scholarly journals Right out of the gate: the genomics of Lessepsian invaders in the vicinity of the Suez Canal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Azzurro ◽  
Mathilde Nourigat ◽  
Francesca Cohn ◽  
Jamila Ben Souissi ◽  
Giacomo Bernardi
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Protein Coding ◽  
Mediterranean Populations ◽  
Invasive Fishes ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Spatial Genetic Variation

AbstractMarine organisms that enter the Mediterranean from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal are known as Lessepsian bioinvaders. In general, genetic studies of Lessepsian fishes have shown little structure between Red Sea and Mediterranean populations. Yet notable exceptions suggest the importance of life-history factors that may influence patterns of spatial genetic variation. In this study, by sampling two invasive fishes with different life histories (the rabbitfish Siganus rivulatus and the filefish Stephanolepis diaspros), we looked at evidence of population structure and selection at the boundary between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean (the Suez Canal), using thousands of molecular markers. Results illustrate two divergent patterns of genetic patterns, with little genetic structure in S. rivulatus and strong population structure in S. diaspros, even at such small spatial scale. We discuss differences in ecological characteristics between the two species to account for such differences. In addition, we report that in the face of both high (S. rivulatus) and low (S. diaspros) gene flow, loci under selection were uncovered, and some protein coding genes were identified as being involved with osmoregulation, which seems to be an important feature of individuals crossing the salinity-variable Suez Canal. The presence of genes under selection in populations near the Suez Canal supports the idea that selection may be active and essential for successful invasions right out of the gate.

Right Out of The Gate: The Genomics of Lessepsian Invaders in The Vicinity of The Suez Canal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Azzurro ◽  
Mathilde Nourigat ◽  
Francesca Cohn ◽  
Jamila Ben Souissi ◽  
Giacomo Bernardi
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Protein Coding ◽  
Invasive Fishes ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Siganus Rivulatus ◽  
Spatial Genetic Variation

Abstract Lessepsian fishes, entering the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, have showed so far little genetic structure, but notable exceptions suggest the importance of life-history factors that may influence their patterns of spatial genetic variation. In this study, by sampling two invasive fishes with different life histories (the rabbitfish Siganus rivulatus and the filefish Stephanolepis diaspros ), we looked at evidence of population structure and selection at the boundary between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean (the Suez Canal), using thousands of molecular markers. Results illustrate two divergent patterns of genetic patterns, with little genetic structure in S. rivulatus and strong population structure in S. diaspros, even at such small spatial scale. We discuss differences in ecological characteristics between the two species to account for such differences. In addition, we report that in the face of both high ( S. rivulatus ) and low ( S. diaspros ) gene flow, loci under selection were uncovered, and some protein coding genes were identified as being involved with osmoregulation, which seems to be an important feature of individuals crossing the salinity-variable Suez Canal. The presence of genes under selection in populations near the Suez Canal supports the idea that selection may be active and essential for successful invasions right out of the gate.

Radiocarbon dating of individual foram tests show that alleged Lessepsian species are of Holocene age

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo G. Albano ◽  
Anna Sabbatini ◽  
Jonathan Lattanzio ◽  
Jan Steger ◽  
Sönke Szidat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Tropical Species ◽  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Sediment Depth ◽  
The Mediterranean

<p>The Lessepsian invasion – the largest marine biological invasion – followed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 (81 years BP). Shortly afterwards, tropical species also distributed in the Red Sea appeared on Mediterranean shores: it was the dawn of what would become the invasion of several hundred tropical species. The time of the Suez Canal opening coincided with an acceleration in natural history exploration and description, but the eastern sectors of the Mediterranean Sea lagged behind and were thoroughly explored only in the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Many parts are still insufficiently studied today. Baseline information on pre-Lessepsian ecosystem states is thus scarce. This knowledge gap has rarely been considered by invasion scientists: every new finding of species belonging to tropical clades has been assumed to be a Lessepsian invader.</p><p>We here question this assumption by radiocarbon dating seven individual tests of miliolids – imperforated calcareous foraminifera – belonging to five alleged non-indigenous species. Tests were found in two sediment cores collected at 30 and 40 m depth off Ashqelon, on the Mediterranean Israeli shelf. We dated one <em>Cribromiliolinella milletti </em>(core at 40 m, 20 cm sediment depth), three <em>Nodophthalmidium antillarum </em>(core at 40 m, 35 cm sediment depth), one <em>Miliolinella </em>cf. <em>fichteliana </em>(core at 30 m, 110 cm sediment depth), one <em>Articulina alticostata </em>(core at 40 m, 35 cm sediment depth) and one <em>Spiroloculina antillarum </em>(core at 30 m, 110 cm sediment depth). All foraminiferal tests proved to be of Holocene age, with a median calibrated age spanning between 749 and 8285 years BP. Only one test of <em>N. antillarum</em> showed a 2-sigma error overlapping the time of the opening of the Suez Canal, but with a median age of 1123 years BP. Additionally, a thorough literature search resulted in a further record of <em>S. antillarum</em> in a core interval dated 1820–2064 years BP in Turkey.</p><p>Therefore, these foraminiferal species are not introduced, but native species. They are all circumtropical or Indo-Pacific and in the Mediterranean distributed mostly in the eastern sectors (only <em>S. antillarum</em> occurs also in the Adriatic Sea). Two hypotheses can explain our results: these species are Tethyan relicts that survived the Messinian salinity crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) and the glacial periods of the Pleistocene in the Eastern Mediterranean, which may have never desiccated completely during the Messinian crisis and which may have worked as a warm-water refugium in the Pleistocene; or they entered the Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea more recently but before the opening of the Suez Canal, for example during the Last Interglacial (MIS5e) high-stand (125,000 years BP) when the flooded Isthmus of Suez enabled exchanges between the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific fauna. The recognition that some alleged Lessepsian invaders are in fact native species influences our understanding of the invasion process, its rates and environmental correlates.</p>

