1,721,091 research outputs found
The role of environmental education in Sicilian Marine Protected Areas
No full textToday, more than ever, we need to be care for our common home: the Earth. The global financial and economical crisis has made evident the inner relationship between environmental degradation, the consequences of the new shift in the geopolitical order, and the cultural conflicts confronting the world. In this contest, the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea (MATTM) promotes Education for Sustainable Development and Environmental Education to empower citizen to live sustainably and in an environmentally conscious manner. From a citizenship perspective, ecological viewpoints play a role in the public debate about land use, large scale fishing, sustainability, climate change, and so forth. Sicily is the Italian region with the highest number of designated MPAs -6 -and more are in the pipeline. This study gives an overview of the various dissemination initiatives being taken within Sicilian MPAs over the past decade to increase public awareness about the importance of such protected areas
Can MPS's protect sea urchin stocks?
No full textSea urchins have long attracted attention from scientists worldwide for their ecological role in coastal areas. Entire communities structures associated to kelp beds and related ecosystem functions were found to strictly depend on grazing by urchins. Sea urchins, in addition, have been used as a food resource by humans since prehistory, and presently they are one of the important sea food (both exploited from the wild and in part obtained from aquaculture) consumed in many regions, but also exported-imported through the world. In the Mediterranean sea, the purple sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck) exerts a key ecological as a main regulator of the structure of coastal communities. At the same time P. lividus is recreationally and commercially exploited in many Mediterranean areas, as both male and female gonads are considered a delicacy in several countries. In the past, this species was locally fished and consumed. Presently the market of this sea food is expanding, and therefore major concern should be devoted to avoid overexploitation and possible community-wide effects of overfishing. The goal of the study is to figure out if well-enforced marine reserves can increase density, size and reproductive potential (gonad weight) of P. lividus, often important for the local economy. We examined the effects of P. lividus recreational harvesting on the species itself on rocky substrates of Ustica Island MPA. We compared the average density, size structure and gonad weight of P. lividus recorded at protected (no take zone) and fished sites (take zone C) in summer 2015 and 2016. P. lividus was always larger and more abundant at the protected sites than the fished ones. Results suggest that stronger management measures should be adopted by managers of MPAs to accomplish conservation of wild P. lividus populations also in the take zone
A comparative study of the mollusc communities of a Mediterranean saltwork (Marsala, Western Sicily.
No full textSaltworks are peculiar artificial ecosystems and holds great interest for basic research. In fact the cooling vat
(the first pond of the evaporating series) is a good example of a relatively closed area and can be considered
an excellent in the field open-air laboratory, namely a mesocosm reproducing a simplified model of the
natural condition of hyperaline lagoons.
The aim of the present work was to analyse the structure, composition and distribution of molluscan
assemblages and to identify the faunistic relationships between the cooling vat and the neighbouring basin of
Stagnone di Marsala, beside considering exchanges between saltwork, Stagnone di Marsala and sea, on soft-
bottom, covered by Cymodocea nodosa. In structural terms, two molluscan communities can be identified.
As regard the saltwork, the community was always characterized by halolimnobic and euryaline species
such as Ventrosia ventrosa, Loripes lacteus, Abra segmentum and Pirenella conica. while the community
inhabiting Stagnone was composed mainly of marine taxa; here a good exchange with the sea is confirmed
by the high values for species richness and diversity gives rise mainly to the presence of marine taxa: e. g
Jujubinus striatus, Dikoleps nitens, Rissoa paradoxa, R. similis, Columbella rustica etc.
