Tethys returns to the Mediterranean: Success and Limits of Tropical Re-Colonization

By

Por, Francis

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2009

Original Publication

BioRisk : biodiversity & ecosystem risk assessment

Volume

3

Pages

5-19

Subjects

Lessepsian migration, invasive species, climate ch

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/biorisk.3.30

 

Abstract

Many thousands of tropical species have been settling in the Mediterranean during the last decades. This is the result of congruence between the present Climate Optimum, which is expressed in the warming of the sea and the opening of the contact with the Indo-pacific realm through the Suez Canal and a renewed entry through the Straits of Gibraltar. A historical review shows that tropical biota survived in the Mediterranean till the end of the Pliocene Climate Optimum and that presently we are witnessing a re-colonization of the Mediterranean by Tethyan descendants, rather than an invasion by harmful alien species as happens elsewhere. The limits of this resettling as witnessed today are discussed.