Annex 5. National reports
5.9 Italy
Prepared by Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi, Department of Earth and Environmental Sci-ences, University of Pavia, Italy.
The following people provided information for the preparation of this report:
Azzurro Ernesto (Barcelona, SP) Bello Giambattista (Bari) Bianchi Nike (Genova) Castriota Luca (Palermo) Cecere Ester (Taranto) Cormaci Mario (Catania) Froglia Carlo (Ancona) Furnari Giovanni (Catania) Gravili Cinzia (Lecce)
4Note: This report is the outcome of a special working group of the Italian Marine Biology Society (SIBM) on a voluntary basis. It does not reflect an official position or knowledge of the relevant Italian Government bodies.
It has been prepared according with the guidelines for ICES WGITMO National Re-ports; it updates the Italian status of 2010.
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Marchini Agnese (Pavia) Mazziotti Cristina (Cesenatico) Mereu Marco (Cagliari)
Montefalcone Monica (Genova) Morri Carla (Genova)
Penna Antonella (Urbino) Pessani Daniela (Torino) Petrocelli Antonella (Taranto) Savini Dario (Pavia)
Sfriso Adriano (Venezia)
1 Regulations: An update on new regulations and policies (including, aquaculture and vector management)
As required by the article 23rd of the Council Regulation N°708/2007, concerning the use of alien and locally absent species in aquaculture, a public register of introduc-tions and translocaintroduc-tions is now available and can be accessed (in Italian and English) at: http://www.flktest.com/835ICR/icr_index.php?action=home&op=&lang=en
The need of strictly enforcing existing regulations, namely EC Directives, has been advocated, observing the cases of alien species introduced as epiphytes of oysters imported from foreign cultures (Petrocelli and Cecere, 2010).
2. Intentional introductions
No new intentional introductions have been reported.
3. Unintentional introductions New Sightings
Algae & higher plants
The first occurrence of the red alga Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Ohmi) Papenf. in the Mediterranean Sea was reported from the Po Delta lagoons in 2008, probably intro-duced by the importation of the Manila clam Tapes philippinarum. It was found only near some clam-farming areas, but it is expected to spread in other lagoons as already observed for other alien species in the area, such as Agardhiella subulata and Solieria filiformis (Sfriso et al., 2010).
Previous Sightings Algae & higher plants
A considerable interest has been shown towards HAB forming microalgae. Although the species that have caused the blooms in Italy are not demonstrated aliens, we con-tinue in recording the information that we have gathered, especially regarding spe-cies that were mentioned in the previous National Reports for Italy. Clarification of the origin of these species is sought by means of population genetic structure in the case of Alexandrium minutum (Casabianca et al. 2010). Monitoring of the ben-thic/epiphytic genus Ostreopsis, known to produce palytoxin-like compounds, has been performed in 20 sites during 2007 in the Adriatic Sea in comparison with the Catalan Sea (Totti, 2010). A PCR based assay combined with light microscopy was used (Battocchi et al., 2010). Two more sites around Bari (S Adriatic Sea) have been
2008) and other Italian localities (Congestri, 2006).
The benthic microalga Chrysophaeum taylorii, typical of coral reefs, has been recorded in summer 2007 in Sardinia, where it was associated to mucus forming episodes lo-cally very intense. A monitoring campaign in summer 2009 has shown a consistent presence of the species in 17 sites in Central and Eastern Sardinia, following the first bloom in two marine protected areas (Luglié, 2008; Caronni et al., 2009, 2010).
During a survey of benthic macroalgae in 2007 along the dykes and the extensive stone breakwaters of the island of Lido (Lagoon of Venice), nineteen alien species were recorded (Sfriso and Facca, 2011). Among them Sargassum muticum, Scytosiphon dotyi, Polysiphonia morrowii, Antithamnion hubbsii and Ulva fasciata are seasonally inva-sive in the anthropic constructions of the Venice littoral. On the contrary Undaria pin-natifida, that is spread along many other areas of the Lagoon, did not colonized neither the dykes nor the Murazzi. The macroalgae Sargassum muticum, Antithamnion hubbsii, Grateloupia turuturu were recorded in the harbour of Ancona (Central Adri-atic) (Falace et al., 2010).
The pattern and degree of substitution by either native (Cymodocea nodosa and Caul-erpa prolifera) or alien (CaulCaul-erpa taxifolia and C. racemosa) species in 17 Posidonia oce-anica meadows along the coast of Liguria (Italy, NW Mediterranean) were investigated. The non-native species were found to be stronger colonizers than the native ones, in terms of habitat occupancy within meadows (Montemartini et al., 2010).
Invertebrates
Ruditapes philippinarum has been found in the wild, together with native populations of Ruditapes decussatus in the Gulf of Olbia (NE Sardinia) (Cannas, 2010). The Atlantic bobtail squid Stoloteuthis leucoptera (two specimens) was recorded in Sardinia in 2005 and 2007. Only a few previous records exist for Italian waters (Cuccu, 2010). The opis-tobranch mollusc Aplysia dactylomela, since the first record from the island of Lampe-dusa (2002), has been recorded from eastern Sicily (2003, 2006, 2008), Greece (starting in 2005), Croatia (2006), Cyprus (2005), Southern Turkey (2006) and Malta in 2008 (Di Silvestro, 2010).
A survey of Percnon gibbesi in the island of Linosa (Sicilian Straits) was conducted, after ten years from the first sighting (Raineri and Savini, 2009). The crab has been able to colonize the whole superior infralittoral fringe, reaching higher densities (30-50 ind. 10 m) in localities characterized by a microhabitat of large boulders covered by coralline algae. The larvae of alien Crustacean in Italy have been reviewed by Pes-sani (in press).
Not Seen Species Yet
The brown alga Rugulopteryx okamurae has been recorded in the lagoons of Southern France (Verlaque et al., 2009).
During an experimental trawl survey in June 2006, several specimens of the Western-Atlantic penaeid shrimp Rimapenaeus similis were caught in the Gulf of Gabes (south-ern Tunisia, Central Mediterranean). This represents the first record for the Mediter-ranean Sea (Ben Hadj Hamida-Ben Abdallah, 2010).
4. Pathogens
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No data
5. Meetings and research projects
The final Workshop of the Research Programme on Ostreopsis, financed by the Italian Ministry of the Environment was held in Rome on 30 April 2010, with the title
“Ostreopsis ovata and Ostreopsis spp: new risks of microalgal toxicity in Italian Seas”.
A series of methods, suggestions and “tricks” to facilitate the detection and study has been given by Azzurro (2010), as an output of the Interreg III A Project “MonItaMal”
between Italy and Malta, with the aim of extracting information from rare and diffi-cult to observe occurrences of alien species.
A review was published of 38 nonindigenous marine species (NIS) (macroalgae, sponges, hydrozoans, molluscs, polychaetes, crustaceans, ascidiaceans and fish), from the Apulian coast of Italy. Shipping, aquaculture and migration through the Suez Ca-nal are the main pathways of introduction of the NIS (Gravili et al., 2010).
A review of the information about the genetics of 14 Lessepsian species that have passed through the Suez canal in different times and with varying colonization suc-cess was published by Bernardi et al. (2010) including examples of alien species in Italy.
An updated list of the NIS marine species recorded in Italy from 1945 to 2009 was published by Occhipinti-Ambrogi et al. (2010). The paper represents the contribution by Italian scientists, who have undertaken this task on a voluntary basis, being part of the ‘‘Allochtonous Species Group’’ (ASG) within the Italian Society of Marine Biology (SIBM), and provided the information for the ICES National Reports for Italy. The data have been reviewed according to the taxonomic expertise of the authors and are organized in a referenced database containing information on each species about:
distribution along Italian coasts, the native range, most probable vectors of introduc-tion, population status and impact.
6. References and bibliography
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Battocchi C., Totti C., Vila M., Masò M.,Capellacci S., Accoroni S., Reñé A., Scardi M., Penna A.
(2010). Monitoring toxic microalgae Ostreopsis (Dinoflagellate) species in coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea using molecular PCR-based assay combined with light microscopy.
Mar. Pollut. Bull. 60 (7) :1074-1084.
Ben Hadj Hamida-Ben Abdallah O., Ben Hadj Hamida N., Jarboui O., Froglia C. (2010). First occurrence of the yellow roughneck shrimp, Rimapenaeus similis (Smith, 1885) (Crustacea:
Decapoda: Penaeidae) in the Mediterranean Sea (Tunisian waters). Biol. Invasions, 12: 999–
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Bernardi G., Golani D., Azzurro E. (2009) The genetics of Lessepsian bioinvasions. In: D. Golani
& B. Appelbaum-Golani (Eds ) Fish Invasions of the Mediterranean Sea: Change and Re-newal, Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Moscow, pp. 71-84.
Cabrini M., Fornasaro D., Lipizer M., Guardiani B. (2010). First report of Ostreopsis cf. ovata bloom in the Gulf of Trieste. Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 366-367.
Cannas A., Trentadue M., Manca S., Mura L., Fois N. (2010). Insediamento di Ruditapes philippinarum (Adams & Reeve) nel golfo di Olbia (Sardegna, Italia) e distribuzione in rapporto a Ruditapes decussatus (L.). Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 320-321.
Cavallo. Biol. Mar. Medit., 16 (1): 250-251.
Caronni S., Ceccherelli G., Navone A., Occhipinti-Ambrogi A., Panzalis P., Pinna S., Sechi N.
(2010). Distribution and density of the benthic microalga Chrysophaeum taylorii Lewis &
Bryan from northern to central-eastern Sardinian coasts. Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 292-293.
Casabianca S., Pecchioli E., Vernesi C., Penna A. (2010). Population genetic structure of the toxic Dinophyceae Alexandrium minutum in the Mediterranean Sea: a case study. Biol. Mar.
