Research Article |
Corresponding author: Maurizio Pinna ( maurizio.pinna@unisalento.it ) Academic editor: Diana Galassi
© 2019 Vanessa Marrocco, Francesco Zangaro, Alessandro Sicuro, Maurizio Pinna.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Marrocco V, Zangaro F, Sicuro A, Pinna M (2019) A scaling down mapping of Pinna nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) through the combination of scientific literature, NATURA 2000, grey literature and citizen science data. Nature Conservation 33: 21-31. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.33.30397
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This research investigates the occurrence of Pinna nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Mediterranean Sea, where it is an endemic and the largest bivalve species. Such a species is protected under the European Council Directive 92/43/EEC since 1992, being exposed to anthropogenic impacts. The distribution of this species has been known, in the past, only from reports in scientific literature. Presently, the concerns, threats and risks for P. nobilis are increasing and a more detailed mapping of the actual distribution from a largest to a local spatial scale is essential for the implementation of monitoring, management and conservation actions. Here we provide a systematic review on the occurrence of P. nobilis, employing and combining different sources of information, such as scientific and grey literature, NATURA 2000 geodata and citizen science records. The methodological approach is a pilot test based on a scaling down of the geographical area of study, from the whole of the Mediterranean Sea to the Italian and Apulian coastline (South-East Italy); accordingly, the above mentioned sources of data have been gradually included. The results show that the combination of multiple sources of information provide a more exact determination of the species distribution at a local scale, identifying sites where in-depth actions are required to ensure the species conservation and restoration. Also, the IUCN has recently underlined that the conservation of P. nobilis has become a difficult challenge, so that each of the spatial scales for the investigation is crucial to enable a better preservation and conservation of the species in the Mediterranean Sea.
Pen shell, endangered species, Mediterranean Sea endemism, geographical scaling down, conservation and restocking
The fan mussel Pinna nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) is the largest endemic bivalve of the Mediterranean Sea. Specimens grow up to 120 cm in total shell length (
The species P. nobilis is an important benthic filter feeder contributing to water clarity (
During the 20th century, P. nobilis populations have greatly declined due to anthropogenic activities, including recreational and commercial fishing, ornamental harvesting, and accidental killing by anchoring, bottom nets and trawlers (
Threatened by human activities and parasites, nowadays P. nobilis is a protected species under the Annex IV of EU Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC (
According to
Scientific literature about P. nobilis has been retrieved from multiple databases related to cross-disciplinary research, which allow an in-depth exploration of specialized sub-fields within a certain academic or scientific discipline, such as Web of Science (http://www.webofknowledge.com/), Science Direct (http://www.sciencedirect.com) and Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). Scientific literature until September 2018 was selected; according to
Scientific literature data were mapped at the Mediterranean Sea scale. In this research we retrieved data published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as this is believed to ensure data reliability throughout the review process before publication.
The implementation of the Mediterranean Sea scale was done by consulting NATURA 2000 Standard Data Forms and Network Viewer (http://natura2000.eea.europa.eu/), typing “Pinna nobilis” as keyword. Within this analysis, we also considered data from grey literature and citizen science records when scaling down the geographical area to Italy, and lastly to the Apulian coastline.
The search for grey literature was introduced exclusively at a national scale with regard to Italy and was conducted by typing the same keywords used during the scientific literature search in the most common web search engines.
For what concerns the citizen science data, we focused on the Apulian coastline (South-East Italy). We collected information on the sightings of P. nobilis by personal communications and through direct interviews with fishermen, divers, tourists and staff from the local marine protected areas. About 100 people were interviewed during this process, but only the sightings that could certify the presence of the species through photos and videos, were taken into consideration. When possible, the sightings on those filed were verified by ourselves.
Using the data extracted, we drew five maps using the QGIS software, so as to identify possible patterns of the spatial distribution of P. nobilis.
The first map (Fig.
Map of Pinna nobilis distribution in the Mediterranean Sea based on scientific literature.
Map of Pinna nobilis distribution in the Mediterranean Sea based on scientific literature and NATURA 2000 Network Viewer geodata.
Map of Pinna nobilis distribution along the Italian coasts based on scientific literature, NATURA 2000 Network Viewer geodata and grey literature.
Map of Pinna nobilis distribution along the South Apulia coastline (Salento Peninsula) based on scientific literature, grey literature and citizen science data. In this area no NATURA 2000 Network Viewer geodata were recorded.
The database obtained contains data until September 2018 and consists of a total of 187 scientific references, 398 points from NATURE 2000 Network Viewer, 63 points from grey literature and 8 citizen science records.
Considering the actual knowledge of the fan mussel distribution, based on all the scientific literature available until 2018 at the Mediterranean Sea scale, 187 records were mapped. In the scientific literature the species is mostly reported in the North-West area of the Mediterranean Sea, showing a higher concentration along the latitudinal gradient (Fig.
Focusing on the Apulian Region, it can be noticed that scientific literature is limited only to the area of the Gulf of Taranto, but we found one record in grey literature related to the presence of the fan mussel in the Marine Protected Area of Porto Cesareo (Italy); furthermore, 8 new records were retrieved from citizen science (Fig.
Gathering information obtained from the previous maps, figure 5 shows the total distribution of P. nobilis in the Mediterranean Sea, as a result of the integration and combination of four sources of data along with the decrease of the spatial scale.
Presently, the conservation and management of the P. nobilis is an urgent challenge and more detailed maps of the species distribution are essential to investigate the habitat of the species, to identify available areas for restocking and to implement awareness campaigns to involve the general public and stakeholders. Furthermore, the aim of this work is to demonstrate that, in order to obtain a clear and complete P. nobilis distribution framework, it is necessary to integrate all the data and information available in relation to the spatial scale identified. We can certainly affirm, however, that through the integration of NATURA 2000 Network Viewer, grey literature and citizen science data, the resulting distribution of P. nobilis is wider compared to the measurements based only on scientific literature.
This work allowed the collection of datasets on the distribution of P. nobilis in the Mediterranean Sea, which can be a useful basis either for further studies in the waters of the Basin and for a time-space comparison of the same populations in order to monitor their status. The map (Fig.
This research was supported by ex-60% fund (FUR, Italian MIUR), by FFABR (Italian MIUR) and by ImPrEco Project (Interreg ADRION Programme 2014–2020; CUP C69H18000250007) attributed to M. Pinna. The authors are grateful to Inter-Asia Project (CUP F82I17000000008) for supporting the mobility and study activities of the Kazakh students N. Bizhanova and G. Utebayeva during the period of data collection. We sincerely thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped in improving the preliminary draft of the manuscript. Francesca Giannotta revised the English grammar.