
Enric BallesterosSpanish National Research Council | CSIC
Enric Ballesteros
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Publications (431)
Aim
Coralligenous reefs are the main marine bioconstructions in terms of spatial distribution within the Mediterranean basin. Two distinct reef morphologies can be distinguished based on the surface and topographical features of the seafloor: cliffs developing vertical slopes and banks found on gently steep or horizontal bottoms. Despite their impo...
An unexpected meadow of the warm-water alga Penicillus capitatus was found thriving in sandy bottoms between 16 and 21 m depth in Mallorca, Balearic Islands. Plant densities and benthic coverage were very high when compared to most Mediterra-nean meadows of this species. As it is common in tropical meadows of this species, all the individuals were...
Seagrass meadows provide important ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, coastal protection from erosion, and sustained biodiversity and fisheries thereby improving the wellbeing and livelihoods of coastal communities. The erosion of millenary deposits of intertwined roots and rhizomes of Posidonia results in the formation of three-dim...
Not applicable. This is a comment on a recently published study.
Global environmental change drives diversity loss and shifts in community structure. A key challenge is to better understand the impacts on ecosystem function and to connect species and trait diversity of assemblages with ecosystem properties that are in turn linked to ecosystem functioning. Here we quantify shifts in species composition and trait...
Effective monitoring of non-indigenous seaweeds and combatting their effects relies on a solid confirmation of the non-indigenous status of the respective species. We critically analysed the status of presumed non-indigenous seaweed species reported from the Mediterranean Sea, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Macaronesia, resulting in a list of 140...
Marine fjords along the northern Labrador coast of Arctic Canada are influenced by freshwater, nutrients, and sediment inputs from ice fields and rivers. These ecosystems, further shaped by both Atlantic and Arctic water masses, are important habitats for fishes, marine mammals, seabirds, and marine invertebrates and are vital to the Labrador Inuit...
In Mediterranean rocky shores, the black sea urchin Arbacia lixula is often associated with communities dominated by encrusting corallines, devoid of fleshy algae. While it is commonly known as a diurnal herbivore, this species also migrates at night from hidden to more exposed habitats. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence of an adjust...
Macroalgal forests characterised by species of the genus Cystoseira sensu lato form important shallow coastal rocky habitats in the Mediterranean Sea. These forests support a high biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services and societal benefits. Currently these habitats are often in a poor condition in many areas, due to loss and degrada...
Although seagrass meadows form a relatively homogenous habitat, escarpments, which form three‐dimensional structures and originate from the erosion of seagrass peat, can provide important habitat for reef fishes. Here, we compare fish assemblages and habitat structural complexity among seagrass Posidonia australis escarpments and canopies, as well...
Effective monitoring and combatting the effect of non-indigenous seaweeds relies on a solid confirmation of the non-indigenous status of the species. We critically analysed the status of presumed non-indigenous seaweed species reported from the Mediterranean Sea, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Macaronesia, resulting in a list of 140 species whose...
Active restoration actions are becoming increasingly common for the recovery of degraded ecosystems. However, establishing when an ecosystem is fully restored is rarely achieved, since the recovery of entire communities needs long-term trajectories. The lack of evidence of success is even more severe in marine ecosystems, especially in the context...
The introduction of new non-indigenous species (NIS) in Spanish marine waters is addressed under Descriptor 2 of the European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive. National baseline inventories of NIS have been compiled and updated for the three subregions (Western Mediterranean Sea, WMED; Bay of Biscay–Iberian Coast, ABI; Macaronesia, AMA)...
Coralline algae play important ecological roles throughout the photic zone of the world’s oceans. Recent studies have shown that attached-living coralline algae can contain records of past climate variability. So far, algal-based paleo-reconstructions are mainly available from mid- to high-latitudes, while in low latitude and temperate regions only...
Against the accelerating pace of worldwide species extinction, reliable biodiversity assessments are critical, both as baselines and to track potential declines. DNA metabarcoding techniques allow for fast and comprehensive assessment of biodiversity in both terrestrial and marine habitats. However, these methods need to be adapted and standardised...
Introduction
Coastal detrital bottoms (CDB) are one of the most extensive habitats of the continental shelf worldwide, in the upper levels of the circalittoral zone. Hosting a diverse community structured by sediment grain size, trophic interactions and calcified organisms, CDB exhibit important ecological functions. In the Mediterranean Sea, CDB a...
In this study we present results from a survey of 49 high mountain lakes in the Pyrenees including lakes from the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Parc, which range from ultraoligotrophic to mesotrophic. Lakes are representative of four major scenarios: fishless, with trout, with minnows and with both trout and minnows. Overall, the e...
The kelp forests of southern Patagonia have a large diversity of habitats, with remote islands, archipelagos, peninsulas, gulfs, channels, and fjords, which are comprised of a mixture of species with temperate and sub-Antarctic distributions, creating a unique ecosystem that is among the least impacted on Earth. We investigated the distribution, di...
