Page 3 - Balistreri_2015

tema Experiences on marine and fluvial environmental education

Science and citizens get together

in the Participated Project

“Caulerpa cylindracea – Egadi”

On 27 of August 2014 the Department of Sciences and Biological, Chemical and
th
Pharmaceutical Technologies of the University of Palermo and the Egadi Islands MPA
launched a two years Participated Project “Caulerpa cylindracea - Egadi” aimed to
monitoring the spreading of C. cylindracea within the AMP “Egadi Islands”

■ Caulerpa cylindracea ©Paolo
Balistreri

PaoLo baLIStrerI

I nvasive alien species are considered to be among the most serious threats to biodiversity

and natural ecosystem functioning. The Mediterranean Sea, called Mare Nostrum by
Romans, was recently renamed “sea under siege” by the scientific community as a result
of continuous records of non-native (alloctonous) species. As far as macrophytes are
concerned, around 130 alien taxa are now considered introduced. Among them, Caulerpa
racemosa var. cylindracea (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman et Boudouresque, an invasive taxon
coming from the Indo-Pacific Ocean thereafter reinstated to its species rank as C. cylindracea
Sonder, raised serious concern about its invasive potential.
Caulerpa cylindracea, first observed in the Mediterranean Sea in 1990 off the coast of Libya,
is currently present almost all around the Mediterranean. The first Italian record was in 1993
at Baia di San Panagia (Sicily) and in Lampedusa Island, thereafter it has steadily spread along
the Italian coasts (western Mediterranean basin, Tyrrhenian Sea, Sicily Archipelago, Ionian Sea
and South Adriatic Sea). Since 1993, the number of Sicilian areas affected by C. cylindracea
has regularly increased and most of the new colonized areas are exposed to human activities
(e.g. tourism, fishing). Caulerpa cylindracea, successfully established in this area and steadily

13 il Pianeta azzurro