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Sensing membranes based on CNT nanocomposites processing for air and water monitoring

• Mihaela Filipescu

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Sensing membranes based on CNT nanocomposites processing for air and water monitoring

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ABSTRACT

Hereby we report on design of an aerial monitoring platform equipped with sensors for detection of specific contaminants, named AWISEM (Air-Water Innovative System for Environmental Monitoring). The AWISEM system is aimed to be a mobile aerial and aquatic vehicle which should contain: A) an aerial and aquatic mobile monitoring platform, with an innovative sustentation system, having the capability to fly and also to float in an aquatic environment; B) two distinct sets of sensors, based on CNT composites with high sensitivity for the monitoring of either aerial or aquatic contaminants. An important part of this work consists in producing and characterizing sensing membranes (thin layers) for two types of sensors able to detect contaminants such as ammonia - in air and nitrites - in water. These membranes are produced by matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation technique. The morphological investigations showed specific structures (“worm”-like, rods, grains) while EDX investigations revealed that all constitutive elements (C, O, Fe, W) of used compounds (CNT, C32H16FeN8, WO3) are present in the corresponding nanostructured layers.

PRESENTER

Mihaela Filipescu
INFLPR, Lasers Department

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Monitoring and Surveying from an Underwater Vehicle in SUSHI DROP Project

• Alessandro Lambertini

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Monitoring and Surveying from an Underwater Vehicle in SUSHI DROP Project

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ABSTRACT

The availability of accurate, reliable and up-to-date information concerning the state of marine resources is essential to create a decision support system for sustainable fishing to protect ecosystems. Within the Interreg Italy-Croatia SUSHI DROP Project (SUstainable fiSHeries wIth DROnes data Processing) a prototype of an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) was developed as a detection system capable of surveying the benthic zone in deep waters of the Adriatic Sea. Traditional survey methods based on the capture of living organisms, for example through the use of trawl nets, are invasive, extremely expensive and at the same time prohibited in protected marine areas. The need to develop accurate and non-invasive methods to map and study marine ecosystems is highlighted in the EU Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR) action plan. To meet these objectives, a UUV system equipped with various scientific instruments has been implemented and in this work we present the first surveys carried out.

PRESENTER

Alessandro Lambertini
Università di Bologna

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Co-located GNSS stations within the Italian National Tide Gauge Network

• Gabriele Nardone

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Co-located GNSS stations within the Italian National Tide Gauge Network

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this work is to introduce the ISPRA project aiming to realize a permanent GNSS coastal network co-located with the tide gauges of the ISPRA national network. The objective of integrating the two networks is to link the reference points of the tide gauge to an absolute ITRS reference system (International Terrestrial Reference System). In particular, the GNSS network allows the continuous monitoring of vertical movements; the medium-long term series analysis will allow to discriminate between the effect of vertical movements possibly present in the areas where the tide gauges are installed from the sea level variation due as an effect of the climate change. At the same time this network can contribute to the study of: the Italian geodynamic evolution, the subsidence phenomena, the evolution of the Italian coasts and the risk scenarios preparation especially in densely populated coastal areas.

PRESENTER

Gabriele Nardone
ISPRA, Italy

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Blockchain-based Maritime Monitoring System

• Warlley Paulo Freire

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Blockchain-based Maritime Monitoring System

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ABSTRACT

In the last decade, blockchain technology consolidated as an extremely versatile security tool for decentralized systems, becoming the backbone technology of IT systems in many different sectors. Aiming to develop mechanisms for naval systems cybersecurity, this work proposes a blockchain-based Maritime Monitoring System (MMS) to protect the integrity, authenticity, and availability of relevant navigation data. It proposes a permissioned blockchain solution using HyperLedger Fabric – a robust, modular, and efficient open-source blockchain platform. We evaluate this solution’s performance and feasibility through an experiment where the blockchain receives sensing data from an SDR-based low-cost Automatic Identification System receiver. Smart contracts process this data in a distributed way and write it into the blockchain ledger. The results provide quantitative analysis on the blockchain technology overhead and its impact in terms of Quality of Service, demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of our solution in the scope of an MMS.

PRESENTER

Warlley Paulo Freire
Brazilian Navy

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A Visibility Graph approach for path planning and real-time collision avoidance on maritime unmanned systems

• Immacolata Notaro

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A Visibility Graph approach for path planning and real-time collision avoidance on maritime unmanned systems

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ABSTRACT

In high navigation traffic areas, path planning and collision avoidance is a crucial element of safe navigation, mostly in view of possible future applications in hybrid scenarios where both manned and Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) share the environment. This paper deals with a novel procedure to generate optimal paths in presence of static and moving obstacles. The proposed path planning approach deals with an optimization problem based on the so-called Essential Visibility Graph (EVG) [1], an extension of the standard Visibility Graph (VG) [2], in order to find the minimum cost piecewise linear path between two points in a scenario with several obstacles. Such approach can be used also in presence of multiple ASV or movable obstacles, by using a re-planning procedure to update the EVG over a selected prediction time interval. To make the solution compliant with the current regulation and make ASV behaviour predictable by human pilots on manned vehicles, EVG was extended by implementing a cut procedure based on Collision Regulations (COLREGS) [3]. Finally, the use of Dubins curves provides smooth paths, compliant with physics constraints such as the minimum turn radius. A campaign of numerical simulations was carried out to test the effectiveness of the proposed technique in different operational scenarios. Results show that the algorithm is always able to identify COLREGS-compliant trajectories, in order to avoid collisions and assure minimum safety distance as well. Furthermore, the low computational burden suggests that the proposed procedure can be considered a promising approach for real-time applications.

PRESENTER

Immacolata Notaro
Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"

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Cyber Security Risk Management for Ports - A Systematic Literature Review

• Barbara Drummond

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Cyber Security Risk Management for Ports - A Systematic Literature Review

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ABSTRACT

Understanding the importance of the maritime sector to the global economy, and within this sector, the peculiarities of Ports due to their critical role in an extremely dynamic environment, this paper looks to perform a Systematic Literature Review, aiming to define the state of the art and to discover the processes and methodologies that may assist port facilities in conforming to IMO's cyber security related resolutions. Meanwhile, seeking to further advances in research for this sector, this review also looks to acknowledge the current gaps in the field.

PRESENTER

Barbara Drummond
Universidade Federal Fluminense (IC/UFF)

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River Survey Evolution by means of Autonomous Surface Vehicles

• Angelo Odetti

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River Survey Evolution by means of Autonomous Surface Vehicles

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ABSTRACT

Liguria (Italy) is one of the European regions where extreme events related to anthropogenic changes have had the greatest number of negative effects. In this area the use of suitable robots can improve monitoring the impact of anthropogenic pressure in wetland ecosystems. A recent bathymetry survey took place with an ASV named SWAMP that was specifically designed for the extremely shallow waters peculiar of rivers and inland waters. SWAMP was equipped with a single beam sonar protected inside the hull and performed a bathimetry in the area where Roja river flows not far from the Italy-France border. During the survey SWAMP proved to be easily transportable in a harsh environment and to be capable of working in extremely shallow water without any risk for sensors and propulsion and to be highly manoeuvrable in narrow space.

PRESENTER

Angelo Odetti
CNR-INM

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UAV Photogrammetry-based Mapping the Pocket Beach of Isola Bella,Taormina (Northeastern Sicily)

• Anselme Muzirafuti

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UAV Photogrammetry-based Mapping the Pocket Beach of Isola Bella,Taormina (Northeastern Sicily)

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ABSTRACT

Pocket Beach (PB) planview geometry analysis is one of the most important steps needed for PB characterization and dynamic evaluation. With modern technology, quantitative morphology of a PB can be obtained with high degree of confidence. In this paper we used Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry-based mapping technology combining drone and Global Positioning System (GPS) for 2D and 3D models reconstruction of Isola Bella PBs located on the coast of Taormina City (northeastern Sicily). The aim of this paper is to show how very high spatial resolution data can be obtained and analyzed for the retrieval of geomorphological features and geometric parameters of the PBs. Computer-assisted visual interpretation approach was adopted to manually digitalize, delineate and extract the planform characteristics of the PB. The planview geometry analysis was conducted on orthophotos and digital surface models of 1.81 cm and 1.69 cm, spatial resolutions, acquired during two flight surveys. The mapping approach adopted in this paper shows that information on planform geometry of PBs can be obtained faster using modern remote sensing technologies allowing time series analysis of planview parameters.

PRESENTER

Anselme Muzirafuti
University of Messina

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Unsupervised classification based approach for coastline extraction from Sentinel-2 imagery

• Emanuele Alcaras

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Unsupervised classification based approach for coastline extraction from Sentinel-2 imagery

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ABSTRACT

Coastline extraction techniques from multispectral satellite images are of great interest for protection and monitoring of coastal areas. In this regard, the Sentinel-2 satellites can give a great contribution thanks to their wide coverage of the earth's surface. These images can be processed by GIS software, so as to detect the sea from all the rest. However, the traditional supervised classification requires the involvement of the operator to create suitable training sites: this approach, in addition to being associated to the operator's skill, often takes a long time to be completed. This contribution presents a study carried out on Sentinel-2 dataset and proposes the application of an unsupervised classification method, the k-means, on four different classification indices. The coastlines extracted by unsupervised classification are therefore compared with the coastline manually vectorized from the RGB composition. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of k-means for distinguishing, in the images produced by the indices application, two clusters (water / no-water) in a reduced time lapse if compared with the traditional supervised techniques.

PRESENTER

Emanuele Alcaras
University of Naples Parthenope

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Design of a mobile platform for monitoring the aerial and aquatic environment

• Silviu Epure

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Design of a mobile platform for monitoring the aerial and aquatic environment

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ABSTRACT

The main objective of AWISEM project is to validate a versatile, low energy consumption and innovative mobile platform equipped with sensors able to detect contaminants, either in air or water as an experimental mobile laboratory demonstrator (TRL 4) and as an extremely useful tool when monitoring the environment.

PRESENTER

Silviu Epure
"Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati

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TRACE ELEMENTS ACCUMULATION COULD INFLUENCE PARASITIC LOAD AND HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN A CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN POPULATION OF LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus canicula

• Francesca Romana Reinero

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TRACE ELEMENTS ACCUMULATION COULD INFLUENCE PARASITIC LOAD AND HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN A CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN POPULATION OF LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus canicula

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ABSTRACT

The lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula has an important role in the trophic web of demersal fish communities, representing an important trophic link between invertebrates and larger predatory fish. Despite its scientific interest, there is still scarce knowledge about many biological and ecological aspects of this shark. Parasitological, hematological and ecotoxicological analyses were carried out on a population of lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula from central Mediterranean. Parasitological analyses highlighted a poor helminthic community, highly dominated by a single taxon represented by the cestode Nybelinia sp. and no differences between females and males were observed. Hematological analyses showed that the number of leukocytes was significantly lower in the sharks that resulted parasitized: this was probably due to the ability of some trace elements (like As) in weakening of the immune system, exposing the animals to a higher risk of parasite infection. Trace elements analyses were performed in vertebrae, skin, and liver tissues and the most abundant and potentially toxic elements were: Pb, As, Cd, Mn, Zn, Ni and Fe. Pb, As and Mn showed the highest concentrations in vertebrae due to the diet of the sharks; Fe and Ni in the skin, due to their presence in the water column where animals were collected, and Cd and Zn in the liver, linked to their ability to induce trace elements binding metallothionein proteins (MT), which can reduce the concentration of Cd. These results confirm that elasmobranchs, being predators at the apex of the marine food chain, act as final receptors for a series of polluting elements regularly discharged into the sea that could weak their immune system increasing the parasitic load. For that reason, they could be considered as bioindicator of the health status of marine ecosystems.

PRESENTER

Francesca Romana Reinero
University of Calabria

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UKF-based fault detection and isolation algorithm for IMU sensors of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

• Vito Antonio Nardi

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UKF-based fault detection and isolation algorithm for IMU sensors of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

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ABSTRACT

Sensor fault detection and isolation (SFDI) is a fundamental topic in unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) development, since control system reliability strongly depends on the accuracy of attitude estimation. In small UUVs, typical redundant architectures, based on triplex redundancy, can represent a strong limitation in terms of payload and power consumption. This work proposes an FDI algorithm for small UUVs equipped with duplex sensor architecture. Here, attitude estimation relies upon the usage of two 9-DoF inertial measurement units (IMUs) including 3-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers. The proposed SFDI algorithm is based on an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) approach to efficiently detect and isolate faulted IMU sensors. Its effectiveness and robustness were proved through experimental tests involving realistic faults on a real underwater vehicle. A sensitivity analysis was carried out on the relevant algorithm parameters in order to find a trade-off between performance, computational burden and reliability.

PRESENTER

Vito Antonio Nardi
University "Mediterranea" of Reggio Calabria

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Modular Pod Wells Turbine Array: a Preliminary Assessment

• Enrico Petritoli

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Modular Pod Wells Turbine Array: a Preliminary Assessment

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ABSTRACT

Renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly important in the development of technologies for the generation of electricity. This is where the air turbines are located which, depending on their location, are declined as air turbines or, if they use the mass of air displaced by the OWCs, they are installed as Wells turbines. Since the mass of air oscillates, the Wells have the ability to always rotate in the same direction regardless of the direction of the air. In the Mediterranean, where the excursion of the waves level is more modest than the oceanic one, it is necessary to resort to other methodologies such as the implementation of an array of small autonomous turbines that come into operation in a modular way according to the energy of the sea in order to exploit even modest energy.

