Naineris is a genus of burrowing polychaete worms of the family Orbiniidae characterized by a rounded or truncated prostomium and a distinct thorax-abdomen division. Previous studies recovered Naineris as monophyletic, paraphyletic, or polyphyletic and have shown close relationships between Naineris and Protoaricia. In the present study, we provide the first comprehensive revision of Naineris using an integrative approach. Our molecular analysis includes 149 specimens of Naineris assigned to 25 species collected worldwide. Phylogeny (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) based on the combined matrix of two mitochondrial and one nuclear marker resulted in four well-supported clades, each also supported by morphological synapomorphies. Our results suggest polyphyly of Naineris, which we resolve by splitting the genus into two clades. The first clade includes the type species Naineris quadricuspida, in addition to Naineris uncinata, and represents Naineris s.s. Four more species are included in Naineris s.s. based on morphological data. The second clade, Theodisca reinstated, comprises all the species of Naineris included in the analysis together with species of Protoaricia, including the type species, Protoaricia oerstedii. Theodisca is divided into three monophyletic subgenera: T. (Theodisca), T. (Unitheodisca) subgen. nov. and T. (Polytheodisca) subgen. nov., each defined by morphological synapomorphies. Amended diagnoses and descriptions of both genera and three subgenera are provided.

During almost a century of permanence in the Mediterranean, the warm water species Teredo bartschi has adapted to progressively colder climates up to overwintering at water temperatures only a few degrees above zero. A fine-grained analysis of discoveries, synonyms, museum collections and grey literature establishes that this species entered the Mediterranean since at least 1935. Coming from tropical waters through the Suez Canal, the species has undergone to a long period of acclimatization in the Levantine Basin of the Mediterranean and then pushed north at the beginning of this century until it has invaded the Lagoon of Venice. The invasion routes are reconstructed and presented. The lagoon of Venice is a microtidal bar-built estuary located in the northernmost part of the Mediterranean and represents the highest latitude reached by the species on a global scale. Here for over ten years, T. bartschi has now become invasive forming stable and abundant populations. This paper presents some biometrics of hard parts such as pallets and shells as well as the description of siphons, useful for the identification and characterization of the species. The shape of the pallets of the Venetian population differs from the Aqaba's (Giordania) and Mersin's (Turkey) populations. Phenotypic variation are probably due to environmental effects on morphology.

Baseline port monitoring for fouling communities is an essential tool to assess non-indigenous species (NIS) introduction and spread, but a standardized and coordinated method among Mediterranean and European countries has not yet been adopted. In this context, it is important to test monitoring protocols that allow for the collection of standardized and directly comparable data, replicated across time and space. Here, for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, we tested a standardized protocol developed by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and used now in several countries. The 3-year monitoring survey (2018–2020) was conducted in the Gulf of La Spezia (Ligurian Sea, Italy), with the deployment of a total of 50 PVC panels per year in five different sites (a commercial harbor, three marinas and a site in the proximity of a shellfish farm). A total of 79 taxa were identified, including 11 NIS, ranging from zero to seven NIS for each panel. In comparison with previous surveys, new NIS arrivals were observed in the Gulf of La Spezia: Botrylloides cf. niger , Branchiomma sp., Branchiomma luctuosum , Paraleucilla magna , and Watersipora arcuata . At the end of the 3-year monitoring, mean richness? and percent cover of NIS were measured, and both measures differed across the monitoring sites, with higher values in two marinas and in the commercial harbor. Among years, richness of NIS was relatively stable at each monitoring site. The structure of the fouling was influenced more by native and cryptogenic species than by NIS. Moreover, among the monitoring sites, the density of artificial structures was not a reliable predictor or proxy for local NIS abundance. This first application of the SERC method in the Mediterranean Sea, demonstrates both pros and cons, including the detection of new NIS reported here. Further direct comparisons with other NIS monitoring tools are recommended, and additional tests to assess its effectiveness in this biogeographical area are encouraged. A broader application of this and other standard methods across temporal and spatial scales in the Mediterranean basin should be implemented, providing critical data needed to assess changes in the structure of fouling communities.

The original description of the fan worm Parasabella fullo (Grube, 1878) is brief and mainly focused on the color. This paper provides a redescription based on syntype material from northern Japan kept at Museum für Naturkunde of Berlin and new records in California (USA). Diagnostic characters used in redescribing the species are the shapes of inferior thoracic notochaetae, ventral thoracic shields and dorsal collar margins. Although this Japanese species was collected on vessels’ hulls in California, it is not clear if and where the species is established here, due to past difficulties in identification without well-defined characters. Nevertheless, a resident population appears to exist in the region, given the species occurrence on local recreational vessels. The redescription provides information to distinguish it from the local Californian indigenous species Parasabella pallida Moore, 1923.

