Endmember modelling on the terrigenous silt fraction of nine marine sediment cores spanning up to 180,000 years reveals the influx of North African dust into the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The dust grain size modes decrease with transport distance, from >50 µm off the African coast to ca. 30 µm in the Aegean Sea. The dust signal is strongly influenced by hydrological changes in northern Africa. Changes from arid to humid periods are documented in the grain size data of all cores. The climatic signal gets weaker with growing distance from the source and close to large fluvial sediment sources such as the Nile. Frequency and wavelet analyses show a strong orbital precession signal that is known to trigger the migration of the monsoonal rain belt in northern Africa. The influence of climate changes on suborbital time scales on dust influx is less distinct, but Dansgaard-Oeschger interstadials and Heinrich-like events are documented in some cores. In the sediment core closest to the source, three endmembers represent one or more dust sources in northern Africa. With growing distance from the source, the three modes cannot be separated anymore and appear as one multimodal dust endmember.

Once widespread throughout the Black and Mediterranean Seas and the coasts of north Africa, the Endangered Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus has disappeared throughout most of its original range. In Cyprus evidence suggests that the species became effectively extinct at the end of the 20th century. Following an increase of seal sightings around the island, a monitoring programme was established in 2009 to evaluate the status of the species. During 2009–2018, using field surveys, photographs from camera traps and an information network, we recorded an increasing number of seal sightings, and the birth of several pups, indicating the permanent presence of the species on the island. This is the first recorded re-establishment of a Mediterranean monk seal population in an area of its former range following near eradication.

The Aegean Sea, due to the complexity and variety of morphological features, bathymetry, hydrological, hydrodynamic features and climatic characteristics, offers a unique opportunity for monitoring the spreading and/or invasion of alien biota. It is known that the establishment of warm/tropical marine alien species is related mainly to the increase in sea temperature. A significant increase in aliens' number along the southern Aegean (Dodecanese) coasts has been documented in the last twenty years, while their arrival has produced evident changes in coastal ecosystem composition and function. Although the study area acts as a crossroad for tropical alien species introduction in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a direct attempt to link temperature alterations with new alien species arrivals has not been performed. Satellite and in situ derived marine temperature data showed that the study area has gone through a remarkable warming, while the link between global temperatures and regional ones revealed that this warming is not a local phenomenon but part of global climate trends. Examining relationships between new alien species arrivals data since 1929 against global temperatures, it is shown that their introduction rate parallels the significant increase of marine temperatures. The association of alien introductions with marine water warming, as well as potential effects on ecosystem functioning of selected species is discussed.