PRESENTER

Enrico Petritoli
Università Roma Tre, Italy

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A low-cost and low-burden solution to track small-scale fisheries

• Alessandro Galdelli

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A low-cost and low-burden solution to track small-scale fisheries

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ABSTRACT

During the last decade accurate spatial and quantitative information of industrial fisheries have been increasingly given using tracking technologies and machine learning analytical algorithms. However, in most small-scale fisheries, lack of spatial data has been a recurrent bottleneck as Vessel Monitoring System and Automatic Identification System, developed for vessels longer than 12 and 15 m in length respectively, have little applicability in these contexts. It follows that small scale vessels (< 12 m in length) remain untracked and largely unregulated, even though they account for most of the fishing fleet in operation in the Mediterranean Sea. As such, the tracking of small-scale fleets tends to require the use of novel and low cost solutions that could be addressed by small vessels often without dedicated electrical systems. In this paper we present a scalable architecture that makes use of a low-cost LoRa/cellular network to acquire and process positioning data from small scale vessels, and preliminary results of a first installation of the prototype are presented, as well as the data collected. The emergence of a such low-cost and open source technology coupled to artificial intelligence could open new opportunities for equipping small scale vessels, collecting their trajectory data and estimating their fishing effort. It enables a new monitoring strategy that could effectively include small-scale fleets and support the design of new policies oriented to inform coastal resource and fisheries management, and cross-border marine spatial planning.

PRESENTER

Alessandro Galdelli
Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

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Underwater acoustic source localization using a multi-robot system: the DAMPS project

• Paolo Di Lillo

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Underwater acoustic source localization using a multi-robot system: the DAMPS project

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ABSTRACT

This paper presents the funded project DAMPS, that addresses the development of a multi-robot system for the position tracking of noise sources in underwater environment. The robots composing the team collaborate in order to fuse the local information coming from the analysis of a PAM sensor, with the final aim of estimating the position of a the acoustic source. The team is thus a distributed, modular and reconfigurable sonar system that can be controlled remotely from a Control\&Command center. In this paper we highlight the functional architecture that will be implemented within the project and the possible algorithmic approaches to be employed within the submodules.

PRESENTER

Paolo Di Lillo
University of Cassino and Southern Lazio

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Ecosafe Nano-based solutions for Pollution Monitoring and Control in the Marine Environment

• Ilaria Corsi

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Ecosafe Nano-based solutions for Pollution Monitoring and Control in the Marine Environment

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ABSTRACT

Along with social and economic development, population growth and the increasing interests in exploitation of marine resources, a progressively increase of marine pollution can be expected. Both marine communities populating coastal areas as well as the deep sea have been continuously threatened by various classes of chemical pollutants with associated environmental deterioration and reduction of ecosystem services. Since the sustainable development and ecological protection of the ocean means that of human beings, efficient solutions for pollution monitoring and hazards mitigation are mandatory. Here we propose innovative nano-based solutions developed in the framework of an ecologically based design strategy (eco-design) able to quick and efficient detect and remove chemical pollutants from marine waters with no further associated risk for humans and the environment.

PRESENTER

Ilaria Corsi
University of Siena

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Mapping of Organotin compounds in sediments of Mar Piccolo (Taranto, Italy) using GC-MS analysis and geochemical data

• Federica Massari

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Mapping of Organotin compounds in sediments of Mar Piccolo (Taranto, Italy) using GC-MS analysis and geochemical data

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ABSTRACT

Among the organic pollutants, organotin compounds represent a serious environmental risk, able to negatively affect the ecological balances of the marine sediments. In the present study, sediment samples were collected, as part of a monitoring campaign planned by the Special Commissioner for urgent measures of reclamation, environmental improvements and redevelopment of Taranto, from 19 sites, at different depths, within the First Inlet of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, well-known for the impacting anthropogenic pressures. By the comparison between the GC-MS analysis and the geochemical data, higher reworking sites shown higher or not negligible concentrations of organotin compounds in deeper sediments (3 m from the seabded) than superficial, as observed in particular in A6.

PRESENTER

Federica Massari

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Halotolerance of Rhodobacter sphaeroides for saline and hypersaline wastewater bioremediation

• Rossella Labarile

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Halotolerance of Rhodobacter sphaeroides for saline and hypersaline wastewater bioremediation

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ABSTRACT

The problem of hypersaline wastewater requires the development of new and inexpensive alternatives for bioremediation. Halotolerant bacteria, which tolerate and are able to survive in moderate to high salinity environments, have been explored with promising results for wastewater treatment. Photosynthetic bacteria, a wide class of phototrophs, possess extraordinary metabolic versatility and include extremophiles that thrive in habitats having extreme pH, salinity and light. The ability to grow in extreme conditions of Rhodobacter (R.) sphaeroides, a purple non-sulfur proteobacteria, that lives in freshwater was evaluated. To investigate the response of R. sphaeroides to increased medium osmolarity under anerobic growth conditions, media with elevated osmotic strengths were attained by adding NaCl into the growing media at the desired concentrations in the range 0-2.5 M NaCl. Moreover the pH effect on anaerobic growth the pH of the medium was evaluated

PRESENTER

Rossella Labarile
Università degli Studi di Bari A. Moro/CNR IPCF

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Straightforward and effective removal of phenolic compounds from water by Polydopamine coated Diatomaceous Earth

• Cesar Vicente Garcia

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Straightforward and effective removal of phenolic compounds from water by Polydopamine coated Diatomaceous Earth

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ABSTRACT

Diatom microalgae and their fossil Diatomaceous Earth (DE) are an abundant source of mesoporous silica acting as a low-cost natural nanotextured material. Here we report a straightforward coating method of DE with polydopamine (PDA), an adhesive biocompatible organic polymer that is spontaneously generated by oxidative polymerization of dopamine in mild basic aqueous conditions. The resulting PDA-DE is expected to be a promising porous material for environmental remediation of seawater since it interacts with phenolic species used as model pollutants, enabling their removal from aqueous media.

PRESENTER

Cesar Vicente Garcia

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PFAS Proficiency test based on real environmental matrix

• Antonio Fornaro

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PFAS Proficiency test based on real environmental matrix

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ABSTRACT

In year 2020 InterCinD organized a PT for PFAS determination in Leachate to meet Labs requirements for this kind of analysis. After this first PT, now the Scheme is Accredited 17043:10 and this kind of study will be further developed with new materials from environment to test Labs performance in monitoring these pollutants.

PRESENTER

Antonio Fornaro
Labservice Analytica

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Multimodal data fusion and analysis for cetaceans’ presence and abundance estimation in the Gulf of Taranto

• Vito Renò

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Multimodal data fusion and analysis for cetaceans’ presence and abundance estimation in the Gulf of Taranto

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ABSTRACT

The presence of cetaceans in a sea basin indicates the quality of that ecosystem. To support the conservation of these species, it is essential to deepen our knowledge of their habitual life. Given data about sighting of cetaceans in the Ionian Sea occurring between 2009 and 2019, the aim of this work is to study a set of morphological and meteorological features in order to understand if they can help in estimating cetacean abundance and build predictive models fit for purpose.

PRESENTER

Vito Renò
CNR STIIMA, Italy

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Contour extraction algorithm for the automated photo- identification of dolphins

• Emanuele Seller

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Contour extraction algorithm for the automated photo- identification of dolphins

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ABSTRACT

The photo-identification of individuals within an animal population is an important objective for the description of the environment itself, for studies relating to the distribution of species and their habitat-use as well as their conservation. The manual analysis of the photos collected by experts is generally very expensive in terms of time and requires specific knowledge. In the field of cetology, photo-identification based on the dorsal fin of individuals is widespread. The software here presented aims to effectively isolate the outline of the dorsal fin, so that it can be used in applications that exploit nicks, notches and other irregularities for the identification and classification process. It implements a series of innovative and specific operations that make the tool applicable to very large datasets with good performances and it has been successfully used for the extraction of the fin outline on dolphin images acquired in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea - Central Mediterranean Sea).

PRESENTER

Emanuele Seller

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Developing a protocol for the photo-identification of striped dolphin in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea)

• Francesca Cornelia Santacesaria

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Developing a protocol for the photo-identification of striped dolphin in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea)

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ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility to apply photo-identification method on the striped dolphin. As non-invasive and inexpensive methods, the photo-ID could improve our knowledge about abundance, temporal distribution, movements, social organization of striped dolphin population in the Gulf of Taranto. In this work, two different criteria were tested to identify individual: the first based on the dorsal fin, the second based on the pigmentation pattern variability and long-term markers on the body. Multiple notches and multiple nicks resulted the most useful markers on dorsal fin for the photo-identification of striped dolphin, followed by the presence of one large notch, one small nick and deformities. These markers allowed the identification of 150 striped dolphins of which 40 were re-sighted from 2 to 7 times. The photo-ID based on the pigmentation pattern resulted in 47 individuals of which only one was re-sighted during the study period.

PRESENTER

Francesca Cornelia Santacesaria
Jonian Dolphin Conservation

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Reliability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the groups size estimation of Grampus griseus (Cuvier, 1812) in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central-eastern Mediterranean Sea)

• Roberto Crugliano

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Reliability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the groups size estimation of Grampus griseus (Cuvier, 1812) in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central-eastern Mediterranean Sea)

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ABSTRACT

In the last decade, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) was applied in monitoring studies addressing to terrestrial and marine wildlife for their multiple advantages. Due to their operational flexibility, low cost UAVs has been applied for from abundance surveys, to the measurement of the individuals through photogrammetry methods, or to studying behavior. In this work, numerical estimates of group size of Risso's dolphin sighted in the Gulf of Taranto from UAVs video-analysis were compared from research vessel. Data were collected from April 2018 to September 2020 for a total of 109:58 minutes of recording. Aerial shots alongside traditional survey methods allowed a more thorough analysis of the number of individuals observed, offering a better overview together with the possibility of viewing videos several times and taking screenshots. Using UAVs could provide more accurate estimates on Risso's dolphin population. In conclusion, given the efficiency such systems found in this work, the use of UAV could be instrumental in broadening perspectives on marine mammal studies.

PRESENTER

Roberto Crugliano

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Photogrammetry applications on stranded cetaceans: fin whale case study and preliminary results

• Silvio Del Pizzo

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Photogrammetry applications on stranded cetaceans: fin whale case study and preliminary results

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ABSTRACT

Yearly, an important number of cetacean strandings is recorded on the Italian coastline. The Italian stranding network is involved in multidisciplinary investigations on these episodes. Morphometric measurements collection of a stranding cetacean represents fundamental data for the study of marine mammals, despite some logistic limitations due to field and carcass conditions. The use of photogrammetry for surveying cetaceans has shown many vantages and several applications in recent years. In this work, the photogrammetry applications on a fin whale stranded on Campania coasts demonstrate the vantage of this method in supporting and replacing the classical one as well as in creating 3D models useful for more accurate carcass inspection and educational use.

PRESENTER

Silvio Del Pizzo
University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy

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Bottlenose dolphins of Montenegro: Abundance Estimation and Residency Patterns

• Kenn Papadopoulo

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Bottlenose dolphins of Montenegro: Abundance Estimation and Residency Patterns

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ABSTRACT

The Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) suffers from the lack of research in the Southern Adriatic Sea. In 2012, a decline of 50% of bottlenose dolphins population in the Mediterranean Sea was reported. To further our understanding of the spatial ecology of bottlenose dolphins in the southern Adriatic Sea, a four-year photo-identification study (starting in 2016) was carried out in Montenegro. Our results showed no permanent residency in Montenegro of any identified individual. Despite the low site fidelity, certain individuals were sighted each year throughout the survey. Key natural habitats for bottlenose dolphins were found all along the Montenegrin coast with notable preferences for Ulcinj, Bar and the Boka Kotorska Bay. Although the lack of data in the previous decade prevented us from inferring population trends, annual abundance estimation revealed a constant decline from 116±17 in 2017 to 79±21 in 2019. Current study provides critical information on the population status of bottlenose dolphins in Montenegro, with a worrying decline recorded between 2016 and 2019 which could be attributed to the natural causes and/or increased human activities in Montenegro, ranging from coastal destruction to oil and gas explorations. Future research has to assess the present threats on the species while following a transboundary approach to understand the home range of species and to investigate the presence of possible habitat shifts.

PRESENTER

Kenn Papadopoulo
DMAD - Marine Mammals Research Association, France

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The decline of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) presence and group size in Montenegrin waters

• Sian McGuinness

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The decline of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) presence and group size in Montenegrin waters

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ABSTRACT

The Mediterranean subpopulation of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) is classed as vulnerable with a decreasing population trend. Yet, research effort in the Mediterranean varies with relatively little being known of the Southern Adriatic Sea’s bottlenose dolphins, which face increasing numbers of anthropogenic threats, mainly marine traffic, tourism, fishing and seismic activity. To investigate trends in bottlenose dolphin presence, group size and sub-adult presence in Montenegrin waters, 576 land and boat surveys were conducted from September 2016 to August 2020. Chi-squared tests showed a significant decline in bottlenose dolphin presence over the four years. Changes in group size over the four-year period were also assessed using Chi-squared tests, and results showed that in Year 1 (September 2016 to August 2017) significantly more medium (3-4 individuals) and large (over 5 individuals) groups were observed than expected. Whereas, in the following three years more small groups were observed (1-2 individuals). Neither bottlenose dolphin presence nor group size was found to be associated with season. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the relationship of sub-adult presence with year, season and group size. Sub-adults were most likely to be present in the summer (June, July and August) and when group size was large. Montenegrin waters are of significant importance to the wider Adriatic. Therefore, urgent action is required to identify the cause of the declining trends and to protect Montenegro’s bottlenose dolphin population from anthropogenic pressures. A dedicated management strategy must be quickly and effectively implemented, while continuous study is required to monitor and assess trends moving forward.

