Fritz Haas

Abstract The Mediterranean Sea is a global hotspot of climate warming and biodiversity loss where molluscs have provided valuable ecosystem services, such as provisioning and cultural value, since pre-historic times. A high rate of warming and range shift limitations due to the semi-enclosed nature of the basin raise concerns about molluscan population persistence in future climate scenarios. We modelled the future distribution of 13 Mediterranean species of molluscs subject to industrial fisheries exploitation on both the Mediterranean and Atlantic European coasts. We tested the hypothesis that range contractions, fragmentation, and species extirpations will become increasingly severe in the Mediterranean by modelling mid-century and end-century species distributions for four IPCC climate change scenarios. Already under mild emissions scenarios, substantial range contractions and fragmentation are projected in the Mediterranean, suggesting global extinctions by end-century for most endemic species. Colder deep waters do not act as refugia, contrary to expectations. Species also occurring along the Atlantic European coasts may benefit from warming through range expansions to higher latitudes or deeper waters. Most of the modeled species are already over-exploited, but their eradication from the Mediterranean will imply substantial financial losses and a profound cultural change in coastal communities.

Many studies have quantified ecological impacts of individual foundation species (FS). However, emerging data suggest that FS often co‐occur, potentially inhibiting or facilitating one another, thereby causing indirect, cascading effects on surrounding communities. Furthermore, global warming is accelerating, but little is known about how interactions between co‐occurring FS vary with temperature.Shallow aquatic sedimentary systems are often dominated by three types of FS: slower‐growing clonal angiosperms, faster‐growing solitary seaweeds, and shell‐forming filter‐ and deposit‐feeding bivalves. Here, we tested the impacts of one FS on another by analyzing manipulative interaction experiments from 148 papers with a global meta‐analysis.We calculated 1,942 (non‐independent) Hedges’ g effect sizes, from 11,652 extracted values over performance responses, such as abundances, growths or survival of FS, and their associated standard deviations and replication levels. Standard aggregation procedures generated 511 independent Hedges’ g that was classified into six types of reciprocal impacts between FS.We found that (i) seaweeds had consistent negative impacts on angiosperms across performance responses, organismal sizes, experimental approaches, and ecosystem types; (ii) angiosperms and bivalves generally had positive impacts on each other (e.g., positive effects of angiosperms on bivalves were consistent across organismal sizes and experimental approaches, but angiosperm effect on bivalve growth and bivalve effect on angiosperm abundance were not significant); (iii) bivalves positively affected seaweeds (particularly on growth responses); (iv) there were generally no net effects of seaweeds on bivalves (except for positive effect on growth) or angiosperms on seaweeds (except for positive effect on ‘other processes’); and (v) bivalve interactions with other FS were typically more positive at higher temperatures, but angiosperm‐seaweed interactions were not moderated by temperature.Synthesis: Despite variations in experimental and spatiotemporal conditions, the stronger positive interactions at higher temperatures suggest that facilitation, particularly involving bivalves, may become more important in a future warmer world. Importantly, addressing research gaps, such as the scarcity of FS interaction experiments from tropical and freshwater systems and for less studied species, as well as testing for density‐dependent effects, could better inform aquatic ecosystem conservation and restoration efforts and broaden our knowledge of FS interactions in the Anthropocene.

Ophiuroidea is one of the most suitable marine groups for exploring diversity partitioning in the ocean due to its wide distribution and particular lifestyles. Nevertheless, diversity and its variation have yet to be investigated, and even basic information for large areas such as the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) is still lacking. The present contribution explores α, β, and γ-diversity patterns of Ophiuroidea from the ETP at four spatial scales (Operational Geographic Units, Ecoregions, Provinces, and Realms). Based on literature records, databases, and scientific collections, an occurrence matrix was constructed for 69 shallow water (0–200 m) Ophiuroidea of the ETP (Mexico–Peru). Diversity evaluation based on rarefaction curves indicated that the observed richness tends to reach the asymptote. At the province and the ecoregion levels, β-diversity was the most important component explaining γ-diversity. The components that mainly contributed to the differentiation between provinces and ecoregions were the intersection of nestedness and β-diversity. PERMANOVA and SIMPER results showed that species composition presented significant differences at all spatial levels. The PCO ordination indicated that the first component (PCO1) explained the variation in species composition in a longitudinal gradient between coastal and oceanic ecoregions, while PCO2 showed a latitudinal gradient. The shade plot yielded three clusters (northern, southern, and widely distributed species). In general, α-diversity was explained by differences in sampling effort and methods; in contrast, β-diversity and its components were mainly explained by patterns and processes occurring at different spatial scales (provinces and ecoregions) such as oceanographic conditions, geographic extension, dispersal, and environmental heterogeneity. This work represents the first attempt to analyze the distribution patterns of shallow-water Ophiuroidea from the ETP.

