Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

UC Berkeley Library

Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) bannerUC Berkeley

New Evidence of Marine Fauna Tropicalization off the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula (Southwest Europe)

Published Web Location

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/11/4/48/htm
No data is associated with this publication.
Abstract

Climate change and the overall increase of seawater temperature are causing a poleward shift in species distribution, which includes a phenomenon described as the tropicalization of temperate regions. This work aims to report the first records of four species off the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, namely, the oceanic puffer Lagocephalus lagocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758), the Madeira rockfish Scorpaena maderensis Valenciennes, 1833, the ornate wrasse Thalassoma pavo (Linnaeus, 1758), and the bearded fireworm Hermodice carunculata (Pallas, 1766). These last three species, along with other occurrences of aquatic fauna and flora along the Portuguese coast, reveal an ongoing process of poleward expansion of several species, which urgently necessitates a comprehensive survey along the entire Iberian Peninsula. The putative origins of these subtropical and tropical species off continental Portugal are discussed, as well as the potential public health problems that two of the four reported species may cause.

Item not freely available? Link broken?
Report a problem accessing this item