Marine Life of the Straits of Messina

The hydrology of the Strait of Messina accommodates a variety of populations of marine organisms. The intense currents and characteristic chemistry of the waters of the Strait determine an extraordinary biocoenosis in the Mediterranean Sea with a high abundance and diversity of species; the Strait of Messina, therefore constitutes an area of fundamental importance for biodiversity. Intense and alternate currents, the low temperature and an abundance of transported nitrogen and phosphorus transported to the surface from deep waters supports both pelagic and coastal benthic populations in a cycle of organic substance.

All this, with associated phenomena, determines an ecological rearrangement that simulates Atlantic conditions for species with a prevailing western distribution. In fact, numerous primarily Atlantic species for example the laminariae (large tawny algae), which, though also present in some other zones of the Mediterranean, succeed in forming true structured submarine forests only in the Strait of Messina and are evidence of the optimal environmental conditions there.

It is important to note that the laminariae of low depth (Sacchoryza polyschides), or the deep populations of Laminaria ochroleuca, and the associated plant communities are dependent on the physical and biological characteristics of the substrate. In order to complete their life-cycle, these organisms demand a solid substrate already colonized by coralline algae, in the absence of which colonization cannot take place.

The Straits of Messina, bordered between the two basins of the Mediterranean, the West and the East, is an important point for migration of the species that are found in each. In this area planktonic and benthic communities from both or the Atlantic Ocean merge.

Benthic species of importance are Pilumnus inermis, previously considered and which is exclusively Atlantic; Errina aspera (Hydrozoa), a famous endemic species of the Strait of Messina, on which lives a parasitic sea snail (Pedicularia sicula); found between 80 and 110 m. (fig. 1).Other species are Ophiactis balli, the crustaceans Parthenope expansa and Portunus pelagicus and the giant barnacle, Pachylasma giganteum. Great biological and ecological importance is also ascribed to the already cited Laminariales of the Strait Sacchoryza polyschides and Laminaria ochroleuca, of Albunea carabus and of the conspicuous Pinna nobilis, the calcareous presence of red algae and immense prairies of Posidonia oceanica which covers wide areas and has a wide vertical distribution.

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