PRESENTER

Sian McGuinness
DMAD

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Impact of cetacean watching vessels on Risso’s dolphins behaviour in the Gulf of Taranto: preliminary information to regulate dolphin watching

• Stefano Bellomo

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Impact of cetacean watching vessels on Risso’s dolphins behaviour in the Gulf of Taranto: preliminary information to regulate dolphin watching

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ABSTRACT

Dolphin and whale watching has become worldwide a popular ecotourism activity. However, it can itself be a source of disturbance/stress to animals. Therefore, it is necessary quantify its impacts on cetacean species and possible behavioural responses to interaction between vessels and cetaceans. This study provided first preliminary information of the possible impact of a research vessel on behavioural activity of the Risso’s dolphin recorded in the Gulf of Taranto from April 2019 to September 2020. Information about positive, neutral and responses of Risso’s dolphins to research vessel was collected according focal-group protocol with instantaneous scan-sampling during 60 sightings, for a total of 300 sampling sessions of 3-min. Travelling resulted the most observed activity state (62%) followed by resting (24%), socializing (7%) and feeding (7%). A neutral response were observed in 81.3% of cases, a negative one in 17% of cases and positive in 1.7% of cases. For each activity state recorded, the most observed behavioural response was neutral, followed by negative reaction. Results provided in this study seems to indicate that Risso’s dolphins displayed a neutral response in the most of sightings. However, further studies are necessary to better understand if the presence of whale watching vessels may induce changes, and to what degree, in the essential behaviour of this and other species occurring in the area.

PRESENTER

Stefano Bellomo
Jonian Dolphin Conservation

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Vessel-based surveys as a tool to fill critical knowledge gap on Grampus griseus in the north-eastern Aegean Sea

• Guido Pietroluongo

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Vessel-based surveys as a tool to fill critical knowledge gap on Grampus griseus in the north-eastern Aegean Sea

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ABSTRACT

Data on Risso’s dolphin are very scarce, possibly due to its wide-ranging movements in the Mediterranean basin. Available data suggest the presence of this species in deep waters, shelf-break areas where the slope is steepest, around offshore islands and archipelagos. A total of eight sightings were recorded during vessel-based surveys carried out along opportunistic line transects from March 2017 to October 2019. The results of the monitoring activity showed that the occurrence of this species in the water surrounding Samos Island is unpredictable and that the characteristics of the environment of each sighting are various, as already shown by previous Mediterranean studies. Nonetheless, the results of this study are promising concerning Risso’s dolphin presence and conservation in the waters surrounding Samos Island.

PRESENTER

Guido Pietroluongo
Università degli Studi di Padova

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Combining Data Sources to Understand the Fine-Scale Distribution and Encounter Rates of Common Dolphins Delphius delphis in one of the busiest waterways in the world, the Istanbul Strait

• Tim Awbery

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Combining Data Sources to Understand the Fine-Scale Distribution and Encounter Rates of Common Dolphins Delphius delphis in one of the busiest waterways in the world, the Istanbul Strait

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ABSTRACT

Common dolphins in the Mediterranean have seen declines in recent decades, with increased fragmentation and patchiness, generally attributed to a range of anthropogenic threats. Despite this, few attempts have been made to identify critical areas of dolphins. One such area with heavy overlap of human threats and cetaceans is the Istanbul Strait. The current study presents the findings of a long-term, continuous survey effort that provides the first fine-scale, seasonal distribution and encounter rates of common dolphins for the Istanbul Strait. Land- and Boat-based surveys were conducted systematically between 2011 and 2013 with opportunistic boats surveys completed between 2017 and 2020. A custom Python script divided the Strait into 500m2 grid cells, before compiling the total hours of survey effort in each cell to enable calculation of seasonal encounter rate. Dolphins were distributed throughout the Strait with distribution varying seasonally. The majority of the strait was used by dolphins in the summer, with only the north used in winter. Encounter rate also varied by season, with the highest mean encounter rate across grid cells of 1.9 individuals/hour in the summer and just 0.07 individuals/hour in autumn. The results provide baseline seasonal data for the area and identify the northern area of the Strait as important across all seasons. As previous studies on cetaceans have identified vessel type, vessel speed, intensity of marine traffic, and distance from the dolphin group having an effect on cetaceans, protection is recommended in the north with seasonal management suggested in the central region in spring and summer.

PRESENTER

Tim Awbery
DMAD - Marine Mammals Research Association

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Modelling the distribution of striped dolphins in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece in the first two periods of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

• Marta Azzolin

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Modelling the distribution of striped dolphins in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece in the first two periods of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

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ABSTRACT

The aim of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is to protect more effectively the marine environment and marine biodiversity across Europe. In the present study, the predicted distribution of striped dolphins of the Gulf of Corinth (Greece) is investigated for the first two periods of the MSFD (I: 2007-2012; II: 2013-2018). For the first time, anthropogenic variables are included in the analysis, resulting to account for more than 50% of the variability. The results show that the predicted distribution is similar for both investigated period. However, a small reduction of suitable areas in the Northern portion of the Gulf is observable for the second one, due to the expansion of fish farm activity. Concluding, the present study shows that human activities are important for explaining stripe dolphin distribution and that their further development needs to be carefully taken into account when planning for spatial management measures.

PRESENTER

Marta Azzolin
Gaia Research Institute Onlus, Italy

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Assessment of genetic diversity of the striped dolphin population in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea)

• Giulia Cipriano

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Assessment of genetic diversity of the striped dolphin population in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea)

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ABSTRACT

The increasing recognition of the importance of biodiversity and genetic variation has led to more frequent calls for their preservation. Moreover, novel molecular and advanced genomic tools can be effectively employed to incorporate genetic variability and genomic information into conservation planning and sustainable programs, aimed at species conservation and slowing the erosion of biological diversity. The particular geomorphological and hydrographic features of Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea), supports the occurrence of different cetacean species among that the striped dolphin is the more frequent and abundant species. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic variability of this species in the study area, deepening the possibility to identify a subpopulation in the basin.

PRESENTER

Giulia Cipriano
University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy

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Analysis of the epibiont communities of loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta recovered along the southern Italian coasts

• Giovanni Galluzzo

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Analysis of the epibiont communities of loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta recovered along the southern Italian coasts

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ABSTRACT

Sea turtles (Cheloniidae) offer an ideal substrate for the settlement of various epibionts organisms. The structure of the epifauna communities associated with sea turtles provides information on the movement and habitats most frequented by Cheloniidae. Thanks to the collaboration with the Sea Turtle Recovery Centers (STRC) of Policoro (MT) and Molfetta (BA), the communities of epibionts present on individuals of C. caretta, recovered by bycatch or stranded on the beach in the High Northern Ionian Sea (ION) and Southern Adriatic (ADR), have been characterized. The study, aimed at 1) identifying temporal differences in the structure of epifauna communities 2) and compare community structures in two areas of Mediterranean, involved a sample of 142 turtles (108 STRC Policoro; 34 STRC Molfetta). Data obtained from the ION individuals were used to test seasonal differences in terms of species richness, abundance and community structure of epibionts, using PERMANOVA univariate analyzes with fixed factor (season). The second objective was to compare the two communities of epibionts (ION and ADR), testing the previously mentioned parameters and highlighting the significant differences of univariate and multivariate analyses, through the use of PERMANOVA with fixed factor (sea area). Mesure of the CCL (Curved Carapace Lenght) were obtained to identify the predominant age classes of the turtles recovered in the two areas. Finally, an analysis of taxonomic distinctness was performed to further highlight the differences in terms of taxonomic diversity. No statistically significant differences in the number of taxa were highlighted, while the total number of epibiontic individuals between the two geographical areas was significantly different, suggesting a variability in terms of community composition between the two basins. In fact, ION area show greater taxonomic diversity than ADR. Intensifying the monitoring of epifauna growing up on sea turtles could provide useful data on changes in community structures trough time and space and plan direct conservation measures on foraging, breeding, and nesting habitats of loggerhead.

PRESENTER

Giovanni Galluzzo
OA WWF Costa ionica lucana e aree interne

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The role of citizen reports in turtle nests discovery: the case of Samos Island, Greece

• Guido Pietroluongo

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The role of citizen reports in turtle nests discovery: the case of Samos Island, Greece

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ABSTRACT

The geographical characteristics of the Greek coastline and the lack of effort in not urbanised or remote areas may hinder the localisation of sea turtle nests. Citizen science campaigns and opportunistic observations are powerful tools to conduct monitoring in the areas with gaps of knowledge. Through an awareness campaign, a total of five nests were reported on Samos shoreline in 2018 and 2019. The nest inspection investigated the site characteristics and the reproductive outputs, which results are in accordance with previous studies on the species. The engagement of local communities from previously unsurveyed locations, such as in Samos Island, could assist the adequate enforcement of protection measures, filling the gap of information on nests distribution in remote locations.

PRESENTER

Guido Pietroluongo
Università degli Studi di Padova

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Use of telemetry sensors as a tool for health/welfare monitoring of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in aquaculture

• Sébastien Alfonso

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Use of telemetry sensors as a tool for health/welfare monitoring of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in aquaculture

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ABSTRACT

Swimming activity is essential for fishes to perform behaviors, such as feeding, migration or reproduction. Energetic costs related to swimming activity may be inferred by measuring aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, which is of interest for both conservation and aquaculture purpose. However, such measurements in free-swimming fish are not easily applicable in the field, therefore the use of remote sensors from telemetry field could offer promising tools to counter these limitations. In this work, we calibrated accelerometer sensors with the oxygen consumption rate (MO2) and the activity of white and red muscle during swimming in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a key marine species of European aquaculture. We then provided insights of the fish physiological stress profile and growth rate following the implantation of such sensors. We finally showed some examples of how these sensors may be useful to monitor fish response to rearing conditions, including high stocking density and diet regimes. Altogether, this paper provides support to use the telemetry sensors as valuable tools for monitoring health and welfare of European sea bass in aquaculture conditions.

PRESENTER

Sébastien Alfonso
COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca

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Size and season matters: diel vertical movement of blue sharks in the southern Adriatic Sea

• Theda Hinrichs

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Size and season matters: diel vertical movement of blue sharks in the southern Adriatic Sea

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ABSTRACT

Satellite tracking technology has been used to gain information on blue sharks (Prionace glauca, L. 1758) across the major oceans but is lacking in the Mediterranean Sea. Here, blue sharks are ranked as critically endangered due to a high impact of fishing. Blue sharks are often bycaught in longline fisheries. In this study, pop-up archival tags optimized to transmit short-term data for survivorship studies (sPAT, Wildlife Computers) were used to elucidate the vertical movement and provide management strategies for blue sharks bycaught in the swordfish longline fishery in the southern Adriatic Sea. Of 20 tagged individuals, archival data were subsequently obtained from eleven (55 %). Although some individuals were restricted by the bathymetry, two patterns of vertical diel movement were revealed: 1) small and medium sized blue sharks (128 - 158 cm TL) display the most regular diel vertical movements, larger blue sharks (189 - 206 cm TL) the least regular, more spike-like; 2) most regular diel vertical movements occur during September. Thus, deploying surface longlines in September during daylight hours may reduce blue shark bycatch as well as introducing intervals of reduced surface longline fishing or using mid-water longlines in October.

PRESENTER

Theda Hinrichs
University Rostock

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Characterizing movements of Palinurus elephas (Fabr. 1787) as a useful tool in Fully Protected Areas design: the case study of the Sardinian FPAs (central-western Mediterranean)

• Antonello Mulas

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Characterizing movements of Palinurus elephas (Fabr. 1787) as a useful tool in Fully Protected Areas design: the case study of the Sardinian FPAs (central-western Mediterranean)

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ABSTRACT

Fully Protected Areas (FPAs) represent a powerful tool for marine resources management. Among the parameters to consider for their optimal design, the movements of the species to protect are of particular importance. We examined the movement patterns of 744 spiny lobsters, Palinurus elephas, tagged during a restocking program carried out in 12 Sardinian FPAs. Once the lobsters were captured, transported and released in the center of the FPA, the linear distances performed by 80% of the lobsters from the recapture (RC) to the release point (RE), (recapture distance, RC-RE) increased as a function of the point in which they were captured for the first time (release distance, C-RE), until a maximum value of about 13500 m. By a management perspective, these results highlight a behaviour, perhaps attributable to homing, representing an important starting point to take into consideration when planning FPAs. In fact, since release and recapture distances appeared related, in order to preserve a portion of the lobsters within the FPA and to guarantee a spillover of specimens in the surrounding commercial areas, the longer is the release, the bigger would be the FPA.

