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- PublicationOpen AccessDeep-water hydrodynamic observations around a cold-water coral habitat in a submarine canyon in the eastern Ligurian Sea (Mediterranean Sea)(2023)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; A 2-year dataset of a stand-alone mooring, deployed in November 2020 down the Levante Canyon in the eastern Ligurian Sea, is presented. The Levante Canyon Mooring (LCM) is a deep submarine multidisciplinary observatory positioned at 608 m depth in a key ecosystem area. The Levante Canyon hosts a valuable and vulnerable ecosystem of deep-living cold-water corals (CWCs), studied and monitored since 2013 through integrated mapping of the seabed and water column. The 2-year dataset, acquired on the mooring and presented here (data from November 2020 to October 2022), includes measurements conducted with both current meters and conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) probes and provides information about the hydrodynamics and thermohaline properties across almost the entire water column. The observatory is still ongoing, and the dataset is regularly updated. All the described data are publicly available from https://doi.org/10.17882/92236 (Borghini et al., 2022). They must therefore be preserved and are of considerable scientific interest.42 8 - PublicationOpen AccessA new multidisciplinary observatory in the Eastern Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean Sea): a combination of deep-sea and coastal measurements(2020-05-05)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Climate change investigation, protection of marine ecosystems and mitigation of natural risks are the main research objectives of the Levante Canyon Mooring (LCM), a deep submarine multidisciplinary observatory, installed in September 2019 in the Eastern Ligurian Sea (Lat 44°05.443'N, Long 009°29.900'E at 608 m depth), inside the Pelagos Sanctuary. The observatory consists of a stand-alone station, with an instrumented mooring line ending with a submerged buoy. It operates in delayed-mode and is equipped with sensors that measure physical and biogeochemical parameters continuously and it is expected to provide data in the long-term. Temperature and salinity monitoring is carried out at three depth levels (about 80, 335 and 580 m depth), while turbidity is recorded at 580 m depth. LCM is also equipped with a sediment trap and two acoustic current profilers, able to measure direction and speed of currents in nearly the entire water column.Data will be used to measure flux of sediments, nutrients and organic matter and to better understand the hydrodynamic and physical conditions of the Levante Canyon, which hosts valuable and vulnerable ecosystems, such as the deep-living cold-water corals, identified by IIM and ENEA in 2014, near the LCM mooring site. The LCM site is also located in an area where surface currents are monitored in near-real time by the CNR's High Frequency Radar network, allowing data integration from multiplatform observations.The project, co-financed by the Liguria Region, is coordinated by the DLTM in strict collaboration, in terms of human resources, infrastructures and instruments with the associated public research bodies (CNR, ENEA, INGV) and with the IIM. The project also includes the next deployment of a cabled station in the Gulf of La Spezia (10 m depth, less than 100 m far from the coast) that will monitor the gravimetric field, temperature and marine current. The main objective of the coastal station is to provide a test site for new instruments and sensors.112 26 - PublicationOpen AccessSpatial distribution of marine litter along italian coastal areas in the Pelagos sanctuary (Ligurian Sea - NW Mediterranean Sea): A focus on natural and urban beaches(2018-03-20)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ur paper will show data on quantity, typology, distribution of beach litter (Anthropogenic Marine Debris - AMD) within a coastal macroarea surrounding the Pelagos Sanctuary, an International Protected Area in the NW Mediterranean Sea. AMD Monitoring and characterisation have been performed by using SEACleaner Protocol: an adapted version of UNEP/IOC, OSPAR and EU guidelines. 11 beaches located in 5 different areas, have been monitored with a total amount of thirty three surveys, from January 2014 to December 2015, during different seasons. Three kinds of beaches have been considered: Natural (belonging to MPAs), Urbanized and Urban. A total of 34,027 items on a total area of 32,154 m2 have been removed and classified. Spatial difference in abundance and composition of AMDs - as well as beach environmental quality - has been detected. Natural sites, and particularly protected areas close to river mouths show a major density compared to other areas.274 259 - PublicationOpen AccessA Gulf of Poets and Scientists: the experience and challenges of the Scientific Dissemination Group of La Spezia (Liguria –Italy)(2017-12-04)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; In the Northern part of Italy, in Region Liguria, there is a Gulf, which is known also as the “Gulf of the Poets”. Why? Because through the centuries, many famous poets, writers and artists spent their holidays or part of their life in the villages