Climate reconstructions and monitoring in the Mediterranean Sea: A review on some recently discovered high-resolution marine archives

Host Range of the Coral-Associated Worm Snail Petaloconchus sp. (Gastropoda: Vermetidae), a Newly Discovered Cryptogenic Pest Species in the Southern Caribbean

The presence of associated endofauna can have an impact on the health of corals. During fieldwork on the southern Caribbean island of Curaçao in 2021, the presence of an unknown coral-dwelling worm snail was discovered, which appeared to cause damage to its hosts. A study of photo archives revealed that the species was already present during earlier surveys at Curaçao since 2014 and also in the southern Caribbean island of Bonaire in 2019. It was not found in St. Eustatius, an island in the eastern Caribbean, during an expedition in 2015. The vermetid snail was preliminarily identified as Petaloconchus sp. Its habitat choice resembles that of P. keenae, a West Pacific coral symbiont. The Caribbean species was observed in 21 host coral species, more than reported for any other vermetid. Because Petaloconchus sp. is a habitat generalist, it is possible that it was introduced from an area with another host-coral fauna. The unknown vermetid is considered to be cryptogenic until future studies reveal its actual identity and its native range.

The bivalve Glycymeris pilosa as a multidecadal environmental archive for the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas

We evaluated the potential of Glycymeris pilosa as an environmental indicator for the Mediterranean region by applying sclerochronological techniques on a sample set collected from Pašman Channel in the middle Adriatic Sea. Maximal longevity of analyzed shells was 69 years. Growth increments in acetate peels of the hinge region had clear boundaries, and there was a strongly synchronous signal in growth-increment width among individuals. The final, replicated chronology spanned 1969 to 2013. Shell growth negatively correlated with local summer sea temperatures and positively with November precipitation. High correlation between shell growth and circulation patterns in the northern Ionian was also observed, with slower growth occurring during cyclonic regimes. Given its broad distribution in the region and the ability to crossdate, generate annually-resolved chronologies, and of a length that substantially overlaps with observational records, G. pilosa has considerable potential to test hypotheses relating to environmental variability and biological response in the Mediterranean.