Aims The present study is the first attempt to grasp the scale and richness of marine biological invasions in Macaronesia. We pioneered a comprehensive non-native species (NNS), inventory in the region to determine their diversity patterns and native distribution origins. NNS were defined here as the result of both introductions and range expansions. We also used statistical modelling to examine relationships a...
Aim: DNA metabarcoding has great potential to improve biomonitoring in island's marine ecosystems, which are highly vulnerable to global change and non-indigenous species (NIS) introductions. However, the depth and accuracy of the taxonomic identifications are mainly dependent on reference libraries containing representative and reliable sequences for the targeted species. In this study, we evaluated the gaps i...
BACKGROUND The macroalgal flora of the Island of São Miguel (eastern group of the Azores Archipelago) has attracted the interest of many researchers in the past, the first publications going back to the nineteenth century. Initial studies were mainly taxonomic, resulting in the publication of a checklist of the Azorean benthic marine algae. Later, the establishment of the University of the Azores on the Island ...
BACKGROUND The algal flora of the western group of the Azores archipelago (Islands of Flores and Corvo) has attracted the interest of many researchers on numerous past occasions (such as Drouet 1866, Trelease 1897, Gain 1914, Schmidt 1929, Schmidt 1931, Azevedo et al. 1990, Fralick and Hehre 1990, Neto and Azevedo 1990, Neto and Baldwin 1990, Neto 1996, Neto 1997, Neto 1999, Tittley and Neto 1996, Tittley and N...
BACKGROUND: The algal flora of the Island of Santa Maria (eastern group of the Azores archipelago) has attracted interest of researchers on past occasions (Drouët 1866, Agardh 1870, Trelease 1897, Schmidt 1931, Ardré et al. 1974, Fralick and Hehre 1990, Neto et al. 1991, Morton and Britton 2000, Amen et al. 2005, Wallenstein and Neto 2006, Tittley et al. 2009, Wallenstein et al. 2009a, Wallenstein et al. 2010, ...
Seaweed have promising applications within food, cosmetic and health industries, which led to an increased interest in studying these organisms [1]. In several coastal areas, thousands of tons of macroalgae are cast on beaches and shorelines and it would be very interesting if this biomass could be managed, allowing the extraction of added-value compounds. In this context, polar extracts (methanol and ethanol) ...
Coastal regions are widely recognised for their ecologic and socio-economic importance. The spread of invasive species, along with global climate change, overexploitation, pollution and habitat destruction, is a major threat to coastal ecosystems (Solan et al. 2004). Some of these species, in particular macroalgae and invertebrates, can spread quickly and become invasive, causing severe ecologic and economic im...
1. Leaf litter decomposition is an important process in many streams. The flow of carbon and nutrients to higher trophic levels generally depends on litter characteristics and environmental conditions, and is driven by the activities of microbes and invertebrate shredders. However, little is known about what drives litter decomposition in oceanic islands, where invertebrate communities are species-poor. 2. In t...
Ocean Sampling Day was initiated by the EU-funded Micro B3 (Marine Microbial Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology) project to obtain a snapshot of the marine microbial biodiversity and function of the world’s oceans. It is a simultaneous global mega-sequencing campaign aiming to generate the largest standardized microbial data set in a single day. This will be achievable only through the coordinated effo...