The present work expands the existing knowledge on M. mola ecology by assessing, for the first time, its abundance (and body size distribution) in the southern waters of Portugal and relating the associated temporal variations with environmental variables. There were significant seasonal differences in abundance, with peaks in spring and autumn and lower values throughout the summer. Ocean sunfish abundance was positively correlated with sea surface temperature and chlorophyll a, indicating that a combination of both temperature and productivity dictates spatial use. Complementarily, the absence of a relationship between abundance and water transparency may reveal a strategy in spatial use favouring a medium-term steady food supply over short-term improved feeding opportunities. Specimens ranged between 31.8 and 230.0 cm (total length), with 98% of all individuals measuring between 31.8 and 59.9 cm. As the vast majority of specimens analysed were immature, seasonal differences in abundance should not be related to spawning.

A review of the sequence stratigraphic development of the Tertiary basins of the North and West Alpine Foreland domains shows that their structural and depositional history was episodically affected by brief tectonic phases. These were associated with intermittent deformation events induced by the collisional convergence and compressional coupling of the Apulian and Iberian microplates with the European Plate. The plate kinematics-related episodicity was essentially isochronously recorded in the basin fills of the Alpine Foreland region. These are generally correlative with changes in eustatic sea level. The ensuing correlative successions of so-called Cenozoic Rift and Foredeep (CRF) sequences and phases can be traced throughout the European Cenozoic Rift System and Alpine Foreland Basin. Their temporal correlation indicates that, apparently, the changes in the plate collision-related stress regime of the Alpine Foreland were repeatedly accompanied by coeval changes in eustatic sea level. To test and substantiate the validity of this inferred causal relationship between intraplate deposition, plate kinematics and eustacy, the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the basins of the Mediterranean plate-boundary zone has been analysed in conjunction with a review of the plate-boundary events in the North Atlantic. Within the uncertainty range of available datings, synchroneity could thus be demonstrated for the punctuated tectonostratigraphic development of basins of the western Mediterranean (comprising the Liguro-Provençal Basin, Valencia Trough, Sardinia Rift and Tyrrhenian Basin), the Apenninic-Calabrian Arc, the Betic domain (including the Alboran Basin) and the North and West Alpine Foreland regions. Similar temporal correlations of plate tectonicsrelated events near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the North Atlantic and tectonostratigraphic sequences and phases of the Alpino-Pyrenean Foreland basins are further evidence of a common causal mechanism. The driving mechanisms appear to have been the northward drift of Africa and the resulting mechanical coupling of Apulia and Iberia with the southern passive margin of Europe, as well as the stepwise opening of the North Atlantic and accompanying episodic plate re-organisations of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The biology, ecology, and dynamics of the deep-sea teleost black scabbardfish in thenortheast Atlantic are reviewed. The black scabbardfish is a commercial bathypelagicspecies found in the NE Atlantic mostly from Iceland to the Canary Islands and WesternSahara, at depths from 800 to 1300 m. The spatial structure of its population is stilluncertain, although the existence of one single stock that migrates around the NE Atlanticdriven by feeding and reproduction is the most likely hypothesis consistent with availabledata. This review is based on data from commercial fisheries off the Faroe Islands, HattonBank, the west of the British Isles, and Portugal (mainland, Azores, and Madeira) and fromIcelandic and Scottish scientific surveys collected between 1988 and 2012. Spawning ofblack scabbardfish occurs around Madeira and the Canary Archipelagos during the lastquarter of the year. According to the migratory hypothesis, eggs, larvae, and possiblyjuveniles move north to areas from south of Icelandic and Faroe Islands to the west of theBritish Isles where they remain for some years to feed and grow. Then, they move south tothe area off mainland Portugal, where they reach the size of first maturity but do notreproduce, and later move further south to the spawning grounds. Further studies areneeded to understand which of the environmental conditions prevailing around Madeira andthe Canaries, but not elsewhere, allow this species to mature and subsequently reproduce.This review suggests that a multidisciplinary approach is required to confirm thespatiotemporal migration and habitats used by black scabbardfish populations in the NEAtlantic at different life stages. Otolith contour shape and microchemistry, fatty acids,carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes, as well as steroid hormones are proposed as promisingalternative tools for responding to this challenge.

The early Holocene climate of the North Atlantic region was influenced by two boundary conditions that were fundamentally different from the present: the presence of the decaying Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and higher than present summer solar insolation. In order to assess spatial and temporal patterns of Holocene climate evolution across this region, we collated quantitative paleotemperature records at sub-millennial resolution and synthesized their temporal variability using principal components analysis (PCA). The analysis reveals considerable spatial variability, most notably in the time-transgressive expression of the Holocene thermal maximum (HTM). Most of the region, but especially areas peripheral to the Labrador Sea and hence closest to the locus of LIS disintegration, experienced maximum Holocene temperatures that lagged peak summer insolation by 1000–3000 years. Many sites from the northeastern North Atlantic sector, including the Nordic Seas and Scandinavia, either warmed in phase with maximum summer insolation (11,000–9000 years ago) or were less strongly lagged than the Baffin Bay–Labrador Sea region. These spatially complex patterns of Holocene climate development, which are defined by the PCA, resulted from the interplay between final decay of the LIS and solar insolation forcing.