Crystals of pyroxene are common in meteorites but few compositions have been recognized in astronomical environments due to the limited chemistries included in laboratory studies. We present quantitative room-temperature spectra of 17 Mg-, Fe-, and Ca-bearing ortho- and clinopyroxenes, and a Ca-pyroxenoid in order to discern trends indicative of crystal structure and a wide range of composition. Data are produced using a diamond anvil cell: our band strengths are up to six times higher than those measured in KBr or polyethylene dispersions, which include variations in path length (from grain size) and surface reflections that are not addressed in data processing. Pyroxenes have varied spectra: only two bands, at 10.22 and 15.34 mu m in enstatite (En(99)), are common to all. Peak wavelengths generally increase as Mg is replaced by Ca or Fe. However, two bands in MgFe-pyroxenes shift to shorter wavelengths as the Fe component increases from 0 to 60 per cent. A high-intensity band shifts from 11.6 to 11.2 mu m and remains at 11.2 mu m as Fe increases to 100 per cent; it resembles an astronomical feature normally identified with olivine or forsterite. The distinctive pyroxene bands between 13 and 16 mu m show promise for their identification in Mid-Infrared-Instrument spectra obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope. The many pyroxene bands between 40 and 80 mu m could be diagnositic of silicate mineralogy if data were obtained with the proposed Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics. Our data indicate that comparison between room-temperature laboratory bands for enstatite and cold similar to 10 - K astronomical dust features at wavelengths greater than or similar to 28 mu m can result in the identification of (Mg,Fe)- pyroxenes that contain 7-15 per cent less Fe-than their true values because some temperature shiftsmimic some compositional shifts. Therefore some astronomical silicates may contain more Fe, and less Mg, than previously thought.

The spionid polychaete Pseudopolydora paucibranchiata (Okuda, 1937) was originally described from Japan and has since been reported as a non-indigenous species in soft bottom communities in the Northeast Pacific, the Mediterranean Sea, around Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Florida. The diagnostic features of the adults are palps with ramified yellow chromatophores, prostomium rounded anteriorly, short occipital antenna on the caruncle, and a small disc-like pygidium. We collected Pseudopolydora with these features from locations worldwide and compared them by a molecular analysis. The Bayesian analysis of the combined dataset of three genetic markers (mitochondrial 16S rDNA, nuclear 28S rDNA and Histone 3 ; 811 bp in total) showed that the worms form a monophyletic group comprising four genetically different clades. We name this group the P. paucibranchiata complex and consider the clades as four pseudocryptic species. The largest examined clade comprises individuals from the Pacific Canada (British Columbia), Russia (Sea of Japan), South Korea (East Sea), Italy (Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas), Australia (Victoria), Netherlands, and Japan, which we identify as P. paucibranchiata . The morphology, reproductive biology and ecology of P. paucibranchiata are briefly reviewed. The other three clades are referred to as Pseudopolydora vexillosa Radashevsky and Hsieh, 2000 (Vietnam, Nha Trang Bay), Pseudopolydora sp. A (Australia, Northern Territory), and Pseudopolydora sp. B (Kuwait, Arabian Gulf). We explain the occurrence of P. paucibranchiata outside of the Northwest Pacific by unintentional human-mediated transportation in ballast water and/or with commercial oyster movements in aquaculture operations, followed by successful invasions.

The Doge’s Palace of Venice (Italy) has on its canal-side large doorways closed by old wooden doors. Originally, the thresholds were built above high-water level to avoid direct contact with the water and the resulting damage caused by physical and biological agents. As a result of sea-level rise and land subsidence during the last centuries, the doors are now exposed to tides and to attack by marine wood-boring invertebrates such as shipworms and gribbles. As a consequence, the bottom rails of the doors were recently in need of substantial restoration, which took into consideration new materials and techniques. In this framework, an in situ experiment was undertaken to test the resistance of some selected wood species to woodboring organisms. A quick assessment protocol, based on the EN 275 standard, was set up to quantify bioerosion according to wood species and elevation above sea level. Both European and tropical wood species were tested. The former include Scots Pine, as a reference, and Larch, Cypress and Oak as traditional carpentry materials. The latter include Azobe, Okan, and Bilinga. All the European species showed high susceptibility to woodborer attack, whereas no damage was recorded on the tropical woods. The collected shipworms belonged mostly to Lyrodus pedicellatus and Teredo bartschi with some individuals of Teredo navalis . The only species of gribble found was Limnoria tripunctata . New technical solutions were adopted in the restoration aiming to provide a long service life for the replacements and simplifying the maintenance procedures. Experience, results and solutions are presented.