Port Said and Ismailia as Desert Marvels: Delusion and Frustration on the Isthmus of Suez, 1859-1869

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 622-647
Author(s):  
Lucia Carminati
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Coastal City ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Northern Shore ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Port Said ◽  
Travel Accounts

In April 1859, one hundred and fifty laborers gathered on Egypt’s northern shore. When pickaxes first hit the land to be parted from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, not only was the Suez Canal initiated, but the coastal city of Port Said was also born. Two more cities, Ismailia (1862) and Port Tewfik (1867), were later founded along the waterway. This article analyzes the ways in which the environment of the isthmus of Suez changed upon the digging of the canal as well as the ideas that germinated around such changes. By relying on published memoirs, travel accounts, and archival documents, I explore how Western contemporaries viewed the isthmus desert and constructed narratives around the urbanization and the peopling of the area. I argue that they sanctioned the myth that Western initiative alone could transform the isthmus sands into flower gardens, thus disregarding realities on the ground.

scholarly journals Author the red-med railway project a serious competitor to the suez canal for cargo containers?

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salem Y. Lakhal ◽  
Souad H’Mida
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Market Position ◽  
Railway Line ◽  
Project Plan ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Cargo Containers

Israel and China have finalized a project plan initiated in 2012. This project received the green light from Israeli cabinet in March 2014. With this venture, China will build a cargo railway line connecting the port of Eilat in the Red Sea to the ports of Ashdod and Haifa on the Mediterranean coast in Israel. This project will be a shipping alternative to the Suez Canal. This statement is the corner stone of this paper and considered an hypothesis to be verified within this paper. The methodology used is based on the concept of “market position.” The main conclusion, theoretically, the Red-Med railway could be an alternative to the Suez Canal for in the 4,000 TFE Vessels containers transportation as far as costs are concerned. However, other concerns, such as the security in the Suez Canal and the risk of its shutdown, must be considered too.

Tintinnids (Ciliophora: Choreotrichia) of the Suez Canal and their transmigration process between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-462
Author(s):  
Hamed A. El-Serehy ◽  
Fahad A. Al-Misned ◽  
Nasser S. Abdel-Rahman ◽  
Khaled A. Al-Rasheid
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
The Mediterranean

An updated Checklist of the Mediterranean fishes of Israel, with illustrations of recently recorded species and delineation of Lessepsian migrants

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4956 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-108
Author(s):  
DANIEL GOLANI
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Ballast Water ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Water Influx ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Lessepsian Migrants

This checklist of the Mediterranean fishes of Israel enumerates 469 species which is an addition of 62 species since the previous checklist of 2005. This new checklist includes 58 Condrichthys and 411 Osteicthys species. Most newly-recorded species are of Red Sea origin (Lessepsian migrants)—38 species, 25 species are from previously poorly investigated habitats, mainly deep water, while two species reached the Mediterranean most likely by ballast water and two are aquaculture escapees.                The dramatic increase in the number of Lessepsian migrants (an average of 2.5 species per year) is most likely due to the increased water influx between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, following the recent opening of the new parallel, 72 km, “new canal” and the enlargement of other parts of the Suez Canal. 

