Biodiversity in Porto Paone, Nisida. Characterization of Meiobentos Community

Nisida is a volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago (A Zone of the Campi Flegrei Regional Park). It lies very close to Cape Posillipo, just north of Napoli and it is now connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. The islet has a circular shape, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone. In the 1800s Nisida was the site of a Bourbon prison, then an Italian state penitentiary, and, now, a reformatory for juvenile offenders. Since then the access to the island has been limited and this results in a very preserved area, but in the 1900 Nisida was encroached upon by the unsightly steel industry in Bagnoli effecting the state of health of marine community. The meiofauna (metazoans between 1000 and 45 microm) are a fundamental component of terrestrial, and marine benthic ecosystems, forming an integral element of food webs, and playing a critical role in nutrient recycling. The presence and the abundance of meiofauna taxa will give then an idea on the environmental status after the stop of industrial activity in 2002. Using a morphological approach (GIERE, 2009) we performed a meiofauna survey in Porto Paone, the natural bay of about 900 m2 on the southwest side of the islet. Sampling were made from January to June in 12 areas resulting by the division of Porto Paone bay in three concentric loops subdivided in quorters. In each areas we collected 4 samples trying to cover all kind of substrate present. The fauna, narcotized with MgCl2 at 7.0%, was then fixed and preserved in a 10% neutral formalin solution, previously added with Bengal Rose. The extraction, repeated three times, was performed by gradient centrifugation of Ludox AM-30 (d = 1.210), and filtering the supernatant by means of two sieves (1.0 and 0.063 mm) overlapped (Balsamo, Semprucci, & all, 2012). animals retained on the finer sieve were then identified to taxon. We found a discrete diversity resulting in the presence of 10 phyla representatives including very sensitive taxