During the last few decades the fish community has changed substantially along the Eastern Mediterranean continental shelf, which is a hotspot of invasion by species that had migrated via the Suez Canal. Trawl data from the Israeli coast spanning two periods (1990–1994 and 2008–2011) were compared to identify species with substantial variation in their relative abundance between the two periods. The aim of this study was to examine if certain ecological traits characterize fish species showing an increase or decrease in relative abundance, and if non-indigenous fishes with strongly increasing populations may have caused the decline of native species with similar habitats and diets. We found that the main predictors of population trends were species length, habitat affinity, and maximum depth, with larger and soft bottom species displaying decreasing abundances. Comparing native and non-indigenous fishes with similar habitat and diet, we found a potential for competitive impact of the Indo-Pacific Plotosus lineatus and two Upeneus spp. on the native Mullus species. However, competition with non-indigenous fishes could not generally explain the dramatic decline of many other native species between the two study periods. Alternative causes, such as fishery pressure and increasing water temperature, are discussed.

Two important facets of global environmental change are alteration of climatic regimes and the introduction of alien species. From a biogeographical perspective, these 2 processes lead to very similar results: a change in the distribution of species. Here, we considered Atlantic fish species that are recent newcomers in the Mediterranean Sea, using biological traits to assess their origin. For this purpose, we first re-evaluated all records of Atlantic fish species in the Mediterranean (n = 103) to exclude those not considered recent newcomers (n = 33). Based on faunistic data, we classified the true newcomers into 4 origin categories: alien, vagrant, range-expansion or cryptogenic. Then, we compared biological traits of species we characterised as aliens (n = 7), vagrants (n = 14) or range-expanders (n = 23). Finally, we re-assessed the origin of cryptogenic species (n = 26) using multivariate discriminant analysis, measuring the distance of individual species to the centroids of aliens, vagrants or range-expanders, allowing us to infer their probable ‘mode of origin’. The body size, depth range, temperature range, habitat and ability to undertake long-distance migration were the most important traits that could be related to alien, vagrant or range-expanding fishes. It was possible to assign 10 cryptogenic species a specific origin category with reasonable confidence, while the remaining cryptogenic species combined trait values of different origin categories. These results indicate that biological trait analysis can be coupled with faunistic data to help assess the most likely origin of a newcomer species, thus informing management decisions.

"On the Biology of Manticora Fabricius (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae), With a Description of the Larva and Taxonomic Notes" published on 01 Jan 2000 by Brill.