Vasiliki KousteniFisheries Research Institute (FRI) · Hellenic Agricultural Organization Demeter (ELGO-DEMETER)
Vasiliki Kousteni
Biologist, MSc, MSc, PhD
About
77
Publications
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583
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
November 2020 - November 2020
Education
July 2009 - October 2015
September 2007 - September 2009
October 2003 - October 2005
Publications
Publications (77)
Coastal and demersal chondrichthyans, such as the small-spotted catshark, are expected to exhibit genetic differentiation in areas of complex geomorphology like the Mediterranean Basin because of their limited dispersal ability. To test this hypothesis, we used a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene and 12 nuclear micro...
Aging chondrichthyans has been characterized as a slow and difficult process, but at the same time it is considered of fundamental importance for the holistic management and conservation of their populations. This study aims to assess the age and growth of the longnose spurdog S. blainville, to correlate the results to the species’ biological featu...
Knowledge of the diet and trophic level of marine predators is essential to develop an understanding of their ecological role in ecosystems. Research conducted on the trophic ecology of the deep-sea sharks is rather limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the diet of the longnose spurdog Squalus blainville, a deep-sea shark categorized as...
Understanding reproductive features of elasmobranchs that affect population recovery and natural mortality is essential for conservation management planning. Considering macroscopic and microscopic observations of the reproductive tract in 2253 individuals, sampled in Hellenic waters over a 7-year period, four reproductive stages were described. Th...
Chondrichthyes occupy a key position in the phylogeny of vertebrates. The complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of four species of sharks and five species of rays was obtained by whole genome sequencing (DNA-seq) in the Illumina HiSeq2500 platform. The arrangement and features of the genes in the assembled mitogenomes were iden...
Two new records of the rare slender spine eel Nemichthys scolopaceus (Anguilliformes, Nemichthyidae) in
the Mediterranean Sea are presented in this contribution. The specimens were collected in August 2023
during a scientific bottom trawl survey in the deep central Karpathian Sea (southern Aegean Sea, Greece).
These significant findings highligh...
WGCEPH worked on six Terms of Reference. These involved reporting on the status of stocks; reviewing advances in stock identification, assessment for fisheries management and for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), including some exploratory stock assessments; reviewing impacts of human activities on cephalopods; developing identificati...
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...
Fish microbiome science is progressing fast, but it is biased toward farmed or laboratory fish species against natural fish populations, which remain considerably underinvestigated. We analyzed the midgut bacterial microbiota of 45 specimens of 12 fish species collected from the Gyaros Island marine protected area (Aegean Sea, Greece). The species...
Among the main measures adopted to reduce anthropogenic impacts on elasmobranch communities, understanding the ecology of deep-sea sharks is of paramount importance, especially for potentially vulnerable species highly represented in the bycatch composition of commercial fisheries such as the blackmouth catshark Galeus melastomus. In the present wo...
In November 2021, a female bigeye thresher shark was incidentally caught by a pelagic drifting longline off southern Cyprus, corresponding to the second documented species record at country level. Main biological features and an extended list of morphometric measurements are presented in comparison with the previous species records in the Mediterra...
Fish microbiome science is progressing fast, but it is biased toward farmed or labora-tory fish species against natural fish populations, which remain considerably underinvestigated. We analysed the midgut bacterial microbiota of 45 specimens of 12 fish species collected from the Gyaros Island marine protected area (Aegean Sea, Greece). The species...
This Collective Article presents new information about the occurrence of 21 taxa that belong to six Phyla: one Cnidaria, one Ctenophora, two Annelida, four Mollusca, two Arthropoda, and eleven Chordata. These records were reported from ten countries from the western to the eastern Mediterranean Sea as follows: Spain: early colonization signs of the...
Since July 2019, Gyaros island in the central Aegean Sea, enjoys the status of a partial Marine Protected Area (MPA), allowing for exploitation by small-scale fishers following specific spatio-temporal restrictions. The need for assessing the effectiveness of the MPA in the future, led MAVA Foundation to fund a knowledge survey project aiming to se...
Citizen science (CS) expands the spatial and temporal scale of alien species records. As such, it has been recognized as a complementary tool in alien species management and large-scale biodiversity conservation. The present study assessed the contribution of CS to the recording of marine alien fishes and mollusks in European marine waters by revie...
The main objective of the Working Group on Biological Parameters (WGBIOP) is to review the status, issues, developments, and quality assurance of biological parameters used in assessment and management.
