Colonies and immigrants

Didemnum sp. colonies can been found from the very shallow water up to the depth of 15 meters. These are the colonies of the tiny ascidia which love the light (photophile). There are thousands of them in every colony that you meet. A colony can be found over seaweeds, inside the P.oceanica or on rocks. I have met them in both very polluted water and in very clean. It’s hard to identify the species by the photographs but these photos seem to be of the Didemnum commune. The increase of the sea temperature seems to have given new opportunities to Didemnum sp. to emigrate to new places of the endless sea. So, as we nicknamed ascidia in previous posts, these long cousins have a similar behavior with us. They make big cities and then they leave them behind to find new worlds for development.

Posidonia fragile heaven

The Posidonia meadows are a key marine coastal ecosystem for the Mediterranean. These flowering plants are the longest living organism of our seas, with a growth rate of 1 cm per year! In this picture we can see some of the hundreds of plant and animal species that live and breed within the meadows. This particular meadow is in Nikiti on a reef 2 miles offshore. Because the top of the reef is very shallow, no commercial fishermen fish on it, but around it, allowing the roots of the plant to be covered by very delicate species of bryozoans and red coralline algae. A bit further along a small Octopus vulgaris was finding refuge in the jungle of seaweed!
This is the beauty of unspoiled and undisturbed Posidonia oceanica meadows, protecting them is as vital as the sea is to the planet.