Citizen Science Helps in Tracking the Range Expansions of Non-Indigenous and Neo-Native Species in Greece and Cyprus (Eastern Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

Raising knowledge of the dispersal of non-indigenous species (NIS) in new geographic areas is a matter of major concern, as alien species may outcompete the native biota through competition, predation, and hybridization. In the Mediterranean Sea, where biological invasions constitute a serious threat, the combined use of citizen science and social networks amplified the results obtained via traditional research activities, often recording species that would otherwise presumably have passed unnoticed. We hereby report unpublished data for five NIS (the annelid Branchiomma luctuosum, the shrimp Saron marmoratus and the fishes Lutjanus argentimaculatus, Oxyurichthys petersii, and specimens of the group of Abudefduf saxatilis/vaigiensis/troschelii) and one neo-native species (Seriola fasciata) in Greece and Cyprus (eastern Mediterranean Sea), the majority of which were obtained via a focused citizen-science project and constitute new records at a country level. We also revise and update their known distribution in the invaded area, thus contributing to the study of large-scale and well-defined distributional patterns of alien species spreading in the Mediterranean Sea.