Ph. D. Student
Integrative Marine Ecology Department
Tel.: +39 3248221286
E-mail: faustino.scarcelli(at)szn.it
Contatto Skype: Faustino Scarcelli
Director of Studies: Silvestro Greco
External Supervisor: Silvia Mazzuca
Program: XXXVI cycle
Research Interests
Posidonia oceanica is the iconic seagrass of the Mediterranean sea, forming the main ecosystems along the coast areas. A vast past literature has described the ecology and the biology features of this plant reporting the current status, the major threats that affect the meadows and the populations structure along the west and the east coast of the Mediterranean basin. The Calabria peninsula, in the South Italy, represents a geographic barrier that separates the western from the eastern populations. No detailed information about the ecosystem services of these populations are available to date. The main aim of the PhD project is to decipher the differences among Posidonia populations living along the two sides; multi levels analysis, from the meadow macrostructures to the plant phenology traits will performed. Classical approaches for the evaluation of the Posidonia ecological status of six sites will be applied, three along the Tyrrhenian sea and three along the Ionian coasts of Calabria. The Side Scan Sonar maps to facilitate the monitoring of meadows will be available. A deep analysis of the Posidonia associated biodiversity (mainly epiphytes) will enable to find relationships among sites through seasons in both sides. Differences in the adaptation/resilience toward climate change of Posidonia populations along the two sides, will be deciphered through a deliberate manipulation of parameters such light, temperature, salinity, in mesocosm; phenological and biochemical analyses will be related to the gene expression al level of proteins by means of the label-free proteomics.