The taxonomy within the genus Centrophorus has been controversial almost since its origin, raising uncertainties about the identification, the phylogenetic placement and the geographical distribution of several species. The partial nucleotide sequences of two mitochondrial DNA gene regions, the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and the 16S ribosomal R...
The species status assessment for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive is structured around five Good Environmental Status (GES) criteria, i.e., by-catch rate, population abundance, population demographic characteristics, species distribution and habitat for the species. The MSFD Biodiversity theme for species includes, among others, some highly...
This Collective Article presents information on 17 taxa belonging to five (5) Phyla and extending from the Alboran Sea to the Levantine Sea. These new records were found in six (6) different ecoregions as follows: Alboran Sea: Second and easternmost record of the sponge Chalinula nigra in the Mediterranean Sea; Western Mediterranean: first record o...
Deep‐sea sharks are among the less studied and most endangered elasmobranchs existing in the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore scientific research should be prioritized towards this vulnerable group of species. The aim of this study is to provide a morphometric description of the vulnerable kitefin shark by recording 55 standard morphometric measure...
Main biological features were assessed for the first time in the deep‐water shark Etmopterus spinax from Hellenic waters by examining 150 individuals caught incidentally in the bottom‐trawl commercial fishery off Skyros island. Females outnumbered males and the overall sex ratio was 1.38:1. Females ranged from 122 to 311 mm in total length (LT) and...
Evaluating environmental policies creates opportunities for harmonising and refining their implementation using
a heuristic approach, and considering the knowledge gaps in understanding the complex environmental processes.
The European Union’s (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is an ambitious legislation that
brings together state, pr...
This Collective Article presents information about 21 taxa belonging to seven Phyla (one Ochrophyta, one Porifera, three Cni-daria, two Arthropoda, three Mollusca, one Echinodermata, and ten Chordata) and extending from the western Mediterranean Sea to the Levantine Sea. The new records were reported from nine countries as follows: Spain: first rec...
The Collective Article on “New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records” offers the means to publish biodiversity records in the Mediterranean
Sea. The current article presents new biodiversity data information on 18 taxa (14 alien, 3 native and 1 cryptogenic species)
belonging to 5 Phyla that are reported for 11 different countries listed according to t...
Although the striped red mullet is one of the main target fish of the Hellenic demersal fisheries, information about its biology is limited. The aim of this study was to describe the reproductive biology and growth of the species in the south Aegean Sea based on 1032 individuals sampled under the Data Collection Framework Program in 2016. According...
A specimen of the serpent eel Ophisurus serpens (Order: Anguilliformes, Family: Ophichthinae) reaching 2100 mm in total length was caught on 13 October 2017 by bottom trawl at mean depth 206.5 m in Saronikos Gulf (central Aegean Sea, Greece). This specimen is the second record in this area since 1979 and the largest specimen ever recorded in the ea...
This study concerns the cephalopod species that are part of the diet of the small-spotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula and the longnose spurdog Squalus blainville sampled by commercial trawlers in the Aegean Sea from 2005 to 2012. Based on the examined cephalopod beaks, 15 species were identified belonging in six families of Teuthida, one of Sepi...
The diet of the small-spotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula, captured in the Aegean Sea by bottom-trawl from 2006 to 2012, was investigated with respect to sex, maturity condition, sampling location and season. The stomach contents of 432 specimens, measuring from 144 to 517 mm in total length, were analysed. The cumulative prey curve showed that...
In this collective article we discuss the relationships between the otolith measurements (weight, radius) and total length of Mullus surmuletus in the Aegean and Ionian Seas and of Pagellus erythrinus samples caught in the Southern Aegean Sea. In addition to the above mentioned studies, the abundance of the rare fish Echiodon dentatus in the Kyklad...
The population composition and aspects of the reproductive biology of 452 blackmouth catsharks, Galeus melastomus were investigated. The sharks were incidentally caught off the North-Western Aegean, the Eastern Corinthian and Northern Euboean Gulfs by commercial bottom trawlers and longlines at depths between 200 and 500 m. The overall sex ratio (1...
In this fourth Collective Article, with fisheries-related data from the Mediterranean, we present weight-length relationships for seven deep-sea fish species (Brama brama, Conger conger, Etmopterus spinax, Molva macrophthalma, Mora moro, Pagellus bogaraveo, Phycis blennoides) from the Eastern Ionian Sea; Scyliorhinus canicula from various locations...