PRESENTER

Antonello Mulas
University of Cagliari

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Combining a tagging experiment as validation study on age and growth of Raja clavata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the South Adriatic Sea

• Marilena Donnaloia

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Combining a tagging experiment as validation study on age and growth of Raja clavata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the South Adriatic Sea

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ABSTRACT

Semi-direct validation studies represent the most commonly applied methodology for elasmobranch and an useful tool for understanding the yearly deposition pattern of bands laid down on their hard structure. This study evaluated the age and growth of the thornback ray, Raja clavata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the South Adriatic Sea and for the first time attempted an age validation through a tagging experiment. Eighty-three thornback specimens were tagged and released, of which two were recaptured with oxytetracycline marks clearly visible. Further 291 vertebral centra were sampled and used for age estimation purposes. The oldest female was estimated to be 12 years old (total length, TL, 89 cm), while the oldest male was aged 8 years (79.9 cm of TL). The band deposition after oxytetracycline injection and growth during the freedom period (about 1 year) were consistent with the applied age estimation method and the obtained growth results. Thus, the analysis of the vertebral centra of the two recaptured specimens confirmed the hypothesis of a single annulus deposition per year.

PRESENTER

Marilena Donnaloia
COISPA - Tecnologia & Ricerca

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Eaten by a cormorant: Unexpected return of a tagged Baltic cod

• Stefanie Haase

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Eaten by a cormorant: Unexpected return of a tagged Baltic cod

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ABSTRACT

Temperature-depth data storage tags (DSTs) store individual measurements of the water depth occupied, and the surrounding water temperature experienced by free-ranging fish. DSTs need to be returned to access the data. They are most commonly returned by commercial fishermen. Returns of fish that died due to natural causes are rare. During an international tagging project, one DST was returned by an ornithologist which found the data logger in a food pallet on a cormorant colony. Although the cod itself was not available since it was already digested, the DST provided 90 days of data prior to the predation event. It mostly remained in waters shallower than 40 m and conducted daily vertical movements covering the whole water column which lead to daily temperature differences of up to 8.8 °C. During one trip where the cod moved into very shallow waters, it was taken from the cormorant in a water depth of 1.5 m and subsequently digested for 25 hours. The DST recorded temperatures between 39.3 and 41.2 °C during this period. This returned DST provided qualitative data on the predation event of a cormorant and emphasize the importance to announce large-scale tagging projects also among other possible return sources.

PRESENTER

Stefanie Haase
Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries

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LED technology to increase the purse seine fishery performance

• Pasquale Ricci

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LED technology to increase the purse seine fishery performance

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ABSTRACT

The catch efficiency of LED lamps in the purse seine fishery as well as their performances from the environmental sustainability point of view has been tested in the Adriatic Sea. In September and October 2020, a white light LED (LWH) configuration and a blue light LED (LBLU) were tested alongside the incandescent lamp (INC) by means of 20 experimental trials characterized by 44 comparisons among tested lighting systems. Catches composed for over 98% of the total biomass by anchovies (Engraulis encrasicolus) were compared through Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) in terms of energy (kg/kWh) and fuel (kg/l) consumption and other impact indicators. Fuel consumptions performances of the white LED light showed a reduction of about 2 times compared to the incandescent lamp. The blue LED light showed the best efficiency according to all indicators compared in the analysis. CO2 emissions showed the highest median estimated value for the INC lamp (50 kg of CO2), which is double than that emitted by the LWH (median value 29 kg) and approximately 8 times higher than that of the LBLU (median value 6 kg). The results indicate consistent benefits that this technology could provide to the purse seine fishery in term of yields and mitigation of environmental impacts. Further investigations should be carried out on the adoption of the LED technology by the entire purse seine fleet in the Adriatic Sea assessing potential changes in the fishing pressure on the small pelagics’ stocks.

PRESENTER

Pasquale Ricci
University of Bari, Italy

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Integrated study for the assessment of an inshore mariculture plant impact on the sourronding environment (Ionian Sea)

• Adriana Giangrande

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Integrated study for the assessment of an inshore mariculture plant impact on the sourronding environment (Ionian Sea)

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ABSTRACT

This study represents an integrate approach on the ecological assessment on the environmental impact of a marine fish farm located in the Mar Grande of Taranto (Ionian Sea). The investigation was performed in two seasons in the years 2018-2019. In each time, water and sediment samples were collected from four replicates sampling points located at the four corners of the farming plant to investigate on physical and biological characteristics of the area. All the measurements indicated that the effect of the fish farm waste discharge is concentrated and limited to a small portion of the investigated area, which can be related to the direction of the main current.

PRESENTER

Adriana Giangrande
Unisalento

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Light at 410 nm controls the growth of skin bacteria from Chelidonichthys lucerna (Osteichthyes: Triglidae)

• Viviana Orlandi

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Light at 410 nm controls the growth of skin bacteria from Chelidonichthys lucerna (Osteichthyes: Triglidae)

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ABSTRACT

Fish microbiota represents a community to be considered in fishery world for two main reasons: the occurrence of potential pathogens dangerous for human health and/or degraders of flesh. The most used techniques to control fish spoilage are icing and freezing. Furthermore, UV treatment and chemical disinfections are also considered. However, these treatments often compromise the quality of food, worsen the taste, smell, appearance in addition to loss of nutritional quality. In this scenario, the use of blue light in antimicrobial field opens new and interesting considerations. In this study, we focused the attention on the tub gurnard (Chelidonichthys lucerna L., 1758), a demersal teleost fish that was chosen as model to irradiate with LED at 410 nm. The approach was efficient in greatly reducing the microbial community colonizing the skin of the fish. Furthermore, microorganisms isolated from C. lucerna, belonging to different Gram-negative (Aeromonas sp., Exiguobacterium undae, Acinetobacter sp., Acinetobacter baumannii) and Gram-positive species (Bacillus thuringiensis, Listeria sp.) showed a different sensitivity to blue light. However, the bacterial photoinactivation was light-dose dependent. Indeed, the blue irradiation could slow down the spoilage of fish with food quality maintenance, help preserving human health and bring, in addition, economic advantage.

PRESENTER

Viviana Orlandi
University of Insubria

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Defining a procedure for integrating multiple oceanographic variables in ensemble models of marine species distribution

• Diego Panzeri

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Defining a procedure for integrating multiple oceanographic variables in ensemble models of marine species distribution

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ABSTRACT

Marine species distribution models are largely used in ecology and fishery science to support the management of marine exploited resources. This study was focused on defining a procedure to develop an ensemble model, combining 5 differents modeling approaches. For each approach, we implemented spatial training and test data set to evaluate the best performance of 9 models through a set of indicators. These models include a different combination of covariates, starting with the simplest model (depth, year, and spatiotemporal variables) to the most complex one (including also oceanographic variables and effort). We applied this procedure to developed a robust ensemble of models for describing accurately the distribution in space and time of European hake (Merluccius merluccius) in the Adriatic and Ionian sea.

PRESENTER

Diego Panzeri
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS and University of Trieste

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Preliminary results of plastic substitution in mussel farming with natural vegetal fibers

• Antonella Petrocelli

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Preliminary results of plastic substitution in mussel farming with natural vegetal fibers

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ABSTRACT

A preliminary experimentation to assess the technical feasibility of weaving mussel farming nets with vegetal natural fibers was carried out in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto. Hemp and sisal durability in immersion was tested. Hemp showed unsuitable due to a mass fragmentation after about 70 days. Sisal showed suitable for further experimentation, since remained intact also after 150 days of immersion. Farming nets made of sisal ensured settlement and growth both for juvenile and adult mussels, comparable with those obtained with traditional plastic nets.

PRESENTER

Antonella Petrocelli
CNR-IRSA

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Monitoring the seagrass Posidonia oceanica to understand the effects of local disturbances in a marine protected area

• Andrea Tursi

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Monitoring the seagrass Posidonia oceanica to understand the effects of local disturbances in a marine protected area

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ABSTRACT

Since the seagrass Posidonia oceanica is highly sensitive to environmental changes, a monitoring of the physiognomy, phenology and lepidochronology of the meadows was conducted during 2015-2020 at Tremiti Islands Marine Protected Area (Adriatic Sea). The meadow resulted stressed where anthropogenic disturbances occurred, while the implementation of proper management measures proved to trigger the recovery of the habitat. Our results underlined the importance of P. oceanica as a biological indicator to monitor human activities at local scale.

PRESENTER

Andrea Tursi
Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro

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Biometry supporting species identification from underwater images in two Mediterranean Sea urchins

• Federica Montesanto

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Biometry supporting species identification from underwater images in two Mediterranean Sea urchins

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ABSTRACT

The analysis of samples and in-vivo underwater images of two sea urchin species, Cidaris cidaris and Stylocidaris affinis, allowed to collect biometric parameters, such as diameter of the dermal skeleton and length of the primary spines. The ratio between the two measures proved to be a useful tool for the discrimination and specific identification of these two similar species from video analysis.

PRESENTER

Federica Montesanto
University of Bari

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A sea of fireworms? Interannual variability of abundance of Hermodice carunculata (Annelida, Amphinomidae) in the Salento peninsula (Ionian Sea, SE Italy)

• Unregistered User

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A sea of fireworms? Interannual variability of abundance of Hermodice carunculata (Annelida, Amphinomidae) in the Salento peninsula (Ionian Sea, SE Italy)

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ABSTRACT

Quantitative studies on population dynamics and life history traits of key species (characterized by high interspecific interaction) are useful to predict changes in the structure and organization of biological communities. Here is reported the interannual abundance of variability of a benthic omnivore, the fireworm Hermodice carunculata (Pallas, 1766), from a well-known fireworm hotspot in the Salento peninsula (Santa Caterina di Nardò, Ionian Sea), Italy.

PRESENTER

Unregistered User
None

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Corallium rubrum and Eunicella cavolinii: distribution, population structure and co-occurrence in the deep Mediterranean Sea

• Laura Carugati

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Corallium rubrum and Eunicella cavolinii: distribution, population structure and co-occurrence in the deep Mediterranean Sea

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ABSTRACT

The precious red coral, Corallium rubrum, and the yellow gorgonian, Eunicella cavolinii, have been frequently reported as co-occurring species in the deep Mediterranean Sea. However, knowledge regarding spatial distribution of the two species in the deep sea is still fragmented, as well as potential drivers of their co-occurrence. This study aims to provide data on the status of deep-dwelling red coral populations, which are now the main target of commercial harvesting, study the demography of the yellow gorgonian in the deep sea, and finally analysing their variability when co-occur. Both species exhibited the highest population density at deeper depths and the presence of an inverse relationship between population density and colony height. We found a high percentage (40% on average) of red coral harvestable colonies (>10 mm basal diameter), as well as of living colonies (77% as average). Our study evidenced that most of co-occurring colonies were found below 130 m depth. Red coral density did not significantly vary with the presence of E. cavolinii, whereas the yellow gorgonian showed significant higher density when co-occur with red coral, even if with lower height. Distance-based linear modelling (DistLM) revealed that red coral density significantly influenced the presence of the yellow gorgonian, emphasizing the need for proper conservation strategies of red coral populations in order to preserve habitat complexity and associated diversity.

PRESENTER

Laura Carugati
University of Cagliari

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Megabenthos Underwater Video (MUV): a new device to evaluate species distribution in hard-to-reach marine areas

• Mauro Sinopoli

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Megabenthos Underwater Video (MUV): a new device to evaluate species distribution in hard-to-reach marine areas

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ABSTRACT

A device, called Megabenthos Underwater Video (MUV), was designed and built for the counting and the size estimate of benthic organisms in hard-to-reach areas. Since 2014, Cassiopea andromeda, an invasive alien jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea with benthic behavior, colonized a tourist harbour (Cala) of Palermo with a stable population. Studying the species distribution in this area with classical methods (such as visual census, ROV, etc.) was not applicable due to the large presence of obstacles (ropes, anchor cables, boats) and to dive difficulties in these types of area. The MUV was tested from 2017 to 2018 for the study of the spatial-temporal distribution of C. andromeda in the Cala. The species was distributed at depths between 1.5 and 7.5 m, with the most representative sizes ranging from 5 to 15 cm of umbrella diameter. The greater abundance was observed in February 2018. The device has proved effective to collect data on abundance and size of a megabenthic organism in hard-to-reach areas and it is suggested its use in several other environments.

PRESENTER

Mauro Sinopoli
SZN Palermo

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Assessing the Environmental Status of five Sardinian black corals forests via Mesophotic Assemblages Conservation Status Index (MACS)

• Davide Moccia

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Assessing the Environmental Status of five Sardinian black corals forests via Mesophotic Assemblages Conservation Status Index (MACS)

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ABSTRACT

Marine animal forests are important mesophotic habitats threatened by an increasing number of natural and human pressures. Although several international agreements aim to protect these vulnerable ecosystems, the Environmental Status of most of these benthic animal-structured habitats remains unknown. Based on ROV footage, we evaluated the Environmental Status of 5 black corals forests in the center of the Western Mediterranean Sea, through the Mesophotic Assemblages Conservation Status (MACS) Index. The MACS index combines two independent indices: the Index of Status of the benthic communities, analyzing conspicuous species diversity, basal layer, and canopy composition; the Index of Impact, analyzing siltation level, canopy condition, and marine litter occurrence. The five investigated sites are characterized by the presence of two Antipatharians, Antipathella subpinnata, and Leiopathes glaberrima, dwelling in different environmental conditions. Four sites showed High and Good values of the Index of Status, and only one site showed a Moderate status. Regarding the Impact Index, four sites were classified with Low values, except one showed a Very Low value. Overall, four black forests were classified in a Good and one in a Very High Environmental Status. Assessing the Environmental Status is the first step needed to monitor these essential habitats' health over time and improve the current frameworks for their conservation and protection, such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

PRESENTER

Davide Moccia
University of Cagliari

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Mercury bioindicators across the Mediterranean basin: evidence from a dataset on Mytilus galloprovincialis

• Delia Evelina Bruno

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Mercury bioindicators across the Mediterranean basin: evidence from a dataset on Mytilus galloprovincialis

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ABSTRACT

Samples of Mytilus galloprovincialis across the Mediterranean Sea have been considered, observing the areas and periods where the mussels recorded high concentrations of Hg. We found some critical areas corresponding specifically to Portoscuso (Sardinia) and Livorno harbour (Tuscany) in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and Trieste Gulf (Friuli) and Kastela Bay (Croatia) in the Adriatic one. Findings about Hg trends in M. galloprovincialis for these identified hot-spot areas have been obtained by an analysis that might be useful to predict the efficacy of international regulatory actions in ultimately reducing Hg exposure in humans and wildlife.