The biofouling community on Santa Cruz and Baltra Islands, Galapagos, was surveyed in 2016 based on samples from settlement plates deployed in 2015 and 2016 at three different sites. We report numerous new records for the Galapagos fauna: one novel family (Opheliidae), nine novel genera, and 15 novel species records were documented in a total of seven families. Six introduced species were found, the syllid Myrianida pachycera, the sabellids Branchiomma bairdi, Branchiomma sp. and Pseudobranchiomma schizogenica, and the serpulids Hydroides elegans, Hydroides sanctaecrucis, along with one cryptogenic species, the spionid Dipolydora armata. Non-native species come from either the warm waters of the Western Atlantic or Indo-West Pacific Oceans.

Among Sabellidae (polychaetes commonly found in hard substrate fouling communities), the genus Branchiomma Kolliker is a species-rich group with an expanding global history of invasions. In this paper, we report the first new records of Branchiomma bairdi along the Californian and Hawaiian coasts. Moreover, we confirm the first recorded introduction and range extension of Branchiomma conspersum. Branchiomma conspersum is originally from the Caribbean Sea and is a new non-indigenous species on the Pacific side of Panama and is also present in Hawaii and Australia.

This study was performed to analyse the genetic and morphological diversity of the sabellid annelid genus Branchiomma, with special emphasis on a taxon so far identified as Branchiomma bairdi. This species, originally described from Bermuda, has frequently been reported as an invader in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific, but recent observations have raised some taxonomic questions. Samples of this taxon were collected from five sites in the Mediterranean Sea, two sites in the original distribution area of B. bairdi in the Gulf of Mexico and four localities in the east Pacific and Atlantic Oceans where B. bairdi has been reported as invasive. The molecular results revealed a conspicuous genetic divergence (18.5% K2P) between the sampled Mediterranean populations and all the other ones that led to a re-evaluation of their morphological characters. The latter showed that the Mediterranean and extra-Mediterranean populations also differ in some discrete morphological and reproductive features. Consequently, the Mediterranean samples were re-designated as B. boholense, another non-indigenous species originally described from Philippines. Branchiomma bairdi and B. boholense differ in body size, development and shape of micro and macrostylodes, size of radiolar eyes and body pigmentation. Genetic diversity was high in B. boholense from the Mediterranean as well as in B. bairdi from the Gulf of Mexico, but low in B. bairdi populations outside their native range. The phylogenetic analysis revealed the presence of connections between the Mediterranean localities as well as between native and introduced B. bairdi populations that focus the attention on the Panama Canal as important passage for the introduction of the species from the Gulf of Mexico to the north-east Pacific Ocean.

Clarifying taxonomic status is essential to understanding invasion source and the spread of invasive species. Here we used barcoding gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I to explore the issue in a common fouling invasive species Hydroides dianthus. The species was originally described from off New England, USA, reported along the east coast of North America down to Florida and the Caribbean region, introduced to China, Europe, Japan and West Africa via anthropogenic transport and is now collected in Brazil for the first time. Unlike most congeners, H. dianthus has tolerance for a wide temperature range, being distributed from temperate to subtropical waters. Our results based on 112 specimens collected from 17 localities worldwide confirmed that H. dianthus sensu stricto is indeed a global invader. Observed higher haplotypes diversity in the Mediterranean seems to contradict the currently accepted native range of H. dianthus sensu stricto in the USA. The study also revealed the existence of a potential cryptic species H. cf. dianthus with a genetic distance of 5.6%. The cryptic lineage found in Texas was evidently introduced to the Black Sea only recently. Given that both lineages within H. dianthus are invasive, a greater emphasis on adequate monitoring and management of the routes responsible for introductions of this species is needed.