AbstractEstablished alien land snail species that were introduced into the Western Palaearctic Region from other regions and their spread in the Western Palaearctic are reviewed. Thirteen of the 22 species came from North America, three from Sub-Saharan Africa, two from the Australian region, three probably from the Oriental Region and one from South America. The establishment of outdoor populations of these species was usually first seen at the western or southern rims of the Western Palearctic. Within Europe, the alien species usually spread from south to north and from west to east. The latitudinal ranges of the alien species significantly increased with increasing time since the first record of introduction to the Western Palearctic. The latitudinal mid-points of the Western Palaearctic and native ranges of the species are significantly correlated when one outlier is omitted. There is a general trend of poleward shifts of the ranges of the species in the Western Palaearctic compared to their native ranges. There are three reasons for these shifts: (1) the northward expansion of some species in Western Europe facilitated by the oceanic climate, (2) the impediment to the colonisation of southern latitudes in the Western Palaearctic due to their aridity and (3) the establishment of tropical species in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Most of the species are small, not carnivorous and unlikely to cause serious ecological or economic damage. In contrast, the recently introduced large veronicellid slugs from Sub-Saharan Africa and the giant African snail Lissachatinafulica could cause economic damage in irrigated agricultural areas or greenhouses in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

We use natural language processing (NLP) to retrieve location data for cheilostome bryozoan species (text-mined occurrences (TMO)) in an automated procedure. We compare these results with data combined from two major public databases (DB): the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Using DB and TMO data separately and in combination, we present latitudinal species richness curves using standard estimators (Chao2 and the Jackknife) and range-through approaches. Our combined DB and TMO species richness curves quantitatively document a bimodal global latitudinal diversity gradient for extant cheilostomes for the first time, with peaks in the temperate zones. A total of 79% of the georeferenced species we retrieved from TMO (N = 1,408) and DB (N = 4,549) are non-overlapping. Despite clear indications that global location data compiled for cheilostomes should be improved with concerted effort, our study supports the view that many marine latitudinal species richness patterns deviate from the canonical latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG). Moreover, combining online biodiversity databases with automated information retrieval from the published literature is a promising avenue for expanding taxon-location datasets.

Climate change is known as an important threat to biodiversity, particularly for freshwater organisms as they have limited dispersal ability. Freshwater crabs are ecologically important freshwater macro-invertebrates and play a key role in their ecosystem. In this study we used an ensemble approach using three machine learning methods (Generalised Boosted Models, Maximum Entropy modeling, Random Forest) and assessed the impacts of climate change on the distribution of eight freshwater crabs (Potamon elbursi, P. fluviatile, P. hippocratis, P. ibericum, P. pelops, P. persicum, P. potamios, P. strouhali) and estimated the protected area coverage for their suitable habitats under current and future climate predictions. We found that the suitable habitats of six species will decrease (P. elbursi, P. fluviatile, P. hippocratis, P. pelops, P. potamios and P. strouhali) while the other two species (P. ibericum and P. persicum) will gain new suitable habitats due to climate change. Loss of suitable habitat would be substantial for the P. hippocratis and P. elbursi as these species will lose 92 %–100 % and 75 %–100 % of their suitable habitats by 2070, respectively. Additionally, P. fluviatile and P. pelops will lose 70 %–95 % and 81 %–86 % of their current suitable habitat, respectively. Thus, they are particularly sensitive to climate change. We showed that a very small proportion (<1 %) of each species’ current suitable habitat is covered by protected areas ranging from zero in P. elbursi, P. persicum and P. strouhali to 0.96 % in P. fluviatile. Under both climate change models P. elbursi, P. hippocratis and P. potamios will not have protected habitat in the future. Suitable habitats identified to remain stable under climate change will play a critical role in conservation of these freshwater species and will act as climate change refugia.