PRESENTER

Delia Evelina Bruno
CNR-Institute for Atmospheric Pollution

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A non-invasive method to assess the population structure of the whip coral Ellisella flagellum

• Giovanni Chimienti

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A non-invasive method to assess the population structure of the whip coral Ellisella flagellum

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ABSTRACT

This study reports the occurrence of a forest of the whip coral Ellisella flagellum at Aeolian Archipelago. The population structure of the species was assessed by image analysis. A new method to estimate colonies’ height based on their width is presented.

PRESENTER

Giovanni Chimienti
Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro

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Parsimonious AHP applied to the conservation of cetaceans: a case study in the Gulf of Taranto

• Maria Grazia Olivieri

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Parsimonious AHP applied to the conservation of cetaceans: a case study in the Gulf of Taranto

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ABSTRACT

The achievement of the conservation goals and the supporting of the performances of a biodiversity conservation area need a planning of the management actions, according to participate processes with the stakeholders (Heck et al 2011). Within this context, the acquisition of knowledge assumes an importance in the management decisions, which should be able to integrate a trade-off with the ecological principles of a sustainable use of the natural capital and the different human activities. Not less important, the start of these processes needs to clear statements on the planning of conservation measures, which should be evaluable over the time by the local administration and citizen. The Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea) is characterized by suitable habitat for cetaceans, which are distributed in shallowest and offshore waters (Carlucci et al., 2017). Since 2009, monitoring surveys based on the citizen science have been carried out by Jonian Dolphin Conservation (JDC) and research institutions (Ricci et al., 2018). The data collection obtained by these research activities has been diffused to the citizen and local administrations through scientific publications, scientific dissemination events and educational projects in the schools. After 10 years of research activities, the Municipality of Taranto have considered eligible a part of the Gulf of Taranto to the establishment process of cetaceans’ conservation area (CCA), named “Oasi Blu”, for the protection of the cetacean biodiversity. Therefore, a study on the perception of the citizen could be very useful to identify the expected performances and desired criteria in the implementation of spatial conservation measures. Indeed, the involvement of several stakeholders interested to the maritime use of the gulf is a useful action in this planning processes (Salz and Loomis, 2004). Thus, our contribute is a first attempt to investigate the local opinions of multiple groups on the performance and criteria expected by the establishment of a CCA. The analysis was conducted by means a new technique of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), named Parsimonious AHP [1]. It is a new variant of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) useful for solving ranking decision problems with a large number of alternatives [22]. The Parsimonious AHP is used when there is a need to talk often with the DM; among the strength of this methodology there is the possibility of modifying the model during the analysis of the problem.

PRESENTER

Maria Grazia Olivieri
University of Sannio, Italy

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Risk Governance Model supporting the effectiveness of Environmental Research Infrastructures

• Roberto Jannelli

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Risk Governance Model supporting the effectiveness of Environmental Research Infrastructures

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ABSTRACT

This work aims to highlight the importance of the virtuous usage of Environmental Research Infrastructures (ERIs) on the good governance of the oceans and their affections on Sustainable Development. Combining three essential management elements (Risk Management System, Internal Control Process and Management Accounting) to strengthen the process of achieving strategic objectives in the management of a Research Infrastructure (RI) is the methodology the authors recommend in running Research Infrastructures.

PRESENTER

Roberto Jannelli
University of Sannio, Italy

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Uncertainty and Factor Indeterminacy: Quality Perception of Bluefish Products

• Enrico Ciavolino

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Uncertainty and Factor Indeterminacy: Quality Perception of Bluefish Products

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ABSTRACT

This work focuses on consumer evaluation of bluefish products in terms of three distinguished investigation dimensions: Consumer habits, Bluefish Perception, New Product Propensity. We analyse data to extract the contributions of variables in these dimensions and discuss the phenomena of uncertainty and factor indeterminacy in their relevance as drivers of consumers' decisions.

PRESENTER

Enrico Ciavolino
University of Salento

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Cumulative Correspondence Analysis applied to biological oceanographic data

• Unregistered User

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Cumulative Correspondence Analysis applied to biological oceanographic data

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ABSTRACT

The classical approach to Correspondence Analysis allows the user to graphically summarize the association between two or more categorical variables that form a contingency table. Despite its popularity and utility, the classical approach, does not take in consideration the structure of ordered variables. A suitable measure of association for two ordered variables is doubly cumulative chi-squared statistic, obtained by considering the cumulative sum of cell frequencies across the variables. In this paper we explore the development Ordinal Cumulative Correspondence Analysis applied to biological oceanographic data.

PRESENTER

Unregistered User
None

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Unified pH applied to standard seawater and NaCl solutions: preliminary studies

• Raquel Quendera

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Unified pH applied to standard seawater and NaCl solutions: preliminary studies

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ABSTRACT

This communication displays the results of preliminary studies of pH measurements of big ionic strength saline solutions applying the recent concept of unified acidity scale, pHabs, in comparison with the routinely potentiometric pH measurements. To this purpose, a set of sodium chloride solutions with salinity between 20 g kg-1 and 230 g kg-1, a standard seawater (OSIL) with a determined salinity value of 37 g kg-1, and of added sodium chloride to OSIL within the same salinity interval were prepared. The salinities of these solutions were determined by refractometry and by densimetry, as the mass fractions measurement results by these two methods were evidenced to have metrological compatibility in the studied salinities interval. For the sodium chloride aqueous solutions the results showed that the differences of pH values observed, ΔpH, did not follow any tendency with respect to the salinity values and the displayed differences of ionic strengths do not manage to explain the behavior of ΔpH for these solutions. In the OSIL solutions, the difference of pH lied in the interval [-0.04; 0.11], which is consistent with expected result. The higher difference between the pH values measured in unified scale and pH values measured by potentiometry for the OSIL solutions was 0,11 which is consistent with residual liquid junction potential errors that occurs during calibration when the ionic strength of the calibration buffers is different from the unknow solutions under test.

PRESENTER

Raquel Quendera
IPQ

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Plastic ocean reduction via green packaging coopetitive agreements

• David Carfì

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Plastic ocean reduction via green packaging coopetitive agreements

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ABSTRACT

In our work, we present a coopetitive model of strategic interaction, based on perfect competition a la Cournot and aiming at plastic ocean reduction, among two fast foods and some innovative paper factories. In more specific terms, we define a suitable coopetitive game among similar large food producers/retailers, locally and globally competing on the same market, characterized by the principle aim of reducing plastic waste in the ocean. We consider innovative factories producing paper, cardboard and new green-effective packaging with low environmental impact. The factories produce innovative packaging using recycled paper and cardboard, containing minimal plastic parts (that can be easily separated by consumers and sent very quickly for recycling). We determine possible “fair and plastic reducing coopetitive agreements”, allowing the actors to increase the gains by diminishing production costs and environmental costs. Consequently, we suggest methods and quantitative proportions in order to tune the agreements towards zero plastic waste. We show a complete analysis of our proposed economic game and some of its possible solutions.

PRESENTER

David Carfì

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Exploring long-term trends in marine ecosystems: machine-learning approaches to global change biology

• Domenico D'Alelio

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Exploring long-term trends in marine ecosystems: machine-learning approaches to global change biology

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ABSTRACT

The observation of marine systems and the acquisition of physical, chemical, biological, and ecological data have increasingly grown in the last century. Marine systems are undergoing multiple and overlapping impacts that menace ecological communities, but global change impacts on the ecosystem functioning are not easily assessable, for several reasons. For instance, because time-series datasets can include a sizeable amount of sparse and missing values, and the physical-biological interrelationships establishing within marine ecosystems can determine ample fluctuations, incoherent peaks and, overall, a high variance in the variables under study. Herein, we propose coupling linear statistics and different categories of Machine Learning techniques as a good compromise to construct and test suitable mechanistic models for hindcasting and forecasting the dynamics of key ecological processes, such as primary productivity in the open ocean.

PRESENTER

Domenico D'Alelio
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

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Industrial meat production and ocean degradation: coopetitive paradigms towards economic structural solutions and healthy diet changes

• David Carfì

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Industrial meat production and ocean degradation: coopetitive paradigms towards economic structural solutions and healthy diet changes

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ABSTRACT

In our paper, we construct a two player coopetitive game of Global Economy showing quantitative political strategies which can impact ocean preservation and global environmental sustainability. Our model focuses on reformulating food products in line with guidelines for healthy, sustainable diets, while reducing their environmental footprint. We assume that two country clusters, possibly of different technological level (or development stage) engage a coopetitive interplay aiming at the improvement (in the direction of an healthy vegetable diet) of their food production. The two decision makers, adopting a mixed economic system, contribute together to the improvement of the respective food quality, while competing “a la Bertrand” in selling their food products in a free international (global) market. Our model addresses the huge problem of meat industry as a principal cause of the degradation of the oceans and a greatly dangerous threat to the life itself in the oceans.

PRESENTER

David Carfì

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Evaluation of the seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus home range size at Mar Piccolo of Taranto (southern Italy)

• Cataldo Pierri

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Evaluation of the seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus home range size at Mar Piccolo of Taranto (southern Italy)

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ABSTRACT

Knowledge of the biological cycles and interactions with the environment represents a fundamental requisite for drafting management protocols in threatened species and those with the fragmented distribution. Seahorses, emblematic fish with particular life cycle traits, are considered at risk by many national and international laws due to the modification and loss of suitable habitats. Furthermore, they are also threatened by fisheries and collected for traditional oriental medicines. Despite this, knowledge about their ecology results fragmented, and this is especially true for the Mediterranean Sea. The population of Mar Piccolo of Taranto is considered one of the most important in the Mediterranean Sea. However, it shows signs of fragility due to the ecological structure and intense use of the basin for industrial and productive purposes. The present two-year study, conducted at Mar Piccolo of Taranto, investigates the dynamics of small-scale displacement in seahorses in relation to size and sex. The results showed an important variation both in size distribution between two years and in home range sizes between males, females, adults and juveniles.

PRESENTER

Cataldo Pierri
Department of Biology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy

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IN SITU BEHAVIOUR OF WILD LONG-SNOUTED SEAHORSE HIPPOCAMPUS GUTTULATUS CUVIER, 1829

• Michele Gristina

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IN SITU BEHAVIOUR OF WILD LONG-SNOUTED SEAHORSE HIPPOCAMPUS GUTTULATUS CUVIER, 1829

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ABSTRACT

The study presents preliminary data on behavioural activities and their comparisons among different life stages of Hippocampus guttulatus, namely females, males and juveniles. Juveniles and Females appeared to be highly active and invested more time in searching activities. Males, on the contrary, were less active and spent more time in inactive behaviour.

PRESENTER

Michele Gristina
CNR, Italy

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SMALL SCALE MOVEMENTS OF SERIOLA DUMERILI UNDER A FAD SYSTEM IN THE GULF OF CASTELLAMMARE (NW SICILY)

• Mauro Sinopoli

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SMALL SCALE MOVEMENTS OF SERIOLA DUMERILI UNDER A FAD SYSTEM IN THE GULF OF CASTELLAMMARE (NW SICILY)

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ABSTRACT

Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) are used world-wide to attract fish. A previous study revealed that FADs affect the distribution and dispersal patterns of juveniles of the greater amberjack Seriola dumerili. This occurs because FADs placed off-shore prevent juveniles from approaching the coast while those placed in-shore facilitate their recruitment in coastal areas. In order to obtain more information on the dynamic and movement patterns of the YOY S. dumerili associated with FADs, a tagging experiment was conducted in the Gulf of Castellammare. The 96 juveniles tagged and released under FADs placed at different distances from the coast showed a different movement patterns. The highest sighting rate and shortest distance traveled by fishes were recorded at the off shore FADs. These results reinforce those of previous studies on the same species.

PRESENTER

Mauro Sinopoli
SZN Palermo

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A global systematic review on ecological distribution of European seahorses Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus

• Michele Gristina

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A global systematic review on ecological distribution of European seahorses Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus

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ABSTRACT

Definition of conservation programs in marine fishes requires comprehensive knowledge on ecological and environmental drivers underlining community dynamics. The ecological distribution of fishes should consider patterns of local distribution and abundance in relation to key environmental variables affecting local populations. Two European seahorse species, Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus have often been marginalized, resulting in a lack of data on ecological distribution. In this study, we performed a systematic review using published and unpublished sources concerning the species distribution and environmental data, useful to propose conservation strategies. H guttulatus resulted widely reported in lagoons while H. hippocampus in the open sea. The two species showed deep segregation in all habitats, while seagrass and algae were the most used holdfasts in all habitats.