Local adaptation of a Lessepsian invader species to winter conditions in the Mediterranean Sea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Débora Silva Raposo ◽  
Raphaël Morard ◽  
Christiane Schmidt ◽  
Michal Kucera
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Yield ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Photosynthetic Activity ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Effective Quantum Yield ◽  
Mediterranean Populations ◽  
Cold Temperatures ◽  
Invasion Front ◽  
The Mediterranean

<p>In recent decades the “Lessepsian” migration caused a rapid change in the marine community composition due to the invasion of alien species from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean Sea. Among these invaders is the large benthic foraminifera <em>Amphistegina lobifera</em>, a diatom-bearing species that recently reached the invasion front in Sicily. There it copes with colder winters and broader temperature than in its original source, the Red Sea. It is not yet known how (or if) the population from the invasion front has developed adaptation to this new thermal regime. Understanding the modern marine invasive patterns is a crucial tool to predict future invasive successes in marine environments. Therefore, in this study we aim to evaluate the physiological responses to cold temperatures of <em>A. lobifera</em> populations at three different invasive stages: source (Red Sea), early invader (Eastern Mediterranean) and invasion front (Sicily). For this, we conducted a culturing experiment in which we monitored the responses of the foraminifera (growth, motility) to temperatures of 10, 13, 16, 19°C + control (25°C) over four weeks. To address what is the role of their endosymbionts in the adaptation process, we also monitored their photosynthetic activity (Pulse Amplitude Modulation - PAM fluorometer) during the experiment. The growth rate of the foraminifera was reduced for all populations below 19°C as well as the motility, reduced until 16°C and dropping to zero below 13°C. The response of the endosymbionts was however different. There was a reduced photosynthetic activity of the Red Sea and Eastern Mediterranean populations at colder temperatures observed by the lower maximum quantum yield (Fv:Fm) and effective quantum yield (Y(II)), when compared to their initial levels and to the other treatments. In the meantime, the endosymbionts of the Sicily population stood out with the highest photosynthetic activity (Fv:Fm and Y(II)) in the treatments bellow 13 °C (P < 0.05). In conclusion, we observed that while the host responses were similar between the three populations, the endosymbionts from the invasion front population shows the best performance at colder temperatures. This suggests that the photo-symbiosis has an important role in adaptation, most likely being a key factor to the success of past and future migrations.</p>

Present Development Phases of the Suez Canal Project

1982 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 460-465
Author(s):  
Nabil Hilaly
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Development Phases ◽  
The Mediterranean

It is recorded that Egypt was the first country to dig a canal to promote world trade; the first canal was dug in the reign of Pharaoh Senusret III (1887–1849 B.C.), to link the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea through the Nile delta. This canal, often abandoned due to silting, was reopened for navigation by later Pharaohs and finally by Amro Ibn El Ass in A.D. 640 after which it remained open for 150 years.

scholarly journals Invasion of an invader: a case study from the Suez Channel

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasser Geneid ◽  
Amgad El Shaffai
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Water Discharge ◽  
Algal Species ◽  
Suez Canal ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Fishing Ground ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
Seagrass Meadows ◽  
The Mediterranean

After the year 1869, a major change in the Mediterranean marine ecosystem occurred. A pathway called Suez Canal was created allowing the passage of alien invasive species from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, which is currently harboring over 900 introduced marine species. About 54% of these established non-native species reached through the Suez Canal. Whilst most of the studies dealing with marine invasive species focused on the Mediterranean, very few were done in the Suez Canal itself. The goal of this study is to review the distribution and current status of two invasive marine plants in the Suez Canal, specifically the Bitter Lakes area. This area was selected because of its special environmental conditions and its importance as a major fishing ground in the entire canal. Visual observations of the marine vegetation in the study sites were carried out starting year 2001. Halophila stipulacea , a tropical seagrass distributed along the coasts of the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, has migrated and is widely found around the Mediterranean. It was recorded in the Suez Canal by the Cambridge Expedition in 1924 and is known to occur in the shallow sandy-muddy bottom areas along its western coast. Since 2000, different studies along the Bitter Lakes have shown total disappearance of seagrass meadows caused by another invader that have replaced the seagrass plants and reached a percentage cover of nearly 100% in some of the studied sites. A new intruder was the green seaweed Caulerpa prolifera, a Mediterranean algal species that was recorded in the Gulf of Suez in 1984, among few species migrated from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. It has rapidly colonized different locations in the Suez Canal replacing H. stipulacea meadows. However, in 2004, a dramatic change took place in the study area where C. prolifera began diminishing allowing the previously found H. stipulacea to inhabit the seafloor. While salinity reduction from hypersaline conditions – due to growing of coastal communities along the Bitter Lakes with more fresh water discharge – may cause the expansion of C. prolifera in the study area, the reasons why it declined and disappeared are still unclear.

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