Monitoring and environmental consulting

The MEDA Unit has many years of experience in the environmental field, gained through participation at several external projects.

The activity consists in data collection, analysis and elaboration aimed at transferring technical and scientific reports to local and national institutions or to private entities.

The unit is specialized in:

•coastal waters monitoring;

• assessment of e environmental impact (due to sediment disposal, engineering works on the seabed or on the coast, etc.);

• biogeochemical characterization of sand and marine sediments for reclamation, beach nourishment, environmental impact assessments etc.( in collaboration with other institutions);

• Monitoring of benthic biocoenosis and of P. Oceanica meadows (in collaboration with the Ecology of Benthos Laboratory – Ischia).

• Continuous acquisition (by means of multiparametric probes), data processing and analysis hydrographic variables (temperature, salinity, dissolved , fluorescence, transmittance, PAR, SPAR and pH) along the water column
• Sampling and analysis of the main abiotic and biotic variables:
  - Inorganic nutrients;
  - Total and dissolved N and P;
  - Dissolved oxygen;
  - Particulate Organic Carbon (POC);
  - Total suspended solids (TSS);
  - Chlorophyll a;
  - Photosynthetic pigments;

• Plankton sampling;
• Sampling and pre-treatment of sediments addressed to geochemical analyses and to the characterization of benthic communities.

These activities are mainly carried on board the M / N Vettoria or on other research vessels. Moreover, in absence of suitable support structures, a fully equipped mobile laboratory can be set up, allowing the first processing of samples.

Field work instruments:

• Multi-parametric CTD probes equipped with dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, trasmittance, pH, ORP, altimeter, Par & Spar sensors
• Carousel automatic sampler with 12 Niskin bottles (10LT)

Lab instruments:

• Flow Sys Systea Autoanalyzer
• Thermo Flash EA 1112 Series CHN analyzer
• SHIMADZU RF-5301PC spectrofluorometer
• Agilent 1110 Series HPLC

Fabio Conversano

Tel. + 39 081 5833357

e-mail: fabio.conversano(at)szn.it