A Hitchhiker's guide to Mediterranean marina travel for alien species

The seas are currently inundated with many stressors such as overharvesting, eutrophication and pollution, physical alteration of natural habitats, climate change and invasive species which, combined, are negatively affecting both ecosystem structure and function (US National Research Council, 1995; Worm et al., 2006; Jackson, 2008). While many stressors, such as overfishing, have left much of the Mediterranean Sea barren (Guidetti et al., 2014), new species are constantly finding their way into the basin, and some of their preferred habitats are teeming with this ‘foreign’ life. While few of these new migrants have favourable effects on the economy, most are perceived negatively and are often considered as a form of biological pollution (Olenin et al., 2007).This work was funded by a PhD Scholarship awarded to Aylin Ulman from the MARES- Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Fellowship Program in Marine Ecosystem Health and Conservation. MARES is a Joint Doctorate programme selected under Erasmus Mundus coordinated by Ghent University (FPA 2011-0016). A COST Action #1209 grant was provided to Aylin Ulman to visit the University of Alicante, Spain