To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,64...
We report on the presence of four species of sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda:
Heterobranchia) from the Balearic Islands
Ongoing human pressures over recent decades have caused the loss and ensuing impoverishment of the complexity and diversity
of Mediterranean habitats dominated by algal species of the order Fucales. Gongolaria barbata, a habitat-forming Fucales
species that has disappeared in several places across the Mediterranean, was reintroduced in a cove (Cala...
Cystoseira sensu lato (s.l.) – encompassing the genera Cystoseira sensu stricto (s.s.), Ericaria and Gongolaria – is a diverse group of forest-forming brown macroalgae endemic to the warm-temperate North-east Atlantic. These algae have immense biogeographic and ecological significance and have been experiencing recent regional declines. Most Cystos...
As invasive species spread, the ability of local communities to resist invasion depends on the strength of biotic interactions. Evolutionarily unused to the invader, native predators or herbivores may be initially wary of consuming newcomers, allowing them to proliferate. However, these relationships may be highly dynamic, and novel consumer–resour...
The aim of the study is to describe the macrofaunal composition of marine soft bottom habitats on the Catalan coast between a depth of 3 and 35 meters, considering all groups of macroinvertebrates. The study also aims to compare our data with previous studies focused on the NW Mediterranean and to define the variables that drive assemblage composit...
Osa Peninsula in remote southwest Costa Rica harbors 2.5% of global terrestrial biodiversity in only 1,200 km² and has the largest remaining tract of Pacific lowland wet forest in Mesoamerica. However, little is known about the marine ecosystems of this diverse region. Much of the coastline consists of soft sediment exposed to strong wave action. T...
Isolated coral reef habitats are unique systems to study the natural dynamics of coral traits and their natural acclimatization, adaptation, and recovery from global-scale stressors such as thermally induced bleaching events. This study evaluates the spatial and temporal changes in coral community attributes (diversity, live cover, and coral assemb...
Photosynthetic features of different canopy-forming macroalgae of the order Fucales (Phaeophyceae) living in shallow and sheltered environments show a high homogeneity when compared with other morphologically similar species living across a depth gradient. Photosynthesis at saturation (situated around 5 mg O2 gAFDM 1 h1) and photosynthetic efficien...
As invasive species spread, the ability of local communities to resist invasion depends on the strength of biotic interactions. Evolutionarily unused to the invader, native predators or herbivores may be initially wary of consuming newcomers, allowing them to proliferate. However, these relationships may be highly dynamic, and novel consumer-resour...
As invasive species spread, the ability of local communities to resist invasion depends on the strength of biotic interactions. Evolutionarily unused to the invader, native predators or herbivores may be initially unskilled or wary of consuming newcomers, allowing them to proliferate. However, these relationships may be highly dynamic, and novel co...
Mediterranean coralligenous outcrops are a biodiversity hotspot where cryptobenthic and epibenthic fish species conform an important proportion of the inhabiting fish ssemblages. We investigated the distribution of epibenthic fish assemblages in coralligenous outcrops, the contiguous detritic bottoms and the margin where coralligenous outcrops meet...
Littoral habitats are commonly defined by environmental properties and the presence of certain dominant species. This conception relies on species’ frequencies and/or abundances, but often omits co-occurrence relationships. In an effort to incorporate this information, we here used presence-absence data from visual censuses of 16 mediolittoral habi...
Until the late 2010s, the spiny fan-mussel Pinna rudis shared its habitat in many Mediterranean sites with the Mediterranean endemic Pinna nobilis, which used to be dominant, but has recently become locally extinct in most of its distribution areas due to a widespread disease outbreak. In the Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve (NW Mediterranean), b...
Global change is striking harder and faster in the Mediterranean Sea than elsewhere, where high levels of human pressure and proneness to climate change interact in modifying the structure and disrupting regulative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. Rocky reefs are particularly exposed to such environmental changes with ongoing trends of degradation...
Knowledge of the ecology of the fish fauna associated with kelp (primarily Macrocystis pyrifera) forests in Southern Patagonia is scarce, especially in how abiotic and biotic variables influence their structure, diversity, and distribution. This information is important for the management and conservation of this unique ecosystem, which has minimal...
Herbivory has long been considered an important component of biotic resistance against macroalgae invasions in marine habitats. However, most of the studies on herbivory of invasive algae refer only to consumption by strictly herbivorous organisms, whereas consumption by omnivorous species has been largely ignored and rarely quantified. In this stu...
Canopy-forming macroalgae are amongst the main competitors of corals by affecting coral recruitment, growth of recruits and adults, fecundity and in the worst-case scenario causing coral bleaching and necrosis. However, potentially reef-building coral Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1767) and canopy-forming macroalgae of the order Fucales (Cystosei...
Invasive species pose a major threat to global diversity, and once they are well established their eradication typically becomes unfeasible. However, certain natural mechanisms can increase the resistance of native communities to invaders and can be used to guide effective management policies. Both competition and herbivory have been identified as...