PRESENTER

Michele Gristina
CNR, Italy

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Evaluating DNA metabarcoding to analyze diet composition of wild long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus

• Tamara Lazic

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Evaluating DNA metabarcoding to analyze diet composition of wild long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus

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ABSTRACT

Seahorses are small sedentary fish considered flagship species of the conservation efforts. Worldwide decline of local populations during the last decades led to the inclusion of all seahorse species on the IUCN Red List and Appendix II of CITES. Due to the threatening status, improving knowledge of their dietary composition, while using a non-invasive approach, might be of great importance. In the present study, we used an amplicon-based HTS (High Throughput Sequencing) approach to investigate the diet of wild long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus. The results indicated that the applied approach is adequate for the characterization of diet in wild specimens. Indeed, it permitted the classification of prey items even at the species level, which could have been difficult or even impossible to detect through traditional dietary methods. As only a small amount of starting faecal material is needed and the sampling procedure is neither invasive nor lethal, DNA metabarcoding could be useful in the investigation on threatened seahorse diet in the wild and could help inform management and conservation actions.

PRESENTER

Tamara Lazic
University of Bari, Italy

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GNSS software defined receiver pseudorange error assessment

• Matteo Cutugno

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GNSS software defined receiver pseudorange error assessment

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ABSTRACT

SDR approach, applied to the field of GNSS, allows the implementation of high customizable low-cost GNSS Software Defined receivers. These can reveal as useful tools for navigation algorithms prototyping. In the FOSS scenario the most interesting SDR appears to be GNSS-SDR. In this paper we evaluate GPS L1 pseudorange error GNSS observations acquired by SDR; for this purpose a low-cost COTS u-blox GNSS receiver has been employed as term of comparison. Preliminary results suggest that SDR pseudorange are much noisier than u-blox ones and this will probably reflect in the degradation of the single point solutions.

PRESENTER

Matteo Cutugno
Parthenope University of Naples, Italy

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Incidence of spectrum estimation methods on the fatigue life assessment of mooring lines for floating offshore wind turbines

• Vincenzo Piscopo

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Incidence of spectrum estimation methods on the fatigue life assessment of mooring lines for floating offshore wind turbines

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ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on the fatigue life assessment of mooring lines for floating offshore wind turbines, deployed on intermediate water depths. The nonlinear hydrodynamic model in the time-domain is preliminarily discussed. Subsequently, several spectrum estimation methods are outlined and embodied to carefully assess the low and high-frequency components of the stress process in the mooring lines and estimate the cumulative fatigue damage by the combined spectrum approach. The spectral reconstruction methods are applied to a reference case study, focusing on three different loading conditions. Current results are discussed and some suggestions are also provided to carefully assess the fatigue life of mooring lines for floating offshore wind turbines.

PRESENTER

Vincenzo Piscopo
Parthenope University of Naples, Italy

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EGNOS Performances assessment in maritime navigation

• Anna Innac

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EGNOS Performances assessment in maritime navigation

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ABSTRACT

Maritime community is increasingly interested to guarantee the safety and security of shipping. In this context, the knowledge of accurate and reliable information about a ship's position is a fundamental requirement for navigation and for avoiding accidents. This is valid for both maritime navigation and inland navigation. For this reason, Position, Navigation, and Time (PNT) information is necessary for the safety and efficiency of ship movement, especially in high-density traffic areas such as port entrances, channels or inland waterways. In this context, the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) has become the main source of PNT for maritime navigation. However, in some critical conditions, the use of GNSS alone have some shortfalls, especially in coastal navigation, with the consequent need to enhance accuracy and integrity information. Such enhancement can be available from augmentation techniques. Among them, the users can take advantage of Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBASs). In particular, in the current work, the performance of European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) augmentation are verified in terms of accuracy in position domain showing evident improvements, especially on vertical component of the position.

PRESENTER

Anna Innac
University of Naples Parthenope

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Tuning of ARMA models for mono-modal sea spectrum estimation

• Marta Berardengo

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Tuning of ARMA models for mono-modal sea spectrum estimation

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ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on the tuning of Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) models aimed at describing the spectral behaviour of sea wave elevation time series. The analysis considers mono-modal sea states, mainly due to the wind effect. The main problem related to the estimation of such models, starting from the wave elevation time series, mainly concerns the tuning of the parameters involved in the identification algorithms. Indeed, the value of some parameters must be chosen by the user and these choices strongly affect the goodness of the estimates. Here, some of these parameters are considered, highlighting their effect on the goodness of the fit and indications about how to set their values for applications related to mono-modal sea states are presented. The results are fully discussed considering a reference case study and a procedure to tune the model is proposed.

PRESENTER

Marta Berardengo
Università degli Studi di Genova

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A preliminary study on an optical system for nautical and maritime traffic monitoring

• Silvio Del Pizzo

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A preliminary study on an optical system for nautical and maritime traffic monitoring

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ABSTRACT

The nautical traffic is very difficult to monitor since many vessels are not cooperative. VTSs (Vessel Traffic Systems) use several sources of information for estimating ships’ Position Navigation and Velocity, such as AIS (Automatic Identification System) and RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging); nevertheless, VTS areas do not cover the entire costal area of a country. In many cases the classification and identification of small non-AIS vessels could provide an important to the safety of navigation. Indeed, especially during the summer, the nautical tourism has a great impact on the maritime traffic congestion. The issue involves many institutions such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and local maritime authorities which are not able to monitor the high volume of nautical traffic. This work introduces an optical system designed to monitor the traffic in small coastal areas based on images acquired by a single camera. The reliability and accuracy of the system is conditioned by the size of the pixel on the sea surface (Ground Sample Distance - GSD) and by the camera footprint area as well. More in detail, this work focuses on the detection of the best camera placement on the coast for optimizing the GSD size and obtaining the shape of camera footprint. The inspection was conducted on a target area of the MPA “Punta Campanella” located on the Sorrento coast.

PRESENTER

Silvio Del Pizzo
University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy

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Interaction between physical and biological process of a carbonate pocket beach – Le Dune (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy)

• Isabella Lapietra

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Interaction between physical and biological process of a carbonate pocket beach – Le Dune (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy)

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ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the analysis of a carbonate pocket beach located along a coastal sector of the Apulia Ionian-Sea (Le Dune beach). The beach develops for about 800 m and it is exposed to the south-westerly and southerly seas. Coastal sediments range from very coarse to medium-fine and they are mainly composed of bioclasts (more than 90%). The study area is part of a marine protected reserve characterised by 15 different habitats of the typical Mediterranean submerged populations and the presence of Posidonia Oceanica meadows. The absence of sediment-delivering rivers coupled with the significant anthropic pressure in the last decades, have led the Ionian littorals to be affected by erosional processes. Therefore, the aim of our research is to highlight the correlation between physical and biological processes by analysing the textural and compositional characteristics of beach sands, fundamental for pocket beach conservation.

PRESENTER

Isabella Lapietra
University of Bari

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A multidisciplinary approach for evaluating Sabellaria bioconstructions: the case study of Torre Mileto (Northen Gargano coast, Adriatic sea)

• Stefania Nunzia Lisco

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A multidisciplinary approach for evaluating Sabellaria bioconstructions: the case study of Torre Mileto (Northen Gargano coast, Adriatic sea)

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ABSTRACT

The S. spinulosa (Leukhart, 1849) worm reef of Torre Mileto is a site of extraordinary beauty included into the list of marine Site of Community Importance (SCI) and therefore protected by law. Recent studies highlight both the ability of this structure to increase the biodiversity of the adjacent sector of coast, and to act as a barrier to defend from coastal erosion as well as a temporary reservoir of sediments, lengthening the cycle of sand in the beach. This work shows the results of image analysis techniques on bioconstruction samples integrated with seasonal and annual monitoring. A multidisciplinary approach involving sedimentological, ecological and biological analysis techniques offers an overall view of the evolutionary state of the environment and provides quantitative data which are necessary for the protection and monitoring of this site.

PRESENTER

Stefania Nunzia Lisco
University of Bari Aldo Moro

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Local diversity and recruitment on artificial substrates: Mytilus galloprovincialis vs Sabella spallanzanii (Mediterranean Sea)

• Daniele Arduini

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Local diversity and recruitment on artificial substrates: Mytilus galloprovincialis vs Sabella spallanzanii (Mediterranean Sea)

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ABSTRACT

In this study a comparison of the initial phases of macrofouling succession occurring in two Mediterranean mariculture facilities located in the Mar Grande of Taranto and in the Gulf of Gaeta is reported together with the following investigations carried out in Taranto in order to understand the interactions between Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck, 1819) and Sabella spallanzanii (Gmelin, 1791) leading to substrate partitioning.

PRESENTER

Daniele Arduini
Disteba - Università del Salento

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Long term observations on Sabella spallanzanii (Annelida, Sabellidae) in the Mar Grande of Taranto (Ionian Sea). The influence of alien species

• Jacopo Borghese

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Long term observations on Sabella spallanzanii (Annelida, Sabellidae) in the Mar Grande of Taranto (Ionian Sea). The influence of alien species

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ABSTRACT

We report 30-year observations on the abundance of the Mediterranean fan worm Sabella spallanzanii (Gmelin, 1791), and the influence on its density from the introduction of two other sabellid termophilic species, belonging to the Branchiomma genus, in the area of the Mar Grande of Taranto (Mediterranean Sea). After an initial decreasing of abundance of the authocthonous species, at present, it seems that the three species have reached an equilibrium with the dominance of S. spallanzanii

PRESENTER

Jacopo Borghese
Università del Salento

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A “living hotel” in the Taranto seas (NW Ionian Sea): preliminary data on associated macrofauna of the Mediterranean alien Paraleucilla magna (Porifera, Calcarea)

• Carlotta Nonnis Marzano

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A “living hotel” in the Taranto seas (NW Ionian Sea): preliminary data on associated macrofauna of the Mediterranean alien Paraleucilla magna (Porifera, Calcarea)

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ABSTRACT

The macrofauna associated whit Paraleucilla magna, a calcareous sponge alien and invasive in the Mediterranean, was studied in a partially confined basin along Apulian coasts (NW Ionian Sea), comparing specimens sampled in Autumn and Spring. Richness and abundance of associated taxa were recorded and values of frequency, density, diversity (H') and evenness (J’) were calculated. On the whole, the phylum Arthropoda showed the highest values of species richness and abundance, in accordance with data referred to P. magna from Brazilian coasts. The phyla Cnidaria, Echinodermata and Mollusca were also well represented at Taranto. Surprisingly, in this study no species of polychaetes were found, while these latter represented the second taxon for species richness in Brazilian sponge specimens. The macrofauna associated with P. magna from Taranto showed a different taxa composition between Autumn and Spring. This result suggests to carry out further year-round monthly sampling, to better define how the macrofaunal assemblages change with changing environmental parameters.

PRESENTER

Carlotta Nonnis Marzano
University of Bari Aldo Moro

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Multi-trophic species interactions in a marine bioremediation model assessment

• Roberta Trani

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Multi-trophic species interactions in a marine bioremediation model assessment

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ABSTRACT

Through the diversification of multitrophic communities it is possible to obtain stable and sustainable systems useful for biomass production such as in mariculture. This study on the synergistic interactions between the sponge Sarcotragus spinosulus (Porifera, Dictyoceratida), the macroalga Chaetomorpha linum (Chlorophyta, Cladophorales) and the European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax (Chordata, Actinopterygii), provides the basis for the development and optimization of a lab-scale multi-trophic model for biomasses production and bioremediation.

PRESENTER

Roberta Trani
University of Bari Aldo Moro

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Transnational FerryBox Monitoring in the Baltic Sea: Common Measures for Quality Assurance

• Jukka Seppälä

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Transnational FerryBox Monitoring in the Baltic Sea: Common Measures for Quality Assurance

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ABSTRACT

FerryBox monitoring provides cost-effective means to study the coastal ocean. In the Baltic Sea, FerryBox measurements have been conducted already for three decades. Despite the lack of formal structuration of the network, the Baltic FerryBox community has been interacting and collaborating actively in the maintenance of systems, in calibration of sensors, extending the suite of measured variables, and in improving the overall quality of measurements. However, the emerging needs for improving the consistency and availability of data and products call for better structuration of collaboration. EU funded JERICO-RI (Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories) provides a pan-European framework to improve the regional networking and transnational harmonization. Here we provide an overview of current collaborations within Baltic FerryBox community and an outlook for next actions, to be tested during JERICO-RI Pilot Supersite demonstration phase in 2021-22.

PRESENTER

Jukka Seppälä
Finnish Environment Institute SYKE

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The role of National Metrology Institutes in the Ocean Observing System. An example for assessing and quantifying ocean acidification

• Daniela Stoica

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The role of National Metrology Institutes in the Ocean Observing System. An example for assessing and quantifying ocean acidification

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ABSTRACT

Understanding the changes occurred in the ocean under the increasing anthropogenic pressure as well as the impact of climate change on local and global scale and possible strategies for mitigation depend on the quality of collected data. These needs lead to the development of improved observation capacity and relies on the ability to cover large oceanic sites for long term (up to decades and more). Technological progress towards miniaturization or the development of in-situ and autonomous multiparameters sensors appears to be the most obvious solution. However, this approach does not necessarily translate into better or more useful data unless metrological requirements are considered. Recently, efforts have been made towards the establishment of a pan-european metrological infrastructure according to the hierarchical pyramid that places activities of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) in the top of the traceability chain. In this respect, the talk will address some challenges related to the primary quality control necessary to support long-time observation of ocean acidification.

