Citation: Rahav E, Shun-Yan C, Cui G, Liu H, Tsagaraki TM, Giannakourou A, Tsiola A, Psarra S, Lagaria A, Mulholland MR, Stathopoulou E, Paraskevi P, Herut B and Berman-Frank I (2016) Evaluating the Impact of Atmospheric Depositions on Springtime Dinitrogen Fixation in the Cretan Sea (Eastern Mediterranean)—A Mesocosm Approach. Front. Mar. Sci. 3:180. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00180 Evaluating th...

Despite attention focused on the population status and rebuilding trajectory of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), the reproduction and spawning biology remains poorly understood, especially in the NW Atlantic. At present, the eastern and western spawning populations are believed to exhibit different reproductive characteristics and, consequently, stock productivity. However, our study su...

Introduction Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomalrecessive disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of fever and serositis common in eastern Mediterranean population. Over 160 mutations have been identified in MEFV gene responsible for FMF. The most common mutations in MEFV gene are E148Q, M694I, M694V, V726A and M680I. The distribution pattern of MEFV mutation along the Medite...

Documented sightings of harbour porpoises in the Mediterranean are rare, although the species is common in the neighbouring North Atlantic and Black Sea. However, in the past 2 decades, 4 harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena have been recorded in the northern Aegean Sea in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. Samples were taken from 2 of these. Both have a genetic signature indicative of the Black S...

The European purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) is considered to be a key herbivore throughout its distribution range--North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. It was also abundant in its eastern distributional edge, on rocky habitats of the coastline of Israel, but its populations have recently collapsed, and today it is an extremely rare species in the region. Field and laboratory ex...

A dynamically motivated statistical forecasting scheme for eastern Mediterranean winter rainfall is presented. The scheme is based on North Atlantic sea level pressure precursors. The resulting forecasts are robust and statistically significant at ;13 months lead time, and improve at ;7 months lead. It is suggested that these forecasts form a foundation for an operational early-warning system f...

This numerical study provides the first simulation of the anthropogenic tritium invasion and its decay product helium-3 (He) in the Mediterranean Sea. The simulation covers the entire tritium (H) transient generated by the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests performed in the 1950s and early 1960s and is run till 2011. Tritium, helium-3 and their derived age estimates are particularly suitable for...

Dinitrogen (N2) fixation rates were measured during early spring across the different provinces of Mediterranean Sea surface waters. N2 fixation rates, measured using N2 enriched seawater, were lowest in the eastern basin and increased westward with a maximum at the Strait of Gibraltar (0.10 to 2.35 nmol N L−1 d−1, respectively). These rates were 3–7 fold higher than N2 fixation rates measured ...

Background The Hellenic Seas are influenced by on-going environmental changes and the introduction of alien species, which are expected to have an impact on their biodiversity. This study contributes to the knowledge of the Hellenic marine gastropod biodiversity, expanding data over the entire Greek territory, during the period from October 2008 to March 2017. Results This work presents 45 sp...