"Climate change is affecting marine environments all over the world but scientists' attention is mainly devoted to tropical areas. In the Mediterranean Sea, species with a cold affinity are decreasing very fast from 0 to 40 m depth, while warm water species increase. From 2000, several populations of the zoanthid Parazoanthus axinellae (Schmidt 1882) have been showing signs of suffering along the Ligurian coast. Here we report a three\u2010year monitoring, from June 2001 to September 2003, of a population of P. axinellae on the rocky cliff of the Portofino Promontory (Ligurian Sea). During this span of time the population, which covered an area of several square metres with a density of about 1 polyp cm\u22122, was severely reduced. In the meanwhile an encrusting sponge, Crambe crambe, rapidly colonized the free substrates abandoned by the zoanthid. Warm water and the massive proliferation of a cyanobacterium attributed to the genus Porphyrosiphon are hypothesized to be the main causes of this disease." . . "2006"^^ . _:b70016301 . "Cerrano et al. (2006)" . . "Climate change is affecting marine environments all over the world but scientists' attention is mainly devoted to tropical areas. In the Mediterranean Sea, species with a cold affinity are decreasing very fast from 0 to 40 m depth, while warm water species increase. From 2000, several populations of the zoanthid Parazoanthus axinellae (Schmidt 1882) have been showing signs of suffering along the Ligurian coast. Here we report a three\u2010year monitoring, from June 2001 to September 2003, of a population of P. axinellae on the rocky cliff of the Portofino Promontory (Ligurian Sea). During this span of time the population, which covered an area of several square metres with a density of about 1 polyp cm\u22122, was severely reduced. In the meanwhile an encrusting sponge, Crambe crambe, rapidly colonized the free substrates abandoned by the zoanthid. Warm water and the massive proliferation of a cyanobacterium attributed to the genus Porphyrosiphon are hypothesized to be the main causes of this disease." . . _:b70016301 . . _:b70016301 . _:b70016301 "10.1080/11250000600911675" . "2006"^^ . "10.1080/11250000600911675" . . "Cerrano et al. (2006)" . "Cerrano, C., Totti, C., Sponga, F. & Bavestrello, G. 2006. Summer disease in Parazoanthus axinellae (Schmidt, 1862) (Cnidaria, Zoanthidea). Italian Journal of Zoology, 73(4): 355-361." .