The activity of the Marine Environment Management Unit is mainly carried out in
the Adriatic Sea and includes three main fields of research: management of demersal
resources, study of benthic communities and use of underwater acoustic technology
for seabed and fish habitat mapping.
Management of demersal resources
This field includes a) studies on the biology and assessment of fishery
resources related to management issues; b) collection of data on different fishing
activities, with particular regard for the small-scale fisheries carried out in
the coastal areas, in terms of fleets, technical features and selectivity of the
gears as well as composition of the catches (target species, by-catch and discard);
and c) research aimed to protect, increase and rationally exploit the marine resources,
such as creation of Marine Protected Areas, planning of multi-purpose artificial
reefs (anti-trawling, protection of reef dwelling species, establishing of new fishing
grounds for the small-scale fisheries operating with set gears) and improvement
of open-sea mariculture.
Study of the macrozoobenthic communities
The main aims of the scientific team involved in this field of research
are to study the impact on soft-bottom communities caused by the disposal od dredged
material in off-shore marine areas, construction of off-shore gas platforms and
pipe lines, and
open-sea mariculture and
to investigate the assemblage and dynamics of benthos settled on artificial substrates.
Other aims are to characterize the biocenosis of Marine Protected Areas and to understand
the trophic linkage between some fish species inhabiting artificial structures and
benthic community through the study of fish gut contents.
Multibeam Echosounder and Side Scan Sonar
Over
the past 6 years high-resolution multibeam (MBES) studies have been addressed to
investigate the scour and burial of artificial reefs and pipelines, benthic and
fish habitats of Marine Protected Areas, dredging and discharge areas, port facilities
and marine structures. Side Scan Sonar (SSS)
surveys are often made in conjunction with MBES monitoring to assure a complete
picture of the considered seabed returning detailed 2D and 3D images, bathymetric
charts, volume calculation, reckoning sections and profiles.
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