Abstract

Textularia agglutinans d’Orbigny is a non-symbiont bearing and comparatively large benthic foraminiferal species with a widespread distribution across all oceans. In recent years, its populations have considerably expanded along the Israeli Mediterranean coast of the eastern Levantine basin. Despite its exceptionally widespread occurrence, no molecular data have yet been obtained. This study provides the first ribosomal DNA sequences of T. agglutinans complemented with morphological and ecological characterization, which are based on material collected during environmental monitoring of the hard bottom habitats along the Israeli Mediterranean coast, and from the Gulf of Elat (northern Red Sea). Our phylogenetic analyses reveal that all specimens from both provinces belong to the same genetic population, regardless their morphological variability. These results indicate that modern population of T. agglutinans found on the Mediterranean coast of Israel is probably Lessepsian. Our study also reveals that T. agglutinans has an epiphytic life mode, which probably enabled its successful colonization of the hard bottom habitats, at the Mediterranean coast of Israel, which consist of a diverse community of macroalgae. Our study further indicates that the species does not tolerate high SST (> 35°C), which will probably prevent its future expansion in the easternmost Mediterranean in light of the expected rise in temperatures.

Highlights

  • Textularia agglutinans d’Orbigny is a large cosmopolitan agglutinated foraminifera species, with an elongated biserial test and a low arch aperture

  • The heat patch anomaly and gradient are well reflected by the significant temperature differences between the warmest station H2 and the distant station H4, with lower temperature, all year round, and by the fact that temperatures of both stations were warmer than the natural control station Nachsholim (p

  • The heat anomaly of the Hadera power plant has a profound effect on the occurrence of T. agglutinans, which exhibits a very low abundance within the plume, in the distant station H4, with some increase in winter

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Summary

Introduction

Textularia agglutinans d’Orbigny is a large cosmopolitan agglutinated foraminifera species, with an elongated biserial test and a low arch aperture. It was first described by d’Orbigny in 1839 [1] from sandy beaches in Cuba, (type locality was not designated) and has been reported since from numerous locations worldwide. These include: Atlantic Ocean [2,3,4,5,6], Red Sea [7], PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0142263. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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