It is called ClimateFish and is the first open access database that provides information on the presence of 15 species of fish considered as' sentinel 'of climate change in the Mediterranean Sea. The research, which was published in the Frontiers journal, was carried out by marine biologist Ernesto Azzurro of the Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnologies of the CNR, in collaboration with experts from the ENEA Research Center of Santa Teresa (La Spezia) and other international institutes. The database includes seven native species, selected for wide distribution, sensitivity to temperature conditions and easy identification, and eight exotic species from the Red Sea. Thanks to a 13-year sampling, more than one hundred thousand specimens of the 15 target species have been recorded in more than three thousand areas of seven countries of the Mediterranean basin. The most represented are the native species of ornate wrasse and salema porgy, although the latter has been recording a decrease in quantity and geographical distribution due in all probability to the increase in temperatures and competition with tropical herbivores", explains Federica Pannacciulli, head of the ENEA Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. At the moment, exotic species are still underrepresented in the database and their presence is concentrated mostly in the eastern Mediterranean sector, where the warming phenomenon is particularly accelerated, such as the area south of Crete (+1.65 °C). “But their number is set to grow in the coming years due to the increase in temperature caused by climate change,” adds Pannacciulli.
|