and small towns surrounding the city of La Spezia. Among the others, the poet Lord Byron and the writer Percy Bysshe Shelley together with his wife Mary, the clever creator of Frankenstein (a novel that some claim to be the first legitimate example of the genre we now call science fiction, and that maybe started during the author’s stay in the Gulf - until otherwise proven). But apart from anecdotes, indeed, the Gulf of Poets is, indeed, also a Gulf of Scientists: La Spezia (the second Ligurian most important town), has a long maritime tradition that deserves to be kept alive and cultivated within its own community.228 322 - PublicationOpen AccessBest- Practices in Marine Science Literacy: a Report of sample activities in a Long School-Training(2017-10-07)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; “Blue Paths” is a Pilot Project of “Best Practices” in Marine Science Literacy, carried out by a Science Teacher of a Unified School District in La Spezia, ISA 2 “2 Giugno”, aimed for teaching the monitoring techniques of coastal flora and fauna in Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Sea. Thanks to a Partnership between Schools (ISA6) Marine Parks, local authorities (Life on the Sea ONLUS); Research Centers, the project promotes the scientific literacy in an incremental and continuous School-Training period, from the Kindergarten to the Secondary School, in order to enrich the students curricula and to create an innovative awareness in School Community for belonging to a Global Citizenship that involves the engagement of students, parents and volunteers to raise awareness for the safeguard of coastal environment. “Blue Paths” is a Vertical Curriculum in Marine Science and involves students with a key role as Educators for the peers groups and as Researchers in data collection Surveys. The project promotes a gradual scientific literacy through stimulating a conscious attitude towards environmental issues and the growth of scientific skills up to the Higher School and University levels, encouraging the creation of motivated “Team” of students . This paper highlights the results of a slow and vertical literacy scholar process reached through the gradual learning in recognition techniques of beached and submerged benthic species carried out with: hands-on activities on the beach with the support of a Child-friendly BIO-Guide (student of 5-6 years); International School Meetings (Erasmus+) or local events, Orienting activities in Robotic field (student of 13-17 years) ; “Young -Monitoring Campaigns” (students of 9-13 years) ; Direct and Indirect Visual Census activities in Snorkeling (student in age 11-13 years) or with a Remote Operated Vehicle .122 113 - PublicationOpen AccessAn example of synergy between industry and research for the development of new technologies for marine research and monitoring: MARE_Lab.(EMSO ERIC, 2017-09-09)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; The role of the technological innovation is becoming more and more important in understanding and solving the environmental problems of our planet. An multidisciplinary approach is necessary to understand the complex processes that take place between the surface and the bottom of our oceans. Underwater observatories are, indeed, a useful tool to increase knowledge with a multidisciplinary approach [1], but a strong synergy between knowledge and technological innovation is needed. The Ligurian Cluster of Marine Technologies (DLTM) connects scientific Research Centers (RCs) and industrial fabric engaged in the environmental monitoring and marine technologies, which constitute one of the Smart Specialization of this Region.129 39 - PublicationOpen AccessGames As Educational Tools in eARTh Science: MAREOPOLI and THE ENERGY CHALLENGE(2017-04-23)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Research and researchers do have an important role in sustainable green and blue economy. It is also clear that outreach activities are fundamental to improve societal perception of Science past and present results and future insights or consequences and that is primary to change people’s mentality. This is one of the main goals of the Scientific Dissemination Group (SDG) “La Spezia Gulf of Science”, made up by Research Centres, Schools and Cultural associations located in La Spezia (Liguria, Italy). However, communicating scientific results means also improving educational methods: introducing tight relationship with artists (especially graphic designers), can produce unusual approaches and translate concepts in images which everyone can understand also under an emotional point of view. Images have a fundamental role for understanding and learning simple and less simple concepts, for example general public and high School students can be reached by interactive conferences with live speed painting (Locritani et al., 2016), and kids can be involved in interactive games. And games, especially, can reduce learning curves, since playing itself creates a natural forum for exchanging ideas and reflecting on natural phenomena and human impacts outside of class hours. Games, and the entertainment value of play, have the ability to teach and transform (Gobet et al., 2004). In this work we’ll present two different games that raised from