BACKGROUND AND AIMS In the last decades, the geographical location of the centre of origin of Quercus suber (cork oak), a strictly western Mediterranean oak species, has been the subject of controversy. METHODS RFLP variation over the whole chloroplast DNA molecule and PCR-RFLPs over seven specific cpDNA fragments were analysed phylogeographically to reconstruct the evolutionary history of co...

Humans have a long history of moving wildlife that over time has resulted in unprecedented biotic homogenization. It is, as a result, often unclear whether certain taxa are native to a region or naturalized, and how the history of human involvement in species dispersal has shaped present-day biodiversity. Although currently an eastern Palaearctic galliform, the black francolin (Francolinus fran...

BACKGROUND The integration of multiple complementary approaches is a powerful way to understand the processes of diversification and speciation. The parasitoid wasp Aphidius transcaspicus Telenga (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a parasitoid of Hyalopterus aphids across a wide geographic range. This species shows a remarkable degree of genetic structure among western, central, and eastern Mediterra...

The hypothesis that Mediterranean top predator species, such as large pelagic fish, are potentially at risk due to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), is investigated. The potential estrogenic effects of PHAHs in three fish species of commercial interest, the top predators bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus thynnus), swordfish (Xiphias gladius), and Mediterranean spearfish (Tetrapturus belone), w...

Future climate projections show higher/lower winter (Dec-Jan-Feb) precipitation in the northern/southern Mediterranean region than in present climate conditions. This paper analyzes the results of regional model simulations of the A2 and B2 scenarios, which confirm this opposite precipitation change and link it to the change of cyclone activity. The increase of the winter cyclone activity in fu...

The relationships between total mercury (Hg) concentration and stable nitrogen isotope ratio (delta(15)N) were evaluated in Mullus barbatus barbatus and M. surmuletus from the Mediterranean Sea and M. barbatus ponticus from the Black Sea. Mercury concentration in fish muscle was six times higher in the two Mediterranean species than in the Black Sea one for similar sized animals. A positive cor...

[1] Water column stratification increased at climatic transitions from cold to warm periods during the late Quaternary and led to anoxic conditions and sapropel formation in the deep eastern Mediterranean basins. Highresolution data sets on sea-surface temperatures (SST) (estimated from U37 k0 indices) and dO of planktonic foraminifer calcite (dOfc) across late Pleistocene sapropel intervals sh...

Climatological features of mesoscale rain activities over the Mediterranean region between 5 W–40 E and 28 N–48 N are examined using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 and 2A25 rain products. The 3B42 rainrates at 3-hourly, 0.25×0.25 spatial resolution for the last 10 years (January 1998 to July 2007) are used to form and analyze the 5-day mean and monthly mean climatology of r...

The Mediterranean Sea is known as an ecological barrier for numerous migratory birds flying from European breeding grounds to African wintering sites. Birds generally avoid migration over open sea and fly over land. In the Mediterranean Basin, few land bridges or bottlenecks for migratory birds exist. The narrowest are at the western and eastern extremes: the Strait of Gibraltar and Israel. Com...