Tecnologie ad alta risoluzione per il monitoraggio di rifiuti marini e rilevamento di effetti sugli ecosistemi marini protetti, verso un sistema di rilevamento rapido transfrontaliero

Programme: Interreg VI-A Italia-Malta

Duration: 02/05/2025 – 02/11/2027

Within the context of the Interreg V-A Italy-Malta cross-border cooperation programme, the TecMAReco project addresses the critical challenge of plastic pollution and marine litter threatening ecosystem health in the cross-border area between Sicily and Malta. The initiative focuses on integrating remote sensing and high-resolution in-situ monitoring systems to specifically identify waste accumulation and analyze its biological impact on Marine Protected Areas. The objective is to establish a shared early warning system between Italy and Malta by standardizing cross-border detection protocols from rivers to the sea. This is achieved through participatory citizen science approaches, the creation of a stakeholder network, and the testing of plastic reuse solutions, aiming for coordinated and timely governance of environmental emergencies.

Objectives

The project aims to develop a technological and methodological framework for early detection of marine litter and the protection of sensitive habitats. To achieve these goals, the initiative focuses on the following key points:

High-Resolution monitoring systems development: implementation of advanced optical and acoustic technologies (satellite sensors, drones, and ROVs) for detecting, mapping, and quantifying marine litter in marine protected areas and Natura 2000 sites;

Assessment of impacts on ecosystem functioning: in-depth study of the effects of waste-associated contaminants on marine organisms (bioindicators) and vulnerable habitats, to quantify the actual ecological damage;

Creation of a rapid detection (Early Warning) system: implementation of an Italo-Maltese cross-border platform for real-time data exchange, aimed at facilitating coordinated mitigation, reuse, and removal interventions among competent authorities;

Harmonization of protocols: standardization of sampling and analysis methodologies between Italian and Maltese partners to ensure data comparability and the creation of common guidelines for marine litter management (land-to-sea);

Technology transfer and awareness-raising: training of environmental agencies' technical staff and engagement of local stakeholders (fishermen, NGOs, and protected area managers) and citizens in citizen science and beach cleaning activities, for the sustainable and shared protection of marine heritage.

Coordinator: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Sicily Marine Centre

SZN Principal Investigators: Maria Cristina Mangano, Claudio Berti

Partners:

University of Malta, Malta

Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy

ARPA Sicilia - Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente, Italy

Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy

South Side s.r.l., Italy

Zibel ONG, Malta

Regione Siciliana - Dipartimento della Pesca Mediterranea, Italy

Assessing spillover from marine protected areas to adjacent fisheries: Mediterranean and Black Seas

Programme: European project (CINEA/MARE European Commission)

Duration: 01/07/2023 – 30/06/2026

Marine protected areas (MPAs), and in particular fully protected areas (FPAs), can support fisheries through the spillover of fish biomass into adjacent fishing grounds. Spillover occurs when recovered populations within FPAs export juveniles and adults across reserve boundaries, potentially increasing catches and revenues. However, the magnitude and effectiveness of spillover are highly variable and depend on ecological and management conditions. Key factors include MPA design and size, enforcement level, habitat continuity, the presence of partially protected areas, species mobility, and fishing pressure near boundaries. Strengthening scientific evidence on spillover processes is essential to evaluate the real potential of MPAs to reconcile biodiversity conservation with fisheries objectives, especially in European marine regions.

Objectives

The goal of this project is to assemble existing information and collect new data to provide an overview of the role that marine protected areas (MPAs) may play for local fisheries through spillover effects in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Overall, this study will lead to an improvement in the assessment and evaluation of MPA benefits to local fisheries. The specific aims of the project are:

assess the ability of fully and partially protected areas to export fishable biomass;

identify whether spillover is mediated by some MPA features, types of fishing activities, or different levels of effort within the MPAs and around their borders, and/or species characteristics;

identify MPAs with different levels of spillover;

assess ecological and fishery spillover through two case studies in the Mediterranean Sea.

The study combines a 1) large-scale assessment collecting information on spillover from published data and grey literature throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas and 2) a case-study approach focusing on two selected case studies in which in-depth information for both ecological and fishery spillover will be gathered and analysed to assess which MPA features, and species characteristics mainly drive spillover.

