Marco Taviani

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute of Marine Science ISMAR

With climate projections questioning the future survival of stony corals and their dominance as tropical reef builders, it is critical to understand the adaptive capacity of corals to ongoing climate change. Biological mediation of the carbonate chemistry of the coral calcifying fluid is a fundamental component for assessing the response of corals...

Sea-bottom sampling at bathyal depths off the Apulian margin (southwestern Adriatic Sea) recovered shelly biogenic sediments rich in mollusk remains. Noteworthy is the occurrence in such taphocoenoses of loose chiton valves, rarely reported in these environments. We identified four species of Polyplacophora, Leptochiton asellus (Gmelin, 1791), Belk...

First Geological Guide of the area

Ancient hydrocarbon-seep sites known as "Calcari a Lucina" are common in Miocene strata of northern Italy and typically consist of carbonate deposits dominated by large luci-nid, bathymodiolin, and vesicomyid bivalves. Here we report two new sites found in Upper Miocene strata at Monte Mauro near Brisighella in the Emilia-Romagna province. One is u...

Mesophotic ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea are biodiversity hotspots distributed from ca 30 m down to 180 m, depending upon the depth of the light compensation point. Overall, the taxonomic composition of Mediterranean mesophotic ecosystems is dominated by corals and sponges, with subordinate bryozoans, mollusks, ascidians, and shade-adapted al...

We present the outcomes of the first deep-sea remotely operated vehicle study of previously unexplored submarine canyon systems along the southwest Australian continental margin. This was conducted around: (1) the Bremer Marine Park; (2) the Mount Gabi seamount and nearby slope-shelf margin at the interface of the Southern and Indian oceans; with n...

We assessed the anthropogenic impact on southwestern Australian submarine canyons by quantifying macro-litter discovered during Remotely Operated Vehicle surveys. The study area encompasses the Bremer canyon systems and Perth Canyon. The categories of macro-litter identified by our study are plastic, metal, aluminum, glass, fabric, mixed, derelict...

Ostracoda are a minor but recurrent component of Southern Ocean marine carbonate factories, and their low-Mg calcitic skeletal mineralogy helps in ensuring a noteworthy post-mortem resilience. Our study, based upon surface sediment occurrences, contributes to the better definition of their distribution vs. potential controlling factors in Antarctic...

Cold-water coral (CWC) systems are hotspots of biodiversity that need protection from the increasing human impacts and global climate change. The restoration of degraded cold-water coral reefs may be conducted through transplantation of nubbins. To do so, we need to set up the optimal conditions for CWCs livelihood in an aquarium setting. Here we i...

Population connectivity studies are a useful tool for species management and conservation planning, particular of highly threatened or endangered species. Here, we evaluated the genetic structure and connectivity pattern of the endangered coral Cladocora caespitosa across its entire distribution range in the Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, we exam...

The 30–150 m bathymetric range is commonly adopted in the literature to constrain the mesophotic zone. However, such depth interval varies depending on sunlight penetration, which is primarily a function of solar radiation incidence and water clarity. This is especially obvious in the Mediterranean Sea with its peculiar biophysical properties. Inte...

The neodymium isotopic composition (εNd) of seawater is one of the most important geochemical tracers to investigate water mass provenance, which can also serve as a proxy to reconstruct past variations in ocean circulation. Nd isotopes have recently also been used to reconstruct past circulation changes in the Mediterranean Sea on different time s...

We present radiocarbon and neodymium isotope records from accurately dated (U-series) live and fossil (<2 ka, 17.5 to 29.6 ka BP) deep-water corals, collected between 675 and 1788 m from the Perth Canyon, offshore southwest Australia. These records provide the first insights into recent and last glacial intermediate-deep water circulation and venti...

An introductory outline about the occurrence of cold water corals in the southern ocean (Antarctica) and their paleoceanopgraphic importance.

Since 2012 the Geoswim programme has been investigating coastal landforms along the Mediterranean rocky shores and their lateral variations, through snorkelling and field surveys. The focus of Geoswim investigation is collecting physical/chemical and ecological data relevant to the evaluation of past to future sea level changes. In spring 2017 we e...