The saltwork molluscan assemblage doesn’t seem to be similar to that of the Stagnone. The low specific
richness, the high abundance and the low evenness, showed a pioneer stage of colonization, being poor in
species and dominated by taxa with high abundance and low evennes
Arbacia
Full text linkArbacia is unique among shallow echinoid genus, not in line with the general rule that sea urchins should be either entirely tropical or entirely temperate, with limited overlap in the subtropics. Six extant Arbacia species have been described by Mortensen. The genus Arbacia has a Neotropical origin and four different fossil species have been described from the Late Miocene. Over the past century, Arbacia has been the subject of intense investigations into the cell biology, toxicology, biochemistry, and embryology. Recently, renewed interest in this genus arose from its phylogeny, ecology, and its resilience to ocean warming and acidification. According to several studies, impacts of ocean acidification on Arbacia, growth from the juvenile to mature adult life-stage transition, seems to be mitigated by warming. Functional studies have shown that some Arbacia species play an important role in the ecology of rocky reefs. Manipulative experiments have shown a leading role of Arbacia species in maintaining the coralline barren habitat. All species of Arbacia are omnivorous, with a strong tendency to carnivory. They are able to scrape fleshy algae, sea grasses, encrusting algae, barnacle shells, and hard calcareous tubes of polychaetes from the substrata, thanks to their large Aristotle's lantern, indicative of a durophagic habit. Arbacia is a gonochoric genus with a very early maturity. Generally, Arbacia species show a reproductive cycle that is typically annual or semiannual
Karyotype and ribosomal gene location in Oxynoe olivacea (Mollusca, Ophistobranchia, Sacoglossa)
No full textLand and sea joint - The educational project Terramare
No full textToday, the global financial and economical crisis has made evident the inner relationship between environmental degradation and social needs. Throughout the Mediterranean Sea the consequences of the new shift in the geopolitical order and the cultural conflicts confronting is a first result of disadvantages and environmental crisis with a continuum growth of environmental disorder and difficulties on manage territories. In this contest, the foundation “Fondazione con il Sud” promotes project for Sustainable Development and Environmental Education to empower citizen to live sustainably in an environmentally conscious manner and to promote cultural integration.
The "Terramare" project is proposed as a model of integrated protection and management of coastal protected areas, based on the close interconnection between the terrestrial nature reserve and the marine protected area. Contextualized in the Pelagie islands, the project plans to tackle some critical issues of the two protected areas and the territory by proposing to the local community an active role in the protection and management of natural capital and identifying new ways of enjoying and living protected areas based on sustainable tourism and the strengthening of the local identity
Crushing predation of the spiny star Marthasterias glacialis upon the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus.
Full text linkLiterature data report that only fish predators are able to crush sea urchin tests in Mediterranean rocky reefs. This experimental study showed that the spiny star Marthasterias glacialis is able to break Paracentrotus lividus tests and that the breaking event is more likely to occur for small-sized sea urchins than for big ones. Our results show that the role of M. glacialis in regulating P. lividus population density can be important in specific locations. They may have important implications, moreover, for the use of tethering techniques aimed at identifying predator types of sea urchin
Localizzazione del rDNA in Brachidontes pharaonis (P. Fisher, 1870) (Mollusca: Bivalvia) mediante ibridazione in situ (FISH).
No full textObservations on copulatory behaviour in Oxynoe olivacea (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia, Saccoglossa)
No full textNON-INDIGENOUS SPECIES AND MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
No full textThe introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS) has been pointed out as a major threat to biodiversity. NIS may in time become invasive (i.e. invasive alien species “IAS”) and may cause biodiversity loss and ecosystem service changes. In the Mediterranean Sea, due to multiple human-borne stressors, the number of recorded NIS has currently reached a number around 1000 NIS. Sicily and its surrounding islands, also including a high number of Marine Protected Area (MPAs), as a consequence of their geographic position and the intense maritime traffic volumes, including fisheries and recreational fleets that foster the introduction of marine alien species, is a region particularly vulnerable and prone to NIS invasions. Since frontiers do not exist in the sea, biological invasions may severely affect MPAs, whose major aim is biodiversity conservation, because they are also located in proximity to ports and marinas or are frequently used by small recreational or fishing boats as well as tourists. Assessing effects that IAS have on MPAs is crucial for planning suitable management activities which also require sound knowledge of the pathways of introduction, the impact and current distribution of IAS. Therefore, the distribution, pathways and spread dynamics of invasive taxa recorded till now in Sicilian MPAs, based on relevant publications, grey literature, unpublished data and in situ observations, is presented here and discussed.
Altogether, 18 alien and 3 cryptogenic species have been recorded from Sicilian MPAs. Unexpectedly, even though in the southern coast of Sicily the maritime traffic is more intense, the MPAs located in the north-western coast of Sicily (Egadi Islands MPA with 19 species and Ustica Island with 7 species) are the most affected by this phenomenon. The creation of permanent observatories and alarm systems might be an effective tool in the management of present and future introductions of NIS in MPAs
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