Age and growth of the black-bellied angler Lophius budegassa (Spinola 1807) in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The age and growth parameters of the black-bellied angler Lophius budegassa in the Ionian and Aegean Seas were estimated using otoliths. Samples were collected monthly from October 2013 to November 2014 from both commercial and experimental sa...
New records of the rare angular rough shark Oxynotus centrina from the Hellenic Seas are presented. Its occurrence is reported for the first time in the Corinthian Gulf. Some aspects of the species' biology are described and compared with previous studies.
Squalus blainville is one of the least studied Mediterranean shark species. Despite being intensively fished in several locations, biological knowledge is limited and no genetic structure information is available. This is the first study to examine the genetic structure of S. blainville in the Mediterranean Sea. Considering the high dispersal poten...
The present work reports on the extended distribution of nineteen species in the Mediterranean. These are: Upeneus pori (Fish:Turkey), Bursatella leachii (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia: eastern coast of Spain), Sparisoma cretense (Fish: Ionian coast of Greece), Pseudobryopsis myura (Chlorophyta:Turkey), Aplysia dactylomela (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia: K...
A total number of 526 Squalus blainvillei was sampled from the bottom trawl and bottom longline catches in the eastern Mediterranean Sea from December 2004 to December 2009. Females outnumbered males and the overall sex ratio was 1.26:1. Females ranged from 182 to 779 mm in total length and males from 180 to 799 mm. Both females and males showed al...
A batch upflow fixed-bed sulphate-reducing bioreactor has been set up and monitored for the treatment of synthetic solutions containing divalent iron (100mg/L and 200mg/L), zinc (100mg/L and 200mg/L), copper (100mg/L and 200mg/L), nickel (100mg/L and 200mg/L) and sulphate (1700 mg/L and 2130 mg/L) at initial pH 3-3.5, using ethanol as the sole elec...
A total of 325 small-spotted catsharks, Scyliorhinus canicula, ranging from 263 to 488 mm in total length (TL) and from 62 to 395 g in round weight (RW), were sampled from trawl catches in the Aegean Sea during the two-year period 2005–2007. The overall ratio of males to females was 1.06:1, and of the specimens almost 60% were mature. The size of m...
In the present study, the operation of a laboratory-scale sulphate-reducing reactor,
operating in upflow mode, is described under two different carbon sources/electron
donors: lactate and ethanol. The bioreactor was operating continuously for 115 days at
room temperature. A mixed culture of sulphate-reducing bacteria was added in the
bioreactor alo...
A total number of 325 small-spotted catsharks (Scyliorhinus canicula) ranging from
184 to 488 mm in total length (TL) and from 62 to 617 g in total weight (W) were
sampled by the trawl fishery in the Aegean Sea during the years 2005-2007. The
overall ratio of males to females was 1.06:1. Sexual maturity was assessed by
macroscopic observation of th...
Spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) ranged from 430 to 729 mm in length and smouth-hound sharks (Mustelus mustelus) ranged from 428 to 720 mm were collected in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Total mercury was determined in various tissues with Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. In both shark species, statistically significant differences were...
In 2003-2004, 47 spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) ranging from 430 to 729 mm in TL and 18 smoothhound sharks (Mustelus mustelus) ranging from 428 to 720 mm in TL were collected from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, around the island of Crete. Total mercury levels in their edible tissues were determined with Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry....
Total mercury levels in various tissues of two shark species were determined since sharks as apex predators represent good indicators of the extent of mercury contamination in the marine ecosystems. A total of 55 spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) ranged from 430 to 729 m in total length and 18 smouthhound sharks (Mustelus mustelus) ranged from 428...
Total mercury levels were determined in various tissues of two shark species, since sharks as apex predators represent good indicators of the extent of mercury contamination in the marine ecosystems (Vas, 1991). The biology and the age of the species were also examined.
A total of 55 spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias, and 18 smouthhound shark, Muste...
Η παρούσα εργασία εντάσσεται στα πλαίσια ενός προγράμματος βιοπαρακολούθησης των βενθικών συνευρέσεων της υποπαραλιακής ζώνης στις βορειοανατολικές ακτές του κόλπου της Θεσσαλονίκης, όπου θα κατασκευαστεί ο νέος διάδρομος προσγείωσης (10-28) του αερολιμένα Μακεδονία. Η έρευνα αυτή, αποσκοπεί στην αποτίμηση της σημερινής κατάστασης των συνευρέσεων κ...