Investigation of sea-level positions during the highly-dynamic Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3: 29-61 kyrs BP) proves difficult because: i) in stable and subsiding areas, coeval coastal sediments are currently submerged at depths of few to several tens of meters below present sea level; ii) in uplifting areas, the preservation of geomorphic features...

Cover Story : Carbonate skeletonized organisms such as bryozoans, mollusks, echinoderms, cnidarians, barnacles, serpulids, foraminifers, ostracods, and red algae occur in Antarctic marine biota today. Depending on the different carbonate polymorphs secreted and postmortem circumstances, their skeletal remains play a major role in reconstructions of...

The Mediterranean Basin is characterized by a significant variability in tectonic behaviour, ranging from subsidence to uplifting. However, those coastal areas considered to be tectonically stable show coastal landforms at elevations consistent with eustatic and isostatic sea level change models. In particular, geomorphological indicators—such as t...

Marine biogenic skeletal production is the prevalent source of Ca-carbonate in today’s Antarctic seas. Most information, however, derives from the post-mortem legacy of calcifying organisms. Prior imagery and evaluation of Antarctic habitats hosting calcifying benthic organisms are poorly present in the literature, therefore, a Remotely Operated Ve...

A huge amount of seabed acoustic reflectivity data has been acquired from the east to the west side of the southern Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea) in the last 18 years by CNR-ISMAR. These data have been used for geological, biological and habitat mapping purposes, but a single and consistent interpretation of them has never been carried out. Here...

Benthic habitats of the deep Mediterranean Sea and the biodiversity they host are increasingly jeopardized by increasing human pressures, both direct and indirect, which encompass fisheries, chemical and acoustic pollution, littering, oil and gas exploration and production and marine infrastructures (i.e., cable and pipeline laying), and bioprospec...

Investigation of sea-level positions during the highly-dynamic Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3: 29-61 kyrs BP) proves difficult because: i) in stable and subsiding areas, coeval coastal sediments are currently submerged at depths of few to several tens of meters below present sea level; ii) in uplifting areas, the preservation of geomorphic features...

There is growing awareness of the impact of fishery activities on fragile and vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems, stimulating actions devoted to their protection and best management by national and international organizations. The Bari Canyon in the Adriatic Sea represents a good case study of this, since it hosts vulnerable ecosystems, threatened spec...

A new Galeommatid bivalve is described for the Mediterranean Sea, tentatively assigned to the elusive genus Draculamya Oliver and Lützen, 2011. “Draculamya” uraniae n. sp is described upon a number of dead but fresh and articulated specimens, plus many loose valves. Its distribution is almost basin-wide in the Mediterranean, and it possibly occurs...

Heliacus jeffreysianus (Tiberi, 1867) is one of the rarest and elusive gastropods of the Mediterranean Sea, known for little more than 10 specimens collected in over ~ 150 years. Its ecology and details of the association to its host and prey, the gold coral Savalia savaglia Bertoloni, 1819, a parasitic zoanthid, were only partially known until the...

Variations in Mediterranean thermohaline circulation of the Quaternary are still not well constrained whereas they have been considered to have an influence on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and on the oxygenation of waters in the deep basins of the Mediterranean Sea. εNd analyses have been carried out on planktonic foraminifera of...

We analysed the patterns of genetic variability of eastern Mediterranean populations of the scleractinian coral Cladocora caespitosa, from the Aegean and Levantine seas, using 19 polymorphic microsatellite loci, 11 of which were newly characterized. The observed genetic pattern reflects a scenario of isolation by environment: FST comparisons showed...

To better predict population evolution of invasive species in introduced areas it is critical to identify and understand the mechanisms driving genetic diversity and structure in their native range. Here, we combined analyses of the mitochondrial COI gene and 11 microsatellite markers to investigate both past demographic history and contemporaneous...

Supplementary information - Summary of sampling locations - Core collection and dating - DNA amplification and sequencing - Species delimitation - Genetic diversity and phylogeographic patterns - Bayesian Skyline Plots - Inference of the number of clusters in the DAPC - Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) - Specific model parameters and model ch...

