The sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, an eatable species of great commercial interest found in the Mediterranean and North-East Atlantic, is more vulnerable than so far believed.
This is stated in a study by the University of Barcelona, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Tromsø (Norway) on the genetic distribution of populations of this species, led by the experts Marta Pascual, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, and Xavier Turon, CSIC research professor at the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC). The study has been recently published in the journal Diversity and Distributions.
Using a genetic analysis of the populations of this sea urchin, this work assesses its population structure and connectivity as a result of its dispersal ability. Scientists analysed about two-hundred and fifty individuals of Paracentrotus lividus from eleven marine areas, spanning from the French Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean.
Researcher Xavier Turon (CEAB-CSIC) notes that “adult sea urchin barely move” and that dispersal occurs during the larval stage, since “when they are larvae, they swim in the plankton and are carried away by marine currents. We thought they had a high dispersal capability, since they have a long larval lifespan, which lasts for weeks”.
Read more at University of Barcelona
Image: The species Paracentrotus lividus is very abundant in the Catalan coasts. (Credit: Creu Palacín (University of Barcelona-IRBio))