Understanding what determines range expansion or extinction is crucial to predict the success of biological invaders. We tackled this long-standing question from an unparalleled perspective using the failed expansions in Littorina saxatilis and investigated its present and past habitat suitability in Europe through Ecological Niche Modelling. This intertidal snail is a typically successful Atlantic colonizer and the earliest confirmed alien species in the Mediterranean Sea, where, however, it failed to thrive despite its high dispersal ability and adaptability. We explored the environmental constraints affecting its biogeography, identified potential glacial refugia in Europe that fuelled its post-glacial colonisations and tested whether the current gaps in its distribution are linked to local ecological features. Our results suggested that L. saxatilis is unlikely to be a glacial relict in the Mediterranean basin. Multiple Atlantic glacial refugia occurred in the Last Glacial Maximum, and abiotic environmental features such as salinity and water temperature have influenced the past and current distributions of this snail and limited its invasion of the Mediterranean Sea. The snail showed a significant overlap in geographic space and ecological niche with Carcinus maenas , the Atlantic predator, but distinct from Pachygrapsus marmoratus , the Mediterranean predator, further pointing to Atlantic-like habitat requirements for this species. Abiotic constrains during introduction rather than dispersal abilities have shaped the past and current range of L. saxatilis and help explaining why some invasions have not been successful. Our findings contribute to clarifying the processes constraining or facilitating shifts in species’ distributions and biological invasions.

Wildlife trade is a major driver of biodiversity loss, yet whilst the impacts of trade in some species are relatively well-known, some taxa, such as many invertebrates are often overlooked. Here we explore global patterns of trade in the arachnids, and detected 1,264 species from 66 families and 371 genera in trade. Trade in these groups exceeds millions of individuals, with 67% coming directly from the wild, and up to 99% of individuals in some genera. For popular taxa, such as tarantulas up to 50% are in trade, including 25% of species described since 2000. CITES only covers 30 (2%) of the species potentially traded. We mapped the percentage and number of species native to each country in trade. To enable sustainable trade, better data on species distributions and better conservation status assessments are needed. The disparity between trade data sources highlights the need to expand monitoring if impacts on wild populations are to be accurately gauged and the impacts of trade minimised. Trade in arachnids includes millions of individuals and over 1264 species, with over 70% of individuals coming from the wild.

Orthohantaviruses, family Hantaviridae , are globally distributed except for Antarctica where they are absent. In animals, orthohantaviruses are transmitted horizontally, either directly through aggressive interactions and grooming or by inhaling infectious particles shed from urine, feces, or saliva in the environment. Humans become infected by inhaling aerosols of the virus-contaminated excretions of small mammals. Orthohantaviral infections in humans cause severe hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in the North American Artic and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in the Eurasian Arctic. In the Arctic, 16 rodent species (order Rodentia) and five shrew species (order Eulipotyphla) have been identified as reservoirs of orthohantaviruses by RNA detection. The two most important reservoir rodents in the Arctic are the bank vole ( Myodes glareolus ) in Eurasia carrying Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) and North American deermouse ( Peromyscus maniculatus ) in the North American Arctic carrying Sin Nombre orthohantavirus (SNV); both rodents being habitat generalists occurring in natural and human-modified habitats. Global warming, either independently or in combination with onshore exploitation of natural resources, is expected to increase the distribution range of reservoirs (including bank vole and North American deermouse, rats ( Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus ), house mouse ( Mus musculus ) and field mice ( Apodemus spp.)), and their associated orthohantaviruses. These changes pose the risk of introducing New World orthohantaviruses (e.g., Jemez Springs virus (JMSV) and SNV) to areas where so far only Old World orthohantaviruses (e.g., Hantaan orthohantavirus (HTNV) and PUUV) occur and vice versa. Climate change in the Arctic will likely also promote transmission and prevalence of orthohantaviruses in their reservoirs and hence increase zoonotic risk. The expected environmental changes call for increased surveillance and preparedness to mitigate potential outbreaks of orthohantavirus diseases in humans.

The potential distribution of tropical fish species in Eastern Europe—Gambusia holbrooki Girarg, 1859 (introduced for biological control) and Poecilia reticulata Peters, 1859 (aquarium species, found in wastewaters of big cities)—tends to be of particular interest in terms of global climate change. After GIS modeling of our own data and findings listed in the GBIF databases (2278 points for G. holbrooki and 1410 points for P. reticulata) by using the Maxent package and 18 uncorrelated variables of 35 Bioclim climatic parameters from the CliMond dataset, it was found that by 2090, guppies will appear in the south of Ukraine (Danube River estuary, as well as in several places in the Caucasus and Turkey with habitat suitability of >0.3–0.5). G. holbrooki will also slightly expand its range in Europe. Limiting factors for G. holbrooki distribution are as follows: bio1 (annual mean temperature, optimum +12–+23 °C) and bio19 (precipitation of coldest quarter (mm)). Limiting factors for guppies are as follows: bio1 (optimum +14–+28 °C), bio4 (temperature seasonality), and bio3 (isothermality). Guppies, unlike G. holbrooki, prefer warmer waters (correlation 0.02). Such thermophilic fish species do not compete with the native ichthyofauna, but they can occupy niches in anthropogenically transformed habitats, playing an important role as agents of biological control.