The continuing exploration of the Mediterranean deep sea reveals that a complete census of the biodiversity of one of the most studied marine areas in the world is yet to be fully accomplished. A tritoniid nudibranch new to sScience is described upon material recovered off the Montenegro margin, Adriatic Sea, associated with the alcyonacean Primnoi...

• 1. When considering widely distributed marine organisms with low dispersal capabilities, there is often an implication that the distribution of cosmopolitan species is an artefact of taxonomy, constrained by the absence of characters for delimiting either sibling or cryptic species. Few studies have assessed the relationship among populations acr...

Over 25 mounds have been identified in the Corsica Channel (Mediterranean Sea) through multibeam bathymetric mapping at depth of 400–430 m, with dimensions ranging from 70 to 330 m, achieving maximum heights of 25 m. Two mounds have been explored in detail using a remotely operated vehicle, revealing thick coral growth with a predominance of the br...

The December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami prompted an unprecedented research effort to find ancient precursors and quantify the recurrence time of such a deadly natural disaster. This effort, however, has focused primarily along the northern and eastern Indian Ocean coastlines, in proximal areas hardest hit by the tsunami. No studies have been made...

This study describes the chiton fauna (Mollusca, Polyplacophora) from the marine Pleistocene coral reef deposits bordering the Red Sea coast and dating to the last interglacial epoch (Marine Isotopic Substage 5e, MIS5e). Twentyone species were identified, of which only three were previously known from the Pleistocene of the Red Sea (Lucilina suezie...

The interplay between carbonate and siliciclastic sediment production in shallow marine environments may result in the development of mixed depositional systems showing a cyclical arrangement of sedimentary facies. The palaeoenvironmental record associated with these cyclical facies changes is not always univocally correlated with eustatic oscillat...

Front page of journal Diversity referring to a full article with the same title inside the issue

Oysters are important ecosystem engineers best known to produce large bioconstructions at shallow depth, whilst offshore deep-subtidal oyster reefs are less widely known. Oyster reefs engineered by Neopycnodonte cochlear (family Gryphaeidae) occur at various sites in the Mediterranean Sea, between 40 and 130 m water depths. Remotely Operated Vehicl...

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), introduced in June 2008, was adopted to achieve a Good Environmental Status (GES) in the EU's marine waters and to protect resources of socio-economic interest. The MSFD exerts to the marine area over which a Member State exercises jurisdictional rights in accordance with the United Nations Convention...

In the Recent, brachiopods only seldom occur in benthic communities. A biotope dominated by Megerlia truncata was identified in 2013 by exploration of the south‐easternmost Adriatic margin by Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Emerging rocky substrates next to the shelf break at approximately 120 m appear intensively exploited by this eurybathic rhyn...

Visual methods based on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are increasingly used to study and monitor mesophotic-to-deep benthic marine ecosystems. To date, these techniques are frequently used to meet the requirements for benthic habitat mapping of most national and international directives and marine ecosy...

Ocean warming is expected to impinge detrimentally on marine ecosystems worldwide up to impose extreme environmental conditions capable to potentially jeopardize the good ecological status of scleractinian coral reefs at shallow and bathyal depths. The integration of literature records with newly acquired remotely operated vehicle (ROV) data provid...

The Bari Canyon System (BCS) is located on the southwestern Adriatic margin, in the Central Mediterranean Sea indenting the continental shelf at approximately 200 m. It is characterized by a rough morphology, with two main parallel branches and a channelÀlevee complex with subvertical flanks, and a variable substrate with rocky outcrops along the c...

The Tricase Canyon is a 20-km-long submarine canyon, incising the southernmost Apulian margin at the boundary between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, in the Mediterranean basin. The canyon indents the continental margin at depth of À120 m and reaches a maximum depth of approximately À900 m. The Tricase Canyon is disconnected from direct fluvial syste...

The high-Mg calcite skeleton of Corallium rubrum was analyzed from living colonies collected from a wide range of depths (15 m to 607 m) and environmental settings in the Mediterranean Sea. An overarching goal was to better understand the calcification process and incorporation of elements into the slow-growing skeleton of both shallow and deep-wat...