Medit., 17 (1): 106-108.
Ciminiello P., Dell’Aversano C., Fattorusso E., Forino M., Tartaglione L., Grillo C., Melchiorre N. (2008). Putative palytoxin and its analogue ovatoxin-a, in Ostreopsis ovata collected along the Ligurian coasts during the 2006 toxic outbreaks. J. Amer. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 19: 111-120.
Congestri R., Penna A., Zingone A. , Giacobbe M.G., Totti C., Ciminiello P., Lugliè A, Bottalico A., Scardi M., Bastianini M., Grillo C., Poletti R., Pistocchi R., Casotti M., Caroppo C., Barone R., Cabrini M., Tubaro A., Mangialajo L. (2006). BENTOXNET, a research and management initiative on Ostreopsis and other benthic microalgal blooms on the Italian coasts. Harmful Algae News, 32: 11-12.
Cuccu D., Mereu M., Masala P., Cau A., Jereb P. (2010). First record of Stoloteuthis leucoptera (Cepahlopoda : Sepiolidae) in the Sardinian waters. Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 334-335.
Di Silvestro D., Garzoli L., Lodola A. (2010). Colonization status of the Mediterranean Sea by the tropical sea hare Aplysia dactylomela (Opisthobranchia, Anaspidea). 5th International Student Conference “Biodiversity and functioning of aquatic ecosystems in Baltic Sea re-gion” 6-8 October 2010 Palanga, Lithuania.
Falace A., Alongi G., Spagnolo A., Fabi G. (2010). Segnalazione di macroalghe non-indigene nel porto di Ancona (Medio Adriatico). Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 300-301.
Gravili C., Belmonte G., Cecere E , Denitto F., Giangrande A., Guidetti P., Longo C., Mastrototaro F., Moscatello S., Petrocelli A., Piraino S., Terlizzi A., Boero F. (2010). Nonin-digenous species along the Apulian coast, Italy. Chemistry and Ecology, 26 (suppl.): 121-142.
Luglié A. (2008). What is Chrysophaeum taylorii Lewis & Bryan doing in Sardinia (Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterranean)? Harmful Algae News, 36 : 4-6.
Mastrototaro F., D’Onghia G., Corriero G., Matarrese A., Maiorano P., Panetta P., Gherardi M., Longo C., Rosso A., Sciuto F., Sanfilippo R, Gravili C, Boero F., Taviani M., Tursi A. (2010).
Biodiversity of the white coral bank off Cape Santa Maria di Leuca (Mediterranean Sea):
An update. Deep-Sea Research II, 57: 412–430.
Montefalcone M., Albertelli G.C., Morri C., Bianchi C.N. (2010). Patterns of wide-scale substitu-tion within meadows of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica in NW Mediterranean Sea: invaders are stronger than natives. Aquatic Conserv: Mar. Freshw. Ecosyst. 20: 507–515.
Occhipinti-Ambrogi A., Marchini A., Cantone G., Castelli A., Chimenz C., Cormaci M., Froglia C., Furnari G., Gambi M.C., Giaccone G., Giangrande A., Gravili C., Mastrototaro F., Mazziotti C., Orsi-Relini L., Piraino S. (2011). Alien species along the Italian coasts: an overview. Biol. Invasions, 13: 215–237.
Pessani D. (in press). Allochtonous decapod species in Mediterranean: state of knowledge about their larva. Monografie del Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino, (2010):
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Petrocelli A., Cecere E. (2010). Biodiversity and mollusc transfer: need of observance of the laws to avoid alien seaweeds introduction. Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 175-176
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Raineri P. and Savini D. (2010). Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853) in Linosa island ten years after its first record. Rapp. Comm. int. Mer Médit., 39: 643
Sfriso A., Facca C. (2011). Macrophytes in the anthropic constructions of the Venice littorals and their ecological assessment by an integration of the “CARLIT” index. Ecological Indicators 11: 772–781
Sfriso A., Maistro S., Andreoli C., Moro I. (2010). First record of Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Gracilariales, Rhodophyta) in the Po delta lagoons, Mediterranean Sea (Italy). J. Phycol., 46: 1024-1027.
Totti C., Accoroni S., Cerino F., Cucchiari E., Romagnoli T. (2010). Ostreopsis ovata bloom along the Conero Riviera (Northern Adriatic Sea): relationships with environmental conditions and substrata. Harmful Algae, 9: 233-239.
Ungaro N., Pastorelli A.M., Di Festa T., Galise I., Romano C., Assennato G., Blonda M., Perrino V. (2010). Annual trend of the dinoflagellate Ostreopsis ovata in two sites along the south-ern Adriatic coast. Biol. Mar. Medit., 17 (1): 183-184.
Verlaque M., Steen F., De Clerck O. (2009). Rugulopteryx okamurae (Dictyotales Phaeophyceae), a genus recently introduced to the Mediterranean. Phycologia, 48 (6): 536-542.