What's new in marine botany of the Eastern Mediterranean?

This article provides a topical review of East Mediterranean phycology and seagrass biology, with a special focus on the outcomes of the multi-year project "Brown algal biodiversity and ecology in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea" supported by the TOTAL Foundation. Following a general overview of East Mediterranean seaweed biogeography and taxonomy, the review covers seagrasses, deep-water (circalittoral) macroalgal diversity, pathogens and algal defence, human impacts and biotic indices, alien species as well as the papers of this special issue.