Deep‐water canopy‐forming algae Gongolaria montagnei var. compressa and Ericaria zosteroides (Fucales: Ochrophyta) co‐exist in mixed populations, the first taxa dominating at the upper limit of distribution (20 m) and the second at the lower limit (40 m). This depth distribution pattern is consistent with the photosynthetic performances of both tax...
The macroalgal flora of the Island of São Miguel (eastern group of the Azores Archipelago) has attracted the interest of many researchers in the past, the first publications going back to the nineteenth century. Initial studies were mainly taxonomic, resulting in the publication of a checklist of the Azorean benthic marine algae. Later, the establi...
The newly created Kawésqar National Park (KNP) and National Reserve (KNR) in southern Chile consists of diverse terrestrial and marine habitats, which includes the southern terminus of the Andes, the Southern Patagonia Ice Fields, sub-Antarctic rainforests, glaciers, fjords, lakes, wetlands, valleys, channels, and islands. The marine environment is...
The shallow water canopy-forming alga Ericaria brachycarpa (J.Agardh) Molinari-Novoa & Guiry shows higher photosynthetic efficiency (), maximum photosynthetic rates (Pmax), light at compensation (Ic) and dark respiration (Rd) in individuals collected at the lower depth limit of distribution of the species (20 m) than at shallower depths (2 and 10 m...
Background:
The algal flora of the Island of Santa Maria (eastern group of the Azores archipelago) has attracted interest of researchers on past occasions (Drouët 1866, Agardh 1870, Trelease 1897, Schmidt 1931, Ardré et al. 1974, Fralick and Hehre 1990, Neto et al. 1991, Morton and Britton 2000, Amen et al. 2005, Wallenstein and Neto 2006, Tittley...
Photosynthetic features and dark respiration of different species of dominant canopy‐forming algae of the Order Fucales (Phaeophyceae) consistently change with depth. Photosynthetic efficiency (α) and light at compensation (Ic) change according to the amount of light available at each depth, α increasing and Ic decreasing with depth. However, the v...
Gradual climate change and discrete extreme climatic events have driven shifts in the structure of populations and the distribution of species in many marine ecosystems. The most profound impacts of recent warming trends have been generally observed at species' warm edges and on large conspicuous species. However, given that different species and p...
Herbivory has long been considered an important component of biotic resistance against macroalgae invasions in marine habitats. However, most of the studies on herbivory of invasive algae refer only to consumption by strictly herbivorous organisms, whereas consumption by omnivorous organisms has been largely ignored and rarely quantified. In this s...
Informe de las Expediciones de National Geographic Pristine Seas y Comunidades Kawésqar y Yagán.
Con el año actual finaliza el “Segundo Convenio de Colaboración entre la Consejería de Innovación, Investigación y Turismo del Gobierno de las Illes Balears y el Instituto Español de Oceanografía para la consolidación y el desarrollo científico de la Estación de Investigación Jaume Ferrer (La Mola, Menorca)” firmado el 30 de diciembre de 2015.
Los...
La División Internacional del Conservatorio del Litoral promovió la elaboración de un Atlas of Small Mediterranean Islands. Este es el correspondiente a las Islas Baleares. Se incluye un capítulo dedicado a los procesos de laderas inestables, como los delizamientos y desprendimientos rocosos en las pequeñas islas que circundan las Baleares.
Marine macroalgal forests are highly productive and iconic ecosystems, which are seriously threatened by number of factors such as habitat destruction, overgrazing, ocean warming, and pollution. The effect of chronic, but low levels of pollutants on the long-term survival of the canopy-forming algae is not well understood. Here we test the effects...
Knowledge of continental shelf faunal biodiversity of Antarctica is patchy and as such, the ecology of this unique ecosystem is not fully understood. To this end, we deployed baited cameras at 20 locations along ~ 500 km of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) at depths from 90 to 797 m. We identified 111 unique taxa, with mud bottom accounting fo...
Cystoseira sensu lato (Ochrophyta) forests are important habitat formers in the Mediterranean Sea, but they have mostly been studied in the western basin where many species are under decline. Int he eastern basin, where fewer species occur, Cystoseira rayssiae Ramon was described in the year2000 as an endemic species based on morphological characte...
The cartography of shallow water macroalgal assemblages allows the assessment of water quality in coastal water bodies through the application of CARLIT. In this study, we have applied CARLIT to assess the ecological status of Algerian coastal water bodies for the first time. The surveyed zone is still in a good ecological status since 52% have a g...
Shallow Mediterranean rocky environments are usually dominated by macroalgae, but the stony colonial zooxanthellate coral Cladocora caespitosa is able to build extensive banks in some particular areas. Although zooxanthellate corals and benthic macroalgae are expected to compete for light and space when overlapping in the same habitat, there is pre...
Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, b...
Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, b...