects on calcifying organisms, the response of their reproductive system still remains poorly known. In the present study, we investigated the histopathological effects of low pH on the gonads of three key macroinvertebrates of the Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea) littoral area: the sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri, the sea star Odontaster validus and the scallop Adamussium colbecki.

Ecological status improvement over a decade along the Ligurian coast according to a macroalgae based index (CARLIT).

According to the Water Framework Directive, within 2015 European Union countries must reach and maintain the "good" Ecological Status (ES), quantified through indices based on key biological elements as indicators. Along the Ligurian shallow rocky coasts (NW Italy), a macroalgae based index (CARtography of LITtoral and upper-sublittoral benthic communities, CARLIT), calibrated according to national characteristics and management needs, has been applied by the Regional Environmental Agency over the last ten years. In 2015, at least a "good" ES was achieved in all Ligurian water bodies except one, located in the Eastern Ligurian coastline, characterized by the lack of the most sensitive species, Cystoseira amentacea var.

Bottom-up effects on biomechanical properties of the skeletal plates of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816) in an acidified ocean scenario.

Sea urchins, ecologically important herbivores of shallow subtidal temperate reefs, are considered particularly threatened in a future ocean acidification scenario, since their carbonate structures (skeleton and grazing apparatus) are made up of the very soluble high-magnesium calcite, particularly sensitive to a decrease in pH. The biomechanical properties of their skeletal structures are of great importance for their individual fitness, because the skeleton provides the means for locomotion, grazing and protection from predators. Sea urchin skeleton is composed of discrete calcite plates attached to each other at sutures by organic ligaments.

The multiple roles of β-diversity help untangle community assembly processes affecting recovery of temperate rocky shores.

Metacommunity theory highlights the potential of β-diversity as a useful link to empirical research, especially in diverse systems where species exhibit a range of stage-dependent dispersal characteristics. To investigate the importance of different components and scales of β-diversity in community assembly, we conducted a large-scale disturbance experiment and compared relative recovery across multiple sites and among plots within sites on the rocky shore. Six sites were spread along 80 km of coastline and, at each site, five plots were established, matching disturbed and undisturbed quadrats.

Ex situ cultivation protocol for Cystoseira amentacea var. stricta (Fucales, Phaeophyceae) from a restoration perspective.

Due to multiple impacts, Cystoseira forests are experiencing a significant decline, which is affecting the ecosystem services they provide. Despite conservation efforts, there is an urgent need to develop best practices and large-scale restoration strategies. To implement restoration actions, we developed an ex situ protocol for the cultivation of Cystoseira.

Management of harmful benthic dinoflagellates requires targeted sampling methods and alarm thresholds.

Concern regarding Benthic Harmful Algal Blooms (BHABs) is increasing since some harmful benthic species have been identified in new areas. In the Mediterranean basin, the most common harmful benthic microalgae are Ostreopsis cf. ovata and Prorocentrum lima, which produce palytoxin-like compounds and okadaic acid respectively, and the need to implement monitoring activities has increased.

A novel application of an adaptable modeling approach to the management of toxic microalgal bloom events in coastal areas.

Harmful algal blooms have been increasing in frequency in recent years, and attention has shifted from describing to modeling and trying to predict these phenomena, since in many cases they pose a risk to human health and coastal activities. Predicting ecological phenomena is often time and resource consuming, since a large number of field collected data are required. We propose a novel approach that involves the use of modeled meteorological data as input features to predict the concentration of the toxic benthic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis cf.

Ostreopsis fattorussoi sp. nov. (Dinophyceae), a new benthic toxic Ostreopsis species from the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The new benthic toxic dinoflagellate, Ostreopsis fattorussoi sp. nov., is described from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon and Cyprus coasts, and is supported by morphological and molecular data.

Chemical, molecular, and eco-toxicological investigation of Ostreopsis sp. from Cyprus Island: structural insights into four new ovatoxins by LC-HRMS/MS.

Blooms of benthic dinoflagellates of the genus Ostreopsis (mainly O. cf. ovata and occasionally O.

Large cryptic genomic rearrangements with apparently normal karyotypes detected by array-CGH.

Background: Conventional karyotyping (550 bands resolution) is able to identify chromosomal aberrations >5-10 Mb, which represent a known cause of intellectual disability/developmental delay (ID/DD) and/or multiple congenital anomalies (MCA). Array-Comparative Genomic Hybridization (array-CGH) has increased the diagnostic yield of 15-20%.

Results: In a cohort of 700 ID/DD cases with or without MCA, including 15 prenatal diagnoses, we identified a subgroup of seven patients with a normal karyotype and a large complex rearrangement detected by array-CGH (at least 6, and up to 18 Mb).

The future of the northeast Atlantic benthic flora in a high CO2 world.

Seaweed and seagrass communities in the northeast Atlantic have been profoundly impacted by humans, and the rate of change is accelerating rapidly due to runaway CO2 emissions and mounting pressures on coastlines associated with human population growth and increased consumption of finite resources. Here, we predict how rapid warming and acidification are likely to affect benthic flora and coastal ecosystems of the northeast Atlantic in this century, based on global evidence from the literature as interpreted by the collective knowledge of the authorship. We predict that warming will kill off kelp forests in the south and that ocean acidification will remove maerl habitat in the north.

Experimenting with ecosystem interaction networks in search of threshold potentials in real-world marine ecosystems.

Thresholds profoundly affect our understanding and management of ecosystem dynamics, but we have yet to develop practical techniques to assess the risk that thresholds will be crossed. Combining ecological knowledge of critical system interdependencies with a large-scale experiment, we tested for breaks in the ecosystem interaction network to identify threshold potential in real-world ecosystem dynamics. Our experiment with the bivalves Macomona liliana and Austrovenus stutchburyi on marine sandflats in New Zealand demonstrated that reductions in incident sunlight changed the interaction network between sediment biogeochemical fluxes, productivity, and macrofauna.

Effects of ocean acidification and diet on thickness and carbonate elemental composition of the test of juvenile sea urchins.

Continuous anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and uptake by the oceans will cause a reduction of seawater pH and saturation state (Ω) of CaCO3 minerals from which marine calcifiers build their shells and skeletons. Sea urchins use the most soluble form of calcium carbonate, high-magnesium calcite, to build their skeleton, spines and grazing apparatus. In order to highlight the effects of increased pCO2 on the test thickness and carbonate elemental composition of juvenile sea urchins and potential differences in their responses linked to the diet, we performed a laboratory experiment on juvenile Paracentrotus lividus, grazing on calcifying (Corallina elongata) and non-calcifying (Cystoseira amentacea, Dictyota dichotoma) macroalgae, under different pH (corresponding to pCO2 values of 390, 550, 750 and 1000 μatm).

Cascading effects of ocean acidification in a rocky subtidal community.

Temperate marine rocky habitats may be alternatively characterized by well vegetated macroalgal assemblages or barren grounds, as a consequence of direct and indirect human impacts (e.g. overfishing) and grazing pressure by herbivorous organisms.

Toxic effects of harmful benthic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis ovata on invertebrate and vertebrate marine organisms.

Harmful benthic microalgae blooms are an emerging phenomenon causing health and economic concern, especially in tourist areas. This is the case of the Mediterranean Sea, where Ostreopsis ovata blooms occur in summer, with increasing regularity. Ostreopsis species produce palytoxin (PTX) and analogues, and a number of deaths directly associated with the ingestion of PTX contaminated seafood have been reported.