Biodiversity of coral forests and occurrence of Derelict Fishing Gears (DFGs) have been assessed in canyon systems of the western Ligurian Sea (Dramont, Monaco, Bordighera, Arma di Taggia and Bergeggi) exposed to different anthropic pressures. Arborescent cnidarians were elected as representative species due to their role as structuring organisms a...

The application of acoustic techniques, such as multibeam echosounders, has permitted the identification of Maltese submarine landscapes and landforms that were progressively inundated during the postglacial sea-level rise. Remarkably, geomorphological features due to fluvial, gravity-induced and karst processes that took place under former subaeri...

Sedimentary deposits in southern Italy are renowned since the nineteenth century for their important legacy of deep-water benthic invertebrates, comprehensive of cold-water corals, which includes a number of extant taxa of Atlantic affinity. Interestingly, at the dawn of the biological exploration of the deep-sea and because of these fossils, it wa...

Dynamic bottom current regimes govern cold-water corals as well as contourites. We provide an overview of the general aspects of both research fields, with specific attention to the Mediterranean Sea region, which has the particularity to be a climatically-sensitive mid-latitude semi-enclosed basin. In this area there are many examples of along-slo...

Atlantic-type scleractinian cold-water corals occur in the Quaternary of the Mediterranean basin. Most fossil evidence on-land is Early Pleistocene in age, and occurs in peninsular Italy, Sicily and on some Greek islands, whilst submerged situations are by large late Pleistocene. According to circumstances, the mode of preservation of fossil cold-w...

The marine scientific community developed new habitat mapping procedures that proved to be effective to map seafloor habitats in a holistic manner, thus refining our knowledge of benthic sea life. Several works on this topic focused on cold-water coral habitats at the global scale, with focus on the Atlantic Ocean while, only a few studies applied...

Cold-water corals have inhabited the Mediterranean basin since at least the Miocene, undergoing important modifications through time. Most information regarding pre-Pleistocene occurrences of extant cold-water coral species still relies on ancient literature records in need to be updated according to modern taxonomic and chronostratigraphic concept...

The term cold-water coral sensu lato groups taxa with a more or less pronounced frame-building ability (e.g. Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata) with forest-forming organisms both on hard (e.g. Leiopathes glaberrima, Parantipathes larix, Callogorgia verticillata and Viminella flagellum) and soft bottoms (e.g. Isidella elongata, Funiculina quadr...

Scleractinian cold-water corals preserve in their aragonite skeleton information on the past changes of the physico-chemical properties of the seawater in which they grew. Such information is stored as geochemical signals, such as changes in trace elements concentration (B/Ca, Li/Mg, P/Ca, Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, U/Ca) or stable and radiogenic isotopes compo...

Knowledge on basic biological functions of organisms is essential to understand not only the role they play in the ecosystems but also to manage and protect their populations. The study of biological processes, such as growth, reproduction and physiology, which can be approached in situ or by collecting specimens and rearing them in aquaria, is par...

Rhodolith beds are priority marine benthic habitats for the European Community, because of their relevance as biodiversity hotspots and their role in the carbonate budget. The high-Mg calcite calcified thalli promote their preservation through time, resulting in their common occurrence in the fossil record, thus making rhodoliths a significant arch...

Hyperspectral imagers enable the collection of high-resolution spectral images exploitable for the supervised classification of habitats and objects of interest (OOI). Although this is a well-established technology for the study of subaerial environments, Ecotone AS has developed an underwater hyperspectral imager (UHI) system to explore the proper...

This study represents the first ROV-based exploration of the Perth Canyon, a prominent submarine valley system in the southeast Indian Ocean offshore Fremantle (Perth), Western Australia. This multi-disciplinary study characterizes the canyon topography, hydrography, anthropogenic impacts, and provides a general overview of the fauna and habitats e...

Aim To infer cold‐water corals’ (CWC) post‐glacial phylogeography and assess the role of Mediterranean Sea glacial refugia as origins for the recolonization of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Location Northeastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Taxon Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata. Methods We sampled CWC using remotely operated vehi...