Coordinator: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Sicily Marine Centre

SZN Principal Investigator: Antonio Di Franco

Partners:

Hellenic Center for Marine Research

Interuniversity National Consortium of Marine Sciences

Institute of Oceanology-Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”

Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries

Department of Fisheries and Marine Research

Instituto Español de Oceanografia

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Unraveling environmental and anthropogenic factors ShaPing the snow microbiome and antibiotic REsistome At Dome C (Antarctica)

Programme: Programma Nazionale di Ricerca in Antartide (PNRA) 

Duration:  3 November 2025 – 2 November 2027 

Legacy and emerging organic contaminants have raised increasing concerns due to their persistence, transport potential and toxicity. Polar regions are special eco-environmental systems and generally used as an important global background area. Increasing human activities and presence in Antarctica may have notable impacts at local scale, generating environmental pollution. Among pollutants of interest, there are personal care products (e.g., detergents, soaps, lotions, toothpastes, sunscreens, fragrances, and moisturizers), microplastics, and pharmaceuticals (e.g., antibiotics and their residues, analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs and antidepressants). Considering the effectiveness of snow scavenging of air pollutants, snow acts as an important sink for the distribution of pollutants among different matrices in polar regions (cold-trapping). Especially, scavenging and remobilization of pollutants by snow deposition and melting under the global climate change condition may enhance the pivotal impact on driving pollutants exchange between environmental matrices. This could affect the microbial ecology (biodiversity and ecological roles) in snowy ecosystems, e.g. stimulating the development of antibiotic resistance in snow and its dissemination through the atmosphere and through snow melting. Despite these potential impacts, the anthropogenic impact on the snow antibiotic resistome remains to be elucidated. With SPREAD, snow samples subjected to different levels of anthropogenic activities, and surrounding the Concordia Base, will be collected over a year at Dome C (Antarctica) to evaluate the pollution level and the potentially related impact on the biological community structure and activities. In particular, the composition of the antibiotic resistome will be explored. Expected results will contribute in surveying antibiotic resistance development in anthropogenically impacted sites, even in remote areas. 

Objectives 

Specific objectives will be to: 

- assess the whole biodiversity spatial distribution and temporal dynamics 

- assess the occurrence and spread of personal care products, pharmaceuticals and microplastics 

- describe the resistome, and assess the spread of antibiotic resistance and pathogens 

- analyze the response by microbial communities to contaminants in snow 

- characterize the viable bacterial community for biodiversity and metabolic activities 

Coordinator: Angelina Lo Giudice, CNR-ISP 

SZN Principal Investigator: Carmen Rizzo 

Partners: 

National Research Council, Institute of Polar Sciences 

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn 

Univerity of Pisa 

Potential Role of Sea Ice change in controlling Mercury in coastal Antarctic Areas

Programme: Programma Nazionale di Ricerca in Antartide (PNRA)

Duration: 11 July 2024 – 11 July 2027 (postponed)

Mercury is a toxic trace element found ubiquitously in the atmosphere where it can rapidly deposit to the hydrosphere or cryosphere and pass into nearby ecosystems. Antarctica is thought to be a sink during the polar night and a source during the polar day, although this simple scheme is complicated by atmospheric chemistry. Radicals of oxygen and bromine can enhance oxidation of atmospheric mercury to ionic forms that can deposit more rapidly. We suspect these oxidation processes are more rapid above the sea ice during the springtime when the so-called bromine explosion occurs. Our aim is to carry out atmospheric measurements of bromine and combine them with ozone and NOx measurements already taken at MZS whilst monitoring atmospheric mercury concentrations using a Tekran 2537X instrument. Complimentary to these field measurements, snow samples, ice samples, sea samples, and passive air samples at different points will allow us to start to quantify and connect between different environmental compartments, the depositional processes and metal cycling. In addition, within the same samples, we aim to investigate the presence of the mer-operon that codes for mercury resistance in bacteria as we suspect that after sea ice break up, biological processes become important in the emission of mercury from the sea surface. These measurements together with air mass back trajectories using Lagrangian models (FLEXPART and HYSPLIT) should help us make a valid contribution to understanding the role of Antarctica on the global mercury cycle.

Objectives

Objective 1) Set up a station for the continuous analysis of total gaseous mercury (TGM) in air and collection of aerosol for analysis of bromine and particulate mercury at MZS.

Objective 2) Survey the mercury concentrations in snow, sea ice, glacial melt waters and surface and subsurface seawater of Tethys Bay and the immediate vicinity of Terra Nova Bay.

Objective 3) Phylogenetic characterization of total bacterial communities and molecular detection of specific resistance genes within natural samples, and correlation of their abundance with the detected Hg concentrations.

Objective 4) Isolation of bacterial strains from the sea ice, snow and glacial melt water samples to investigate the presence of the mer-operon that codes for mercury resistance in bacteria.

Objective 5) Investigate the variables that influence the daily variations of mercury in the atmosphere, the eventual re-deposition of mercury and under what conditions, with a real estimate of how much mercury is recycled between the air and snowpack.

Objective 6) Understand how variations in sea ice at the coast can affect the mercury cycle and to what extent.

Coordinator: Cairns Warren Raymond Lee

SZN Principal Investigator: Carmen Rizzo

Partners:

National Research Council, Institute of Polar Sciences

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

University of Perugia