PRESENTER

Daniela Stoica
Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - LNE

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Metrology for Ocean Sciences: The European Metrology Network for Climate and Ocean Observation

• Paola Fisicaro

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Metrology for Ocean Sciences: The European Metrology Network for Climate and Ocean Observation

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ABSTRACT

Observations of essential climate variables (ECVs) and essential ocean variables (EOVs) are used for a wide range of scientific and societal applications. To achieve the accuracy requirements specified by GCOS and GOOS for ECVs and EOVs, all aspects of data collection and handling must be underpinned by robust quality assurance. The resultant data should also be linked to common (preferably SI) references, with robust and transparent uncertainty assessment, so that observational results are interoperable and coherent.     The marine communities already collaborate in national, European and international organisations. The development of measurement systems and observational infrastructures are well coordinated, multidisciplinary and interconnected. However, this integrated landscape needs improved and coordinated approaches to provide metrological traceability, comparability and uncertainty analysis for the EOV observations. In recent years, ocean observation infrastructures have grown considerably and today they are capable of delivering thousands of measurements per second. For all these measurements, their metrological quality is crucial to their usability. Therefore, the co-operation between the oceanographic and the metrological communities is increasingly demanded. The European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) has recently established the European Metrology Network (EMN) for Climate and Ocean Observation to support the observation communities, to engage with metrologists at national metrology institutes, and to coordinate European metrological research in response to community needs

PRESENTER

Paola Fisicaro
Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - LNE

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MINKE’s Transnational and Virtual Access

• Joaquin Del Rio

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MINKE’s Transnational and Virtual Access

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ABSTRACT

MINKE (Metrology for Integrated marine maNagement and Knowledge-transfer nEtwork) is an european project funded under Call H2020-INFRAIA-2018-2020 and Topic INFRAIA-02-2020 Research and Innovation action. MINKE project integrates key European marine metrology research infrastructures, to coordinate their use and development and propose an innovative framework of “quality of oceanographic data” for the different European actors in charge of monitoring and managing the marine ecosystems. MINKE proposes a new vision in the design of marine monitoring networks considering two dimensions of data quality, accuracy and completeness, as the driving components of the quality in data acquisition. The project through the different Integration Activities (Networking, Transnational- Virtual Access and Joint Research), aims to lay the groundwork for creating the necessary synergies among the different involved actors, creating a new community with complementary capabilities for Ocean & Coastal Observation, that will facilitate the transition towards a blue growth socio-economic system. This paper presents the activities related to the Transnational and Virtual Access services offered through the project.

PRESENTER

Joaquin Del Rio
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC

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The oceanographic metrology community: why, when and how should we build a coordination?

• Florence Salvetat

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The oceanographic metrology community: why, when and how should we build a coordination?

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ABSTRACT

Europe spends €1.4 billion p.a. for marine data collection: €0.4 billion for satellite data and €1.0 billion for in-situ observations, respectively. In the case of the latter, the traditional and expensive practice of vessel-based data-gathering is progressively giving way to monitoring via “observatories” - complexes of distributed, autonomous, real-time sensor systems. Burgeoning technology and pressing societal needs have such observatories the backbone of European marine observing activity because of their ability to provide copious quantities of diversified data over large areas at reasonable costs. But to be useful for research and decision-making at a transnational level, all the incoming data have to be comparable and amenable to fitness-for-purpose assessments in relation to specific user-group requirements. This will require measurements to be metrologically sound, and instruments to be working within known specifications at all times despite prolonged deployment in harsh conditions. Supporting the development of the operational oceanography in Europe, a metrology community dedicated to oceanography has been collaborating from the very early days in order to sustain and promote the quality of measurements made in marine environments. However, up to now, this quality insurance relies on ten or so metrology laboratories all over Europe, and the number of metrology laboratory creations is scarce despite an important increase of metrology needs. Responding to the need, 10 years ago, in the framework of EU projects (JERICO, FixO3), several metrology laboratories from oceanographic institutes (HCMR, OGS, IFREMER, SYKE) initiated discussions on possible ways to structure the community, enhancing collaboration, promoting integration and adopting best practices. Parallel to this, national metrology institutes (LNE, PTB, INRIM, IPQ, YMPARISTO, ...) started to address the oceanographic metrology topic through dedicated metrology calls (EURAMET). This dispersion of effort was rapidly identified as the main cause of lack of progress in the thematic and laboratories decided to engage in a sustained effort for collaboration. This paper illustrates how metrology is a key player in the current environmental and political context, why it is so important to agree quickly about solutions to build a European sustainable structure and what are the different collaborative opportunities afforded by Europe.

PRESENTER

Florence Salvetat
Ifremer

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Implementation of documentary standards in support of international and European climate strategies

• Daniela Stoica

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Implementation of documentary standards in support of international and European climate strategies

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ABSTRACT

International and European organisations have expressed their concerns about the on-going trend towards a more acidic ocean. At a global level, the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Target 14.3 specifically addresses ocean acidification and the associated indicator 14.3.1 calls for the measurement of marine acidity. At European level, ocean acidification is acknowledged at the higher levels of governances. Ocean acidification was set out by the European Environmental Agency as one of the indicator that have policy defined purposes and can be used to illustrate and communicate on complex phenomena. As such, the status and progress of ocean acidification needs to be documented through reliable pH measurements. Being aware and sensitive about the importance of data quality, over the last decade strong efforts have been made by the marine community to address this issue. In Europe, most Research Infrastructures (RIs) introduced a labelling system associating a quality level for the products and services delivered by its members. Specifications on quality control of the measurement results are often given in ‘best practices’. With the aim of improving the quality and consistency of measurement data, each RI develops and promotes their own best practices. Therefore choosing the best of the ‘best practices’ is not straightforward. Moreover, there is very little information on how the choice of the best practice affects the quality of the data. To overcome this situation, European (CEN) and international (ISO) standardisation bodies can act as overarching harmonisation infrastructures enabling to increase the value of the collected data and hereby fostering their usability and interoperability. Within the European Joint Research Project “Metrology for standardised seawater pHT measurements in support of international and European climate strategies” (SapHTies), several National Metrology Institutes in collaboration with European oceanographic institutes proposes to address metrological challenges to improve the ISO 18191:2015. This standard describes the operations and process for the “Determination of pHT in seawater – Method using the indicator dye m-cresol purple”. The overall aim of the project is to support traceable spectrophotometric pHT measurements by exploring the entire measurement chain, establishing a link with SI units and known metrological references values as well as estimate the uncertainty to be assigned to any measurement result. The proposed talk will present the project structure, will give an overview of the planned research and will emphasize the key role of standardization in securing long time observation of changes in the ocean acidity associated with climate change.

PRESENTER

Daniela Stoica
Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - LNE

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INVITED - Microplastic pollution from textiles: quantitative evaluation and mitigation strategies

• Francesca De Falco

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INVITED - Microplastic pollution from textiles: quantitative evaluation and mitigation strategies

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ABSTRACT

In the latest years, much attention has been raised on the contribution of textile washing processes to the global release of microplastics to marine environments. These pollutants are released from textiles during the washing processes and due to their dimensions, are not completely retained by wastewater treatment plants, ending up in aquatic ecosystems. Here they may be ingested by fauna, adsorb persistent organic pollutants and leach toxic additives with possible consequences on humans too. This environmental problem is not only related to synthetic textiles like polyester, polyamides and acrylic, since also natural or artificial fibres like cotton and rayon have been detected in environmental samples. Therefore, the widespread occurrence of microfibres (synthetic, artificial or natural fibres < 5 mm) in different environments, calls for more research on the sources of this pollution and on parameters of influence. The present work will show studies on the release of microfibres from textiles by laundering, focusing on experimental methodologies developed to detect, quantify and characterize microfibres in the washing effluent. Two experimental procedures will be presented and compared: the first based on laboratory simulations of washing processes, the second based on real scale washing tests. Both procedures allowed to identify parameters that have a direct influence on the release, such as textile characteristics, laundry products and washing conditions. The outcome of this work could provide data and guidelines to relevant stakeholders and policy-makers to identify possible strategies to tackle this environmental problem. Therefore, mitigation actions will be also explored, in terms of best practices to apply at different levels of textile life and of innovative technologies like finishing treatments. In a final outlook, challenges for future work will be formulated.

PRESENTER

Francesca De Falco
University of Plymouth

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INVITED - Applications of digital holographic microscopy towards aquatic particle and plankton monitoring

• Aditya Nayak

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INVITED - Applications of digital holographic microscopy towards aquatic particle and plankton monitoring

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ABSTRACT

Holography is a valuable tool for characterizing the size, shape, distribution, and abundance of plankton in the water column in diverse aquatic environments. A submersible holographic imaging system (AUTOHOLO), developed for long-term deployments, was used in various applications, including characterization of dinoflagellate harmful algal blooms and larval fish species. Holograms were recorded in combined laboratory and field experiments over the course of a Karenia brevis bloom. This database was used to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically detect K. brevis cells recorded in the holograms. In a second application, the feasibility of the AUTOHOLO as a means to monitor sensitive larval species at power plant intakes was demonstrated. Experiments were performed using larval sturgeon in a lab facility designed to mimic flow rates consistent with those at power plant intakes. The recorded holograms captured distinctive sturgeon larvae traits, such as their dorsal fin and barbells, which can help distinguish them from other similar larval fish species.

PRESENTER

Aditya Nayak
Florida Atlantic University

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INVITED - Detection and analysis of microplastics in the subtropical ocean of Okinawa using micro-Raman Optical Tweezers

• Domna Kotsifaki

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INVITED - Detection and analysis of microplastics in the subtropical ocean of Okinawa using micro-Raman Optical Tweezers

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ABSTRACT

Plastic is a widely used material in our daily lives. Microplastic pollution has also generated worldwide concern due to its distribution in the environment, and its potential threat to human and animal health. Due to the complexity of sampling and extracting plastics from the marine environment, existing studies have largely focused on mesoplastics, macroplastics, and large microplastics. Having accurate methods for quantifying the abundance of small microplastics in seawater is key for defining the extent of the problem they pose. In this work, we propose a non-invasive method to analyze sub-20 μm plastics in seawater around the subtropical island of Okinawa through optical tweezers micro-Raman spectroscopy. Our results show the dominance of low-density polyethylene with highest concentrations in areas with large-scale anthropogenic activities. This study provides evidence on the presence of microplastics in ocean around a blue zone region.

PRESENTER

Domna Kotsifaki
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

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Raman Tweezers for single nanoplastic particles analysis in liquid environment

• Pietro Giuseppe Gucciardi

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Raman Tweezers for single nanoplastic particles analysis in liquid environment

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ABSTRACT

We report on the use of Raman Tweezers, a combination of Optical Tweezers and Raman Spectroscopy, for the detection and chemical identification of nanometric particles of plastics and car tires fragments dispersed in water, at the single particle level.

PRESENTER

Pietro Giuseppe Gucciardi
CNR-IPCF

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Portable low-cost autofluorescence analyzer for plankton and plastic detection

• Ulderico Wanderlingh

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Portable low-cost autofluorescence analyzer for plankton and plastic detection

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ABSTRACT

The sea has always been one of the most important medium that humanity has used to travel and as an extensive precious source of food, especially for poor countries. However, this has caused several uncontrolled problems including, for example, the pollution of the sea and the exploitation of its resources, often altering the ecosystem in a compromising and irreversible way. Thus it becomes mandatory for the survival of all humanity to think and find new methodologies to prevent, recognize and solve these issues, some of these of truly extensive relevance including, for example, the presence of plastics and microplastics in the oceans or the phytoplankton species richness [1]. The quality of marine seawater is usually tested by means of physical, chemical and microbio- logical experiments, which are often unsuitable for online monitoring. In particular, fluorescence spectroscopy has proven to be an effective technique for characterizing and monitoring sources of pollution and in treatment works for controlling and optimizing processes [1]. Fluorescence consists in the release of light when molecules, called fluorophores, are excited with a high-energy light source. This technique has been used for its multiple advantages: it is fast, inexpensive, reagent-free, requires little sample preparation, is highly sensitive and non-invasive . Furthermore, fluorescence monitoring could furnish a rapid feedback, enabling studies with high spatial and temporal resolution. Since our aim was to (i) check the plankton wellness, and possibly (ii) identify micro-plastics, we are going to measure the autofluorescence of marine seawater. Plankton fluorescence is mainly due to chlorophyll with absorption bands at ≈ 430 and 470 nm and emission ones at ≈ 680 and 720 nm [2]. Moreover, plastics exhibit a background of autofluorescence when excited by UV/VIS radiation. Additives, e.g. pigments, and the variability in the compositions of plastics reflects in a broad VIS autofluorescence band peaked near 400 nm [3].

PRESENTER

Ulderico Wanderlingh
Università di Messina

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A fractal analysis of the holographic diffraction patterns for detecting microplastics among diatoms

• Daniele Pirone

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A fractal analysis of the holographic diffraction patterns for detecting microplastics among diatoms

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ABSTRACT

Water pollution is one of the main global emergencies that must be quickly addressed in order to hinder its growing effects, which represent a danger for the environmental and the human health. It is mostly due to the production of microplastics from the larger plastic items released more and more into the water environment during the last decades. Therefore, the accurate identification of microplastics is strongly requested in order to assess the degree of pollution of a certain water area and then to apply suitable ecological strategies to clean it. However, this goal has not yet been achieved, because of the wide heterogeneity of objects that can be found in a water sample, and their microscopic dimensions. In particular, a lot of species of diatoms (i.e., unicellular microalgae) share the same range size and shape with microplastics. Digital holography (DH) has been exploited to realize a quantitative analysis of the microplastics’ and diatoms’ properties at the microscopic scale. Recently, we demonstrated the fruitful combination between the DH and the fractal geometry, in order to measure a very distinctive fractal signature related to the scattering properties of the imaged samples. Here we demonstrate that, by properly combining some of these fractal parameters with each other, also subsets of the fractal features allow to reach high accuracy in detecting microplastics among diatoms. These results, combined to the flow cytometric applications of DH, could open the route for fast and accurate tools for the microplastics’ identification and quantification in water.