Serpulids are an important component of fouling communities. This paper provides an overview of the serpulid species found in North America, as part of a broader study of fouling invertebrates focused on NIS (non-indigenous species) in United States coastal ecosystems. Almost 4400 serpulid specimens were examined from selected fouling plates. Fouling plates were deployed in 26 bays and coastal lagoons along the continental coasts of the United States and Hawaiian islands, primarily in bays and lagoons with salinities averaging 20‰ or greater. Twenty-five serpulid species were identified, including four new records for the United States (Ficopomatus uschakovi, Hydroides cf. brachyacantha, H. longispinosa and Protula longiseta), three known NIS, two presumed NIS, three cryptogenic serpulids, and several range extensions. Crucigera websteri extends its northward range from Santa Barbara Island to Humboldt Bay, California; Ficopomatus enigmaticus, first recorded in North America from San Francisco, California in 1920, Rockport, Texas in 1952 and Barnegat Bay, New Jersey in 1980, is now recorded at additional localities on the east coast (Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina and Indian River, Florida) and the northern Gulf of Mexico (Galveston Bay, Texas); F. miamiensis extends its westward range from Louisiana to Texas; F. uschakovi, an Indo-Pacific and Western African species, was recorded formally for the first time from the northern Gulf of Mexico (Galveston Bay and Corpus Christi, Texas) and the east coast of Florida (Jacksonville). Hydroides cf. brachyacantha extends its northward range from Curaҫao to Pensacola Bay, Florida; H. dirampha from Veracruz, Mexico to Corpus Christi, Texas; H. floridana extends its westward range from Louisiana to Texas; H. gracilis extends its northward range from Pacific Grove to San Francisco, California; Salmacina huxleyi from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Rhode Island; and Spirobranchus minutus from Veracruz, Mexico to Pensacola Bay, Florida. The following additional species range extensions are provisional in that they represent only one record or were not found in the most recent surveys (e.g., Hydroides elegans - east coast): H. longispinosa from Marshall Islands to Oahu, Hawaii; Protula balboensis from Florida to Texas; P. longiseta from the Mexican Caribbean to the Indian River, Florida; H. elegans from San Francisco to Humboldt Bay, northern California and on the east coast from the Indian River, Florida, to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Among surveyed bays, Biscayne Bay, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas (northern Gulf of Mexico) had the greatest number of species (14 and 8, respectively); in contrast, almost all sites in Alaska, Washington, Oregon (northwest Pacific), Rhode Island, Virginia and South Carolina (Atlantic) had only one or two species each. Hydroides dianthus was, by far, the most abundant serpulid species on fouling plates in the northern Gulf of Mexico and the east coast, while Pseudochitinopoma occidentalis was the most abundant serpulid detected on the west coast. For each species recorded herein, we include the synonyms and some key references, a material studied section, a diagnosis, and updated distributional information. A checklist and identification key to the known shallow-water serpulids sensu stricto of the United States are included.

While many studies of non-native species have examined either soft-bottom or hard-bottom marine communities, including artificial structures at docks and marinas, formal comparisons across these habitat types are rare. The number of non-indigenous species (NIS) may differ among habitats, due to differences in species delivery (trade history) and susceptibility to invasions. In this study, we quantitatively compared NIS to native species richness and distribution and examined community similarity across hard-bottom and soft-sediment habitats in San Francisco Bay, California (USA). Benthic invertebrates were sampled using settlement panels (hard-bottom habitats) and sediment grabs (soft-bottom habitats) in 13 paired sites, including eight in higher salinity areas and five in lower salinity areas during 2 years. Mean NIS richness was greatest in hard-bottom habitat at high salinity, being significantly higher than each (a) native species at high salinity and (b) NIS richness at low salinity. In contrast, mean NIS richness in soft-bottom communities was not significantly different from native species richness in either high- or low-salinity waters, nor was there a difference in NIS richness between salinities. For hard-bottom communities, NIS represented an average of 79% of total species richness per sample at high salinity and 78% at low salinity, whereas the comparable values for soft bottom were 46 and 60%, respectively. On average, NIS occurred at a significantly higher frequency (percent of samples) than native species for hard-bottom habitats at both salinities, but this was not the case for soft-bottom habitats. Finally, NIS contributed significantly to the existing community structure (dissimilarity) across habitat types and salinities. Our results show that NIS richness and occurrence frequency is highest in hard-bottom and high-salinity habitat for this Bay but also that NIS contribute strongly to species richness and community structure across each habitat evaluated.

Tidal channels are crucial for the functioning of wetlands, though their morphological properties, which are relevant for seafloor habitats and flow, have been understudied so far. Here, we release a dataset composed of Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) extracted from a total of 2,500 linear kilometres of high-resolution multibeam echosounder (MBES) data collected in 2013 covering the entire network of tidal channels and inlets of the Venice Lagoon, Italy. The dataset comprises also the backscatter (BS) data, which reflect the acoustic properties of the seafloor, and the tidal current fields simulated by means of a high-resolution three-dimensional unstructured hydrodynamic model. The DTMs and the current fields help define how morphological and benthic properties of tidal channels are affected by the action of currents. These data are of potential broad interest not only to geomorphologists, oceanographers and ecologists studying the morphology, hydrodynamics, sediment transport and benthic habitats of tidal environments, but also to coastal engineers and stakeholders for cost-effective monitoring and sustainable management of this peculiar shallow coastal system.

Several individuals of Paranthura japonica, a non-indigenous isopod species, recently recorded on Italian coasts, have been collected from the Mar Piccolo basin, Taranto (Italy). This finding extends the distributional range of the species southwards in the Mediterranean, including a semi-enclosed coastal basin, which is considered the second Italian hotspot for the introduction of alien species. The characteristics of the place reinforce the hypothesis that its introduction is linked to shellfish trade and farming. Remarks on the morphology and ecology are included.