the collaboration between researchers and artists: MAREOPOLI and THE ENERGY CHALLENGE. MAREOPOLI (The City of Tides) is a simplified adaptation of the famous board game Monopoly, and consist of 36 spaces: 16 important historical and coastal cities having relevant tide phenomena, 8 Unexpected Events spaces (questions are asked on Modern Oceanography), 8 Curious Facts spaces (players receive information on historical records) and 4 corner squares: GO, (Blocked) in Limestone Grotto/Just Visiting, Free Beach Club, and Go to Limestone Grotto. Players move around the game-board attempting to take control of all 16 cities, with the goal of acquiring information about scientific facts related to tides, climate change and historical oceanographic records. A city is conquered by answering correctly to specific questions. THE ENERGY CHALLENGE (Bussei et al., 2002) is a role-playing game aimed to explain concepts related to energy and one of the deliverables of the FP6 project WESPA (2002-SCIENCEANDSOCIETY-2). It makes use of appealing playing cards that, through eye-catching images, exemplify the different forms and sources of energy and its transformation processes. The game has very simple rules and has been designed as an educational team game, to be used especially in schools, both primary and secondary. Players are organized in two teams, according to their assigned cards, and have to choose a game strategy that optimizes the available resources, their use and the general environmental sustainability.114 30 - PublicationOpen AccessSailing for Science: on board experiences for transferring knowledge on Historical Oceanography for Future Innovation(2017-04-23)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Smart, sustainable and inclusive Blue Growth means also knowing past technology and the paths followed by ancients in order to understand and monitor marine environments. In general, history of Science is a matter that is not enough explored and explained or promoted in high schools or university official programmes, and, usually, scientist do not consider it as an important part of their curricula. However, bad or good ideas, abandoned or forgotten beliefs, concepts, opinions, do still have a great potential for inspiring present and future scientists, no matter in which historical period they may have been formulated: they should be always be taken into consideration, critically examined and observed by a very close point of view, not just as part of the intellectual framework of some obsolete ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ with limited access except for the chosen few. Moreover, history of Science should be transmitted in a more practical way, with hands-on labs showing the limits and challenges that prior generations of ocean explorers, investigators and seafarers had to face in order to answer to crucial questions as self-orientation in open sea, understanding main currents and waves, predicting meteorological conditions for a safe navigation. Oceanography is a relatively young branch of science, and still needs further approvals and knowledge (National Science Foundation, 2000). The Scientific Dissemination Group (SDG) “La Spezia Gulf of Science” – made up by Research Centres, Schools and Cultural associations located in La Spezia (Liguria, Italy) - has a decadal experience in initiatives aimed at people and groups of people of all ages, who are keen on science or who can be guided in any case to take an interest in scientific matters (Locritani et al., 2015). Amongst the SDG activities, the tight relationship with the Historical Oceanography Society, the Italian Navy and the Naval Technical Museum (that collects a rich heritage of civilization, technology and culture witnesses, related to the naval history of seamanship from the origins up to nowadays), allowed the creation of a special educational format based on Historical Oceanography, for university and high school students as an integration for their curriculum. The Historical Oceanography Society has provided the major knowledges included in the ancient volumes of its archive, thanks to the availability of its members that also held theoretical and practical lessons during the course. The present paper will describe the one-week special course (about 60 hours of theory and practice with technical visits to Research centres and Museums) that has been planned to be carried out on board of the Italian Training Navy Ship (A. Vespucci) and has been organized in order to give the hints about on board life, as well as theoretical lessons on modern and historical oceanography, hands-on labs on oceanographic instruments from public and private collections, physiology of diving techniques and astronomy. The general aim of this course has been, hence, to give to excellent students all those technological but also creative and imaginative features of our past.150 183 - PublicationOpen AccessMarine pollution and environmental awareness: An efficient way to approach high school students towards marine sciences(VLIZ Special Publication XX, 2016-12-06)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; All the seas are filling up with micro/macro plastic, with degradationrates up to 1000 years. Often they accumulate in specific areas (the famous “Pacific plastic island”) and Mediterranean sea is not an exception (Suaria&Aliani, 2014). On one hand, damages suffered by animals after contact with macro/micro plastic objects has led to an increase of studies especially on the effects of these pollutants in the food chain (Galgani et al. 2014).On the other hand we still lack knowledge concerning marine litter fluxes in our seas (coming from harbors, river mouths, illegal landfills and sewers) and accumulation on European beaches (Andrady, 2011). ISMAR Institute has undertaken, since 2013, the SEACleaner project, with the goal to gather as much data as possible on the presence, type and amount of marine litter in the coastal area around the “Pelagos Sanctuary “ (Notarbartolo di Sciara et al., 2008) a special area that encompasses over 87.500 km2 of the north-western Mediterranean Sea, between south-eastern France, Monaco, north-western Italy and northern Sardinia, surrounding Corsica and the Tuscan Archipelago. SEACleaner project involves 4 marine protected areas/marine parks of Liguria and Tuscany, 4 research institutes (such as ISMAR, DLTM, ENEA-UTMAR and DLTM) and one University (University of Pisa). The project has been conducted by involving high schools of the neighbouring areas of La Spezia and Parma trough work-related internships (regulated by Legislative Decree n.77 of 15.04.2005 and Law n. 107of 13.07.2015). Students recollect a large amount of data (citizenscience). This approach has proven to be valid also from an educational point of view (Merlino et al. 2015), since it brings students close to social and environmental issues, while improving knowledge of scientific methodology. Students (at now 450 in three years) participate also to data analysis and give their contribution in different tasks, depending on their school curricula (graphical design, computer science, bio-technology etc.). The project have had an European Union grant for shoot a documentary (translated in French and subtitled in English), screened at the “tenth anniversary of the researcher night” (September 2015) and selected for several environment film festival, as the Torino Environmental Festival, the LEGAMBIENTE-CLOROFILLA Festival and the International LIFE AFTER OIL Festival [MARINE RUBBISH. A challenge to share. 2015. English subtitled version is now available on ISMAR Youtube channel and on LIFE AFTER OIL International Film festival website].224 451 - PublicationOpen Access“Sea, earth and energy: A challenge for our future” - An inter-disciplinary project for marine science education in primary schools(VLIZ Special Publication XX, 2016-12-06)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; "Sea, Earth and Energy: a challenge for our future" is a marine science educational project which involved all the classes of a primary school of Marinella di Sarzana (La Spezia, Italy) for a whole year. The goal of the project is to introduce children to a world which is"physically" close to them but also poorly known: the sea, which fortunately, in the Gulf of La Spezia, is a reality for many schools, but not often used as educational resource. The work of the whole year was conceived and supported by the “Research Group in Communication and Education” of La Spezia [Locritani et al. 2013], composed of members from different research institutions dealing, in this area, with the sea by different points of view: ISMAR-CNR (physical oceanography/renewable resources), ENEA-UTMAR (marine biology), INGV (marine geophysics and volcanology), DLTM (marine technology), with a proven experience in the field of marine and environmental science education [Merlino et al. 2015, Mioni et al. 2016]. Moreover, thanks to the involvement of other associations and organizations working in the field of marine environment (such as ARPAL the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection and the Italian Coast Guard) and an artistic association ("Luoghi"), children were able to deepen their knowledge of the Ligurian marine habitat with a multidisciplinary approach, full of beach surveys, tactile and art workshops, interactive experiments,meetings with scientists, field trips and other surprises. All these activities stimulated curiosity and imagination of children. As for the scientific part, the aim was to introduce children to "scientific observation" and "experimentation", applied to the study of marine environments, in particular, rocky and sandy shores (both typical of our region), and environmental degradation use of water and energy resources in the area and so on. Several tools have been used to achieve these main objectives: naturalistic design, data collection and sampling, cataloguing, experimentation in classroom with small demonstration prototypes. But the real idea behind this project has been the multidisciplinary approach for tackling all these subjects. All produced artworks (herbarium sheets, poems, drawings, exhibits, etc.) have been exposed during a two-day exhibition in Sarzana. Moreover a DVD has been produced as a final deliverable that collects the work of a whole year and the contribution of each one of the different organizations participating in the project. "Sea, Earth and Energy: a challenge for our future" has been carried out thanks to DLTM a financial contribution.95 39