Eleonora Puccinelli

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research | NIOZ · COS (TX) – Coastal Systems

Food availability is a primary factor determining species distribution and success, especially for offshore benthic organisms that rely on sinking particles as their main food supply. Temporal changes in the quantity and quality of food sources, often linked to shifts in the prevailing hydrographic conditions, thus have important consequences for b...

Since most marine benthic species experience a pelagic larval phase, scales of dispersal are key determinants of population dynamics. Biologically derived marine foam has been suggested to increase chances of fertilisation and reduce dispersal of larvae of short-live duration (hours), thus maintaining localised intertidal populations. The present s...

Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (hereafter, omega-3), including eicosapentaenoic-acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic-acid (DHA), are essential nutritional compounds for humans, providing several benefits related to cardiovascular and neural health. Human intake of omega-3 occurs mostly via seafood, particularly fish. The primary source of...

Nearshore water quality can be highly impacted by anthropogenic activities ongoing along the coast, the effects of which on natural environments can be permanent and irreversible, with consequences for ecosystem biodiversity and functioning, as well as for associated services. Benthic filter feeders (e.g., mussels) provide several services for coas...

The Benguela Upwelling System (BUS) is one of the world’s most productive ecosystems, supporting globally‐relevant fisheries. The BUS marine community is modulated by the availability of nutrients and omega‐3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (hereafter, LC omega‐3). Phytoplankton growth in the BUS can be supported by upwelled nitrate, a new ni...

Community composition is one of the main factors influencing the ecological functioning of any given ecosystem, with a more diverse community providing a larger set of services. Benthic community composition can vary at spatial and temporal scales, with the dynamics of primary production and benthic food availability being key determinants of commu...

The Benguela Upwelling System (BUS) is one of the world’s most productive ecosystems, supporting globally relevant pelagic fisheries. BUS marine community can change as a function of nutrients and omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (hereafter, omega-3) availability. Phytoplankton growth is supported by upwelled nitrate, a new source of...

Hybrid conferences are in-person events that have an online component. This type of meeting format was rare before the COVID-19 pandemic, but started to become more common recently given the asynchronous global progression of the pandemic, the uneven access to vaccines and different travel regulations among countries that led to a large proportion...

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Swordfish Xiphias gladius is a large pelagic fish distributed worldwide and exploited for human consumption, however there is limited knowledge about its reproductive biology, especially regarding lipid dynamic in gonads. In teleost fish, reproductive success and offspring survival are associated to lipid availability for gamete synthesis. This stu...

Hybrid conferences are in-person events that are also accessible online. This type of meeting format was rare pre-COVID-19 but started to become more common recently given the asynchronous global progression of the pandemic and the uneven access and distribution of vaccines that led to a large proportion of participants being unable to attend inter...

Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) are molecules produced at the basis of marine food webs and essential for ecosystem functioning. This study reports detailed fatty acid (FA) composition including the two LC-PUFA 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, in suspended organic matter (SPOM) from the upper 300 m collected in the Kerguelen Island region in t...

The dynamics determining the establishment and maintenance of epibiotic relationships are fundamental to understand the role of biological interactions in the functioning of marine coastal ecosystems. Epibiosis of barnacles on mussels is a common feature of many intertidal rocky shores. There are several possible explanations for this relationship,...

Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA) are health beneficial lipids found in high concentration in pelagic fishes, including Atlantic mackerel. While EPA and DHA are sensitive to oxidation during fish storage and processing, post-mortem degradation in the first hours following fish death is poo...

Over the past decades, several studies have revealed that the traditional view of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) as an agent for species dispersal in the Southern Ocean is not applicable to all taxa. Some species are actually circum-Antarctically or circum-sub-Antarctically distributed, but some other species actually comprise species’ com...

Large-scale nutrient fertilisation by coastal upwelling promotes benthic productivity through energy subsidies from enhanced phytoplankton production, and predictions of alterations to upwelling under climate change have implications for benthic ecosystem functioning. We investigated the stable isotope compositions of two bioengineers of global sig...

Rafting invertebrate species represent an important link for the dispersal and colonisation of islands in the Southern Ocean. They are sensitive to changes in hydrodynamics through effects on transport and food availability, particularly in the case of filter-feeding species. This gives them the potential to act as sentinels of environmental change...

Loss of algal canopies can result in a shift towards a turf-dominated state, where variability in species life-history traits can determine new mechanisms of feedback, and influence the degraded system under variable regimes of disturbance. By focusing on rockpools dominated by Cystoseira brachycarpa, we tested the hypothesis that the alga Dictyopt...

Food availability is a key regulator of the distribution, metabolism, and success of benthic populations. In deep sea ecosystems, hydrodynamics and depth play fundamental roles in determining benthic food resources. Recent studies suggest that the Southern Ocean sub‐Antarctic front is shifting southward, with implications for primary production and...

Species invasions can have profound ecological impacts, including changes in patterns of distribution, abundance and diversity of native species, altering food-web dynamics and ecosystem functioning. In the marine benthic environment temperature, predation, competition for space and wave action exposure are some of the main factors that determine i...

Over the past 50 years, marine invertebrates, especially sponges, have proven to be a valuable source of new and/or bioactive natural products that have the potential to be further developed as lead compounds for pharmaceutical applications. Although marine benthic invertebrate communities occurring off the coast of South Africa have been explored...

Freshwater input is known to have the potential to influence marine pelagic and benthic communities through the export of nutrients, sediments and detritus. The increase in nutrients of riverine origin in coastal environments can enhance primary production in coastal areas, supporting a diverse and rich fauna. However, it is not clear how and to wh...

Variability in mesoscale nearshore oceanographic conditions plays an important role in the distribution of primary production and food availability for intertidal consumers. Advection of nutrient rich waters by upwelling usually allows the proliferation of diatoms, later replaced by dinoflagellates. We examined upwelling effects on the fatty acid (...

PCA conducted on the fatty acid composition of gonad tissue of Mytilus galloprovincialis collected from intertidal rocky shores at four sites during a) December c) February e) June and July. Each symbol represents a single replicate. b), d) and f) Eigenvalues of each of the factors (fatty acids). The circle corresponds to eigenvalues of −1 to 1. Fo...

Supplementary material. (DOCX)

a) PCA conducted on the fatty acid composition of suspended organic matter (SPM) collected from intertidal rocky shores at four sites during the four sampling events. Each symbol represents a single replicate. Upwelling did not have an effect on the fatty acid signatures of samples from February and thus we show a single PCA with the samples of all...

a) PCA conducted on the adductor muscle and gonad tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis collected at intertidal rocky shores at each site during the four sampling events. Each symbol represents a single replicate. b) Eigenvalues of each of the factors (fatty acids). The circle corresponds to eigenvalues of −1 to 1. For clarity, only fatty acids with...

Benthic filter feeders have key functional roles in coastal ecosystems as an intermediate trophic level in food webs and as bioengineers. The food available to such species depends on the local composition of the water column, reflecting factors operating across multiple spatial scales. Here, we examined how upwelling and biogeography influence the...

Temporal and spatial variations in mesoscale nearshore oceanographic conditions play an important role in the distribution of primary production, and thus resource availability for intertidal consumers. Advection of nutrient rich waters by upwelling allows the proliferation of diatoms, later replaced by dinoflagellates. We examined upwelling effect...

Benthic filter feeders have a key functional role in food web dynamics in coastal areas. These ecosystems are influenced by several factors (e.g. hydrographic regime) that can affect the composition of the water column and thus the availability of food and nutrients for benthic populations. Food availability for benthic filter feeders can affect gr...