Adriatic mollusks rebound after ice-age climate
Nearshore Adriatic mollusk communities of the last interglacial reassembled in the Holocene after a distinct glacial fauna, a resilient climate response now threatened by local human stressors.
Source
Resilient biotic response to long-term climate change in the Adriatic Sea
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Adriatic mollusks rebound after ice-age climate
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Lentidium mediterraneum represented more than 85% of specimens in both interglacial sample groups.
representing more than 85% of specimens in both interglacial groups of samples
Mediterranean–Lusitanian species fell from >88% of specimens in interglacials to 26% in the last glacial.
the LIG and CIG samples were dominated by species restricted to Mediterranean and Lusitanian provinces (>88% of specimens; Figure ). The relative abundance of this group decreased down to 26% during the LG period.
What they did
Authors compared 223 nearshore samples (~71,282 specimens, 113 species) from 18 sediment cores spanning the last interglacial, last late glacial, and current interglacial, using NMDS, PERMANOVA, and null resampling of Bray–Curtis distances on assemblages from comparable shoreface habitats.
What they found
Last-interglacial and Holocene samples overlapped and were dominated by warm Lusitanian/Mediterranean taxa (Lentidium mediterraneum >85% of specimens). Glacial samples were richer, more even, and dominated by cosmopolitan and boreal species (Lusitanian share fell to 26%). Interglacial species-abundance structure was statistically exchangeable; glacial assemblages were not.
The limits
What it doesn't show
The record is nearshore mollusks only, not the full bathymetric gradient; glacial samples come from a shoreline >250 km southeast of the interglacial Po-plain cores; resilience to past SST swings does not imply immunity to trawling, hypoxia, or invasives.
Key terms
- Resilient community response
- Assemblages shift under new climate then return to a prior composition when conditions return—not persistence or random drift.
- Last interglacial (LIG)
- Warm highstand ~125–110 kyr; compared here with the Holocene current interglacial (CIG).
- Last glacial (LG)
- Lowstand nearshore faunas sampled from the Mid-Adriatic Deep margin (~18–12 kyr cal BP).
- Environmental filtering
- Species sorting by physical conditions (temperature, salinity) rather than strong biotic locking.
- Lusitanian province
- Warm-temperate East Atlantic/Mediterranean biogeographic region; many LIG/CIG dominants do not range farther north.
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Quiz yourself
The Adriatic mollusk record best matches which community model?
Common questions
Did glacial and interglacial faunas match?
No—glacial assemblages were distinct; the two interglacials were statistically similar.
What dominated warm intervals?
Lentidium mediterraneum and other Lusitanian/Mediterranean species (>88% of specimens).
What assembly model fits?
Environment assembly via habitat filtering, not neutral or strong interaction locking.
Does this guarantee safety under today’s warming?
Not by itself—trawling, eutrophication, and invasives already push communities outside this historical range.
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