PRESENTER

Daniele Pirone
National Research Council - Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (CNR-ISASI)

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Characterizing the ocean with acoustic waves: from seismic oceanography imaging to inversion

• Ana Filipa Duarte

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Characterizing the ocean with acoustic waves: from seismic oceanography imaging to inversion

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ABSTRACT

Seismic oceanography can be used to provide oceanographic insights about ocean processes happening simultaneously at large- and small-scales. We illustrate the potential of seismic oceanography data, by processing and inverting a set of three parallel two-dimensional multichannel seismic reflection profiles acquired in the Madeira Abyssal Plain during June 2016. The seismic sections were processed to image in detail the fine scale structure of the water column close to the sea surface. A similar processing sequence was applied to the three sections aiming to preserve, as much as possible, the relative seismic amplitudes of the data and enhance the shallow structure of the water column by effectively suppressing the direct arrival. The final processed seismic oceanography sections show several features of interest, comprising eddies at the expected Mediterranean Outflow Water depths, steeply dipping reflectors, which indicate the possible presence of frontal activity or secondary dipping eddy structures, and strong horizontal reflections between intermediate water masses suggestive of double diffuse processes. Then, we applied an iterative geostatistical seismic oceanography inversion methodology to predict the spatial distribution of temperature and salinity along each section. For the inversion we combined information about the ocean temperature and salinity from different sources. After the inversion, the predicted temperature are salinity models were interpolated with geostatistical simulation techniques to provide information regarding the region in between sections.

PRESENTER

Ana Filipa Duarte
CERENA/Instituto Superior Técnico

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INVITED - Digital holography with polarization multiplexing for underwater imaging and descattering

• Edmund Lam

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INVITED - Digital holography with polarization multiplexing for underwater imaging and descattering

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ABSTRACT

Underwater imaging is often affected by light scattering, which leads to a significant degradation in image quality and resolution. We propose a digital holographic microscopy method with polarization multiplexing for underwater imaging and descattering. Our method is based on a single laser source, so that the reference light in different polarization states can interfere with the object light at the same time, and the required information can be extracted in the frequency spectrum. Combined with the underwater image-formation model, we can achieve descattering in one step. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach as a leading example combining polarization imaging and digital holography. This method will benefit the underwater image descattering for visualizing microplastics and other in situ imaging situations.

PRESENTER

Edmund Lam
University of Hong Kong

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INVITED - Qualitative and quantitative analysis of microplastics through an ultra-compact near-infrared spectrometer

• Stefania Federici

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INVITED - Qualitative and quantitative analysis of microplastics through an ultra-compact near-infrared spectrometer

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ABSTRACT

Plastic pollution is globally recognized as an environmental challenge for ecosystems and human health. Most plastic waste flows from land to oceans, strongly impacting marine life and organisms. More recently, small fragments at the microscale originating from the breakdown process of bigger pieces of plastic litter have become of increasing concern, driving the research efforts toward the understanding of sources, distribution, fate, and impact of these particles. Developments of analytical techniques in the field of microplastics environmental pollution are well reported in the literature. Nevertheless, the use of miniaturized and portable instruments has gained popularity only in the last years and there is an urgent need of harmonized and shared protocols to guarantee the capabilities of these ultra-compact instruments to routinely analyze microplastics. This manuscript presents a novel approach for direct microplastics quantification, based on a handheld portable near-infrared spectrometer coupled with chemometrics. Microplastics were produced at a laboratory scale starting from daily life plastic items to generate “true-to-life” microplastics. Polymers were chosen reflecting the most abundant fraction of environmental plastic waste (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene), mechanically fragmented to mimic the environmental weathered particles, and then mixed at several concentrations. Recorded spectra were qualitatively validated through a custom-made library of urban plastic waste previously developed, and analyzed through chemometrics to quantify unknown true-to-life microplastic mixtures.

PRESENTER

Stefania Federici
University of Brescia

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Detection of microplastics in a digested complex organic medium by Raman Tweezers

• Antonino Foti

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Detection of microplastics in a digested complex organic medium by Raman Tweezers

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ABSTRACT

Raman Tweezers (RT) were exploited to trap and characterize polystyrene microbeads floating within a complex medium obtained by the digestion of a mussel which is considered a bioindicator for microplastics pollution.

PRESENTER

Antonino Foti
CNR - IPCF

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Compact holographic microscope for imaging flowing microplastics

• Teresa Cacace

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Compact holographic microscope for imaging flowing microplastics

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ABSTRACT

The presence of dispersed plastic particulates in the environment is an ecological problem of increasing relevance, posing in addition potential health risks as they enter the food chain. In the last years, increasing efforts are being spent to study and characterize the microplastics found in nature, particularly in aquatic environments. At the same time, there is a need to advance the instruments and techniques necessary to perform fast, quantitative, and reliable analysis of microplastics. In this framework, we present a compact and cost-effective holographic microscope, integrated with a commercial microfluidic chip to visualize and evaluate microplastic samples in flowing conditions. The preliminary results show that different microplastic samples can be clearly imaged in-flow through a Digital Holography microscope. This is the first step for assessing novel strategies for the detection and identification of microplastics.

PRESENTER

Teresa Cacace
ISASI-CNR

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Holographic tracking and imaging of free-swimming Tetraselmis by off-axis holographic microscopy

• Daniele Sirico

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Holographic tracking and imaging of free-swimming Tetraselmis by off-axis holographic microscopy

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ABSTRACT

Digital holography in microscopy plays an important role in optical imaging technique thanks to its non-invasive, label free, quantitative and high-resolution approach. In particular DH allows to obtain the imaging of 3D volume by using the whole complex field of the scattered radiation by the sample by means of numerical reconstruction methods. Thanks to the refocusing feature of digital holography here we will show the investigation of the motility a marine microorganism, a Tetraselmis. We show that this particular type of a marine microalga, travel along complex swimming trajectories that have been retrieved and reconstructed in 3D by means of segmentation algorithms. Motility could be in future correlated to some environmental marine water concerns.

PRESENTER

Daniele Sirico
CNR ISASI

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INVITED - Fluorescence Microscopy and Molecular Biology Methods as Tools for Assessing the Toxic Effects of Heavy Metals on Sea Urchin Development

• Giovanna Romano

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INVITED - Fluorescence Microscopy and Molecular Biology Methods as Tools for Assessing the Toxic Effects of Heavy Metals on Sea Urchin Development

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ABSTRACT

Paracentrotus lividus is the dominant sea urchin in the Mediterranean Sea, influencing the dynamics of coastal water ecosystems. It has been considered a good model system to study the response of marine organisms to environmental stress. Indeed, their eggs, embryos and larvae transparency, as well as their sensitivity to pollutants, made this organism particularly suitable for embryotoxicity tests and for monitoring or risk assessment programs. A number of inorganic compounds, especially heavy metals, were tested for their adverse effects on sea urchin development, fertilization success, as well as other effects as induction of apoptosis, calcification defects, DNA damage and/or increasing production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this work, examples of microscopy techniques and molecular approaches used to assess the effects of heavy metals on the sea urchin development are presented.

PRESENTER

Giovanna Romano
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

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The effect of the detergent on microfibre release during the washing process of polyester textiles

• Michela Volgare

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The effect of the detergent on microfibre release during the washing process of polyester textiles

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ABSTRACT

Microplastics are defined as plastic fragments with dimensions lower than 5 mm, which are gaining much attention due to their ubiquitous and possibly dangerous presence in marine environment, representing a threat for marine ecosystems, and potentially for humans. Although many studies warn about the quantity and danger of microplastic pollution, it is possible that the extent of the phenomenon has been greatly underestimated. Washing processes of synthetic fabrics have been lately identified as responsible for about 35% of primary microplastic release in oceans and seas, indeed, the number of microfibres released from a typical 2-2.5 kg wash load of synthetic fabrics was estimated to be ranged from 640,000 to 1,500,000 [1]. In such scenario, it is important to identify the causes of the release and to evaluate the role of washing program, detergent, and load. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the amount of microfibres released from polyester textiles during washing process, by varying the type of used detergent. For this aim, washing tests were performed on single T-shirt made of 100% polyester with a household washing machine, employing different liquid detergents. The obtained quantity of microfibres released during the washing of the T-shirt ranges from 401±17 to 437±35 mg per kg of washed fabric, that corresponds to an average number of microfibres released around 4,000,000. The obtained results allow to conclude that the washing of a single T -shirt releases a great amount of microfibres. This can be explained considering that the higher water ratio per washed fabric and the higher mechanical action due to the lower washing load, has a negative impact on the release improving fibres mobility.

PRESENTER

Michela Volgare
National Research Council of Italy - IPCB

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Microalgae as potential bioindicators for heavy metal pollution

• Elena Cavalletti

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Microalgae as potential bioindicators for heavy metal pollution

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ABSTRACT

Heavy metals (HMs) are considered persistent pollutants due to their low degradation rate. They can be easily accumulated along the food chain and reach the higher trophic levels, posing a threat for both the environment and human health. Microalgae, being at the base of food webs in marine and fresh waters, are one of the first groups to be affected by HM pollution and can be considered potential HM indicators in aquatic environments. In this frame we propose QPM (quantitative phase microscopy) optical techniques as an innovative approach for rapid detection of HMs stress on microalgae. Furthermore, since some HMs are considered essential elements for cell growth and metabolism, microalgae have designed strategies for their uptake and have been thus considered attractive candidates for bioremediation purposes. In the present work, a strain of Skeletonema pseudocostatum isolated from the mouth of the Sarno river (Gulf of Naples) was exposed to several concentrations of copper to test its tolerance to the HM in 72 hours small-scale experiments. A lethal (25 µM) and a sub-lethal (10 µM) copper concentration were identified and used for 72 hours scale-up experiments. The rate of copper adsorption/compartmentalization was evaluated by ICP-MS analyses of microalgal pellets at the end of each experiment. S. pseudocostatum showed tolerance to copper up to a concentration of 10 µM, with a rate of removal of 14% of copper administered in solution in larger scale experiments. These results seem promising considering future possible applications of this species for HM removal. In addition, preliminary QPM investigations of copper effects on cellular and subcellular morphology seem to suggest that these techniques could aid in elucidating S. pseudocostatum potential as a sensor of HM environmental pollution.

PRESENTER

Elena Cavalletti
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

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Identification and Quantification of Microplastic with Fibre Shape

• Raffaella Mossotti

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Identification and Quantification of Microplastic with Fibre Shape

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ABSTRACT

Plastics are synthetic materials obtained into various shapes by using different processes such as extrusion, moulding, spinning and casting. They show highlighted mechanical, chemical and thermal characteristics. They are becoming materials ubiquitous for the different industrial sectors from packaging to paint, tyres and textiles, revolutionizing the containers for products, for packaging and for carrying bags and clothing. However, it is usually non-biodegradable and therefore can remain as waste in the environment for a very long time for weathering and degradation become small particles called microplastics, polluting the marine and other habitats. Microplastics can concentrate persistent organic pollutants via partitioning and they can be ingested by marine biota, thereby entering in the food chain with the potential effect on human health. Synthetic clothing represents a primary source of environmental pollution because of the shedding of microplastics in laundry washing machine and textile processes. In fact, the rapid growth of fiber production has caused significant impacts on people and planet. It increases more than doubled in the last 20 years and is expected to reach 145 million mt in 2030. The synthetic fibers have dominated the fiber market since the mid-1990s and made up approximately 62 percent of the global fiber production in 2018. In particular, polyester for its characteristic and versatility had a market share of around 51.5 percent of total global fiber production. (1) At present, there are no precise standard guidelines to follow for quantification of microplastic released from textiles materials and processes. This research study carried out between Aquafil SpA and CNR STIIMA (Biella Department) is in progress and it is focused on the setting up of the microplastics standard determination with fiber shape in different matrices present in the textile field such as wastewater from clothes washings, water effluents or solids from industrial processes and air. At present, the Draft PrENISO 4484-2 Textiles is currently being evaluated by the ISO and CEN commissions, particularly in its CEN Enquiry stage. Depending on the kinds of water sample, a pre-treatment of the sample to eliminate inorganic and organic contaminants (e.g. biological) that could interfere with their identification can be required. The method involves a preliminary step of observation of the sample under an optical microscope and subsequent identification of micron and submicron microplastics with molecular spectroscopy using two spectroscopy techniques such as Micro-FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed Spectroscopy coupled with optical microscopy) and Micro-Raman (Raman Spectroscopy coupled with optical microscopy) and providing data about the size, the numerical concentration of MPs, etc. The method also provides a procedure for preparing synthetic microfilaments standard suspensions to facilitate lab tests and the monitoring of microplastic in different matrices. Moreover, a robust ecotoxicological methodology based on several biotests useful for studying the effects of this type of pollutants has been reported.

PRESENTER

Raffaella Mossotti
CNR-STIIMA

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