Proceedings of the Second Mediterranean Symposium on Marine

Tab 1: Percentage values <strong>of</strong> chorological elements for each division
Rhodophyta Phaeophyta Chlorophyta
Lig. Lig. Lig. Lig. Lig. Lig.
2003 1950 2003 1950 2003 1950
number <strong>of</strong> entities 151 177 44 54 48 43
Cosmopolitans (C+SC) 27,8 23,9 42,2 35,3 27,1 37,5
Wide distribution (A+AP+IA+IP) 23,2 22,7 17,8 17,6 27,1 27,5
Cold affinities (Ab+APtf+IAtf+CB+CBA) 19,2 26,4 11,1 19,6 10,4 5,0
Warm affinities (P+Abt+APt+At+IAt) 17,9 14,1 11,1 7,8 31,3 22,5
<strong>Mediterranean</strong> 11,9 12,9 17,8 19,6 4,2 7,5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
An inversion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> trend is observed in <strong>the</strong> chorological spectra. In fact, in <strong>the</strong> historical
data, cold affinity elements are more important than <strong>the</strong> warm ones, while <strong>the</strong> actual list
shows an opposite trend (Fig. 2), except for Chlorophyta, where both warm and coldaffinity
elements increase (Tab. 1).
The present work seems to confirm <strong>the</strong> popular <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>of</strong> <strong>Mediterranean</strong> Sea warming,
at least for Liguria, typically one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> colder regions in <strong>the</strong> basin. Unluckily, this bulk <strong>of</strong>
data, is very far to be exhaustive, both for what concerns <strong>the</strong> research <strong>of</strong> taxa to be
included in <strong>the</strong> actual list, and for <strong>the</strong> taxonomical problems within <strong>the</strong> historical data.
More time and energies will be necessary to achieve a representative list <strong>of</strong> Ligurian
macrophytobenthos, in order to make a more accurate comparison with <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r
regions <strong>of</strong> <strong>Mediterranean</strong> Sea.
ACNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Pr<strong>of</strong>. E. Paola and Gilles Passeron for <strong>the</strong> help on <strong>the</strong> field, Dr.
E. Ballesteros and C. Rodriguez for <strong>the</strong> help with determination and Dr. R. Poggi, Director
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> N.H.M. <strong>of</strong> Genoa.
REFERENCES
Ardissone F. (1883) - Phycologia Mediterranea. Parte Prima. Floridee. Mem. Soc. Crittog. Ital., 1: 1-516.
Ardissone F. (1886) - Phycologia Mediterranea. Parte <strong>Second</strong>a. Oosporee-Zoosporee-Schizosporee.
Mem. Soc. Crittog. Ital., 2: 1-325.
Ardissone F., Strafforello J. (1877) - Enumerazione delle alghe di Liguria. Ed. Lombarda, Milano. 238pp.
Balduzzi A., Bianchi C. N., Cattaneo-Vietti R., Cerrano C., Cocito S., Cotta S., Degl’innocenti F., Diviacco G.,
Morgigni M., Morri C., Pansini M., Salvatori L., Senes L., Sgorbini S., Tunesi L. (1993) - Primi lineamenti
di bionomia bentica dell’Isola Gallinaria (Mar Ligure). Atti del 10° Congr. A.I.O.L., Alassio, 4-6- Nov. 1992:
603-617.
ACTES DU DEUXIEME SYMPOSIUM MEDITERRANEEN SUR LA VEGETATION MARINE (ATHENES, 12-13 DECEMBRE 2003)
113