Project
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Progetto RISE PRRIITT: Programma Regionale per la Ricerca Industriale, l'Innovazione e il Trasferimento Tecnologico (misura 3.1, azione A, attività I.1.2) |
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The RISE Project (Sediment Incubation System Achievement for Benthic Fluxes Characterization) is funded by PRRITT (Programma Regionale per la Ricerca Industriale, l’Innovazione e il Trasferimento Tecnologico) on POR-FESR Programme (Programma Operativo Regionale del Fondo Europeo di Sviluppo Regionale 2007-2013) that encourages local activities to achieve the Lisbona and Goteborg objectives.
The main objective of the RISE is to provide a powerful and innovative tool to study the physico-chemical and biological responses of the marine and transitional (lagoon, estuary, delta, pond) benthic ecosystems.
Quantification of the substances exchange at the sediment/water interface (benthic fluxes of oxygen, nutrients, carbon dioxide, organic and inorganic compounds) (Fig. 1) is very important in monitoring and managing shallow ecosystems, especially related to their trophic and contamination status. These are the two main constraints for the social-economic activities (tourism, fishing, aquaculture, oil extraction, etc.) progress. Furthermore, marine and transitional ecosystems have a primary role in the CO2 balance and global climate change that are both interesting for the international scientific community.
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| Figure 1. a) Processes Regulating Benthic Fluxes (Kuwabara et al., 1999 – Technical Report). b) Benthic Fluxes of O2, NH4, PO4 and SiO2. Solute Fluxes are positive (release from the sediment to the water column) or negative (from the water column to the sediment) and differ on temporal and spatial scales. | |
Incubator system allows to set up microcosms able to shut off a known sediment volume and its bottom water in controlled atmosphere, previously sampled with suitable techniques, and to reproduce natural dynamics simulating different environment conditions (currents, bottom sediment handling and resuspension, warming, irradiance, water acidification, etc.). In particular, the incubator system consists in 6 microcosms, 5 of which are filled with sediment core and bottom water and 1 with only bottom water (blank/control sample). Each microcosm is equipped with the following systems: autonomous thermostatic, circulation, dark/light regulation, surface sediment handling, sampling and some electrode ones to measure in continuous physico-chemical bottom water parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, turbidity, nutrients). Thermostatic system allows temperature effects on benthic fluxes to be checked. Circulation system, that simulates various degrees of hydrodynamic conditions, allows to check water mixing (in presence/absence of water stratification) and sediment resuspension playing benthic ecosystem perturbations during dredging activities, trawling, oil extraction, pipelining, etc. Furthermore, a dark/light system plays lighting daily cycle for studying benthic flux variations. The realization of independent microcosms allows contemporaneous simulations (temperature, circulation, etc.) in the same study area to be carried out and the same experiment to be replicated in order to check result reproducibility and reliability.
Both incubator system innovation and efficiency come from simulations carried out in laboratory of different environmental conditions allowing to check each microcosm responses at various pressures and to understand their effects. The incubator system achievement aims at studying pressures/responses/effects of the marine and transitional environments subject to different impacts, as it is difficult to count all variables present in the natural environment.
Incubator system aims at supporting answers on management and scientific issues (Fig. 2, 3, 4). Furthermore, the instrument use allows local environmental information useful in the monitoring protocols (as reported by the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and 152/2006 law) to be acquired, especially for the public administrations (Region, Environmental Agency, University, National Research Centre) and private firms (fishing, aquaculture and mussel-farming enterprises, hotel and tourism operators). This allows processes developing aquatic systems to be understood and possible hazards to the ecosystems to be predicted through an integrated management of the environment and their socio-economical aspects (as defined by the European Community). The incubator system represents an innovative tool able to promote and develop the territory and, in particular, to provide real and reproducible responses by checking and predicting possible impacts (natural and anthropic) at the marine and transitional environments.
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| Figure 2. The Eutrophication Process |
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| Figure 3. Dr. Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has created a map of zones in the world at very low dissolved oxygen concentrations (“Died Zones”) | Figure 4. Average Anomaly of the Low Atmospheric and Surface Sea Temperature, as reported by IPCC in the last 150 years (Summary of Policymakers, 2007) |
The project RISE will be realized by Gruppo CSA S.p.A. in collaboration with CNR-ISMAR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Scienze MARine) and the ARPA Daphne ER. In particular, the Institute of Marine Geology of Bologna (CNR-ISMAR, Bologna) and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Oceanography of Trieste (CNR-ISMAR, Trieste) have a long experience in marine biogeochemical and physico-chemical studies. The ARPA Daphne ER has been responsible for the coastal-marine monitoring of the Emilia-Romagna Region for more than twenty years and, in this context, it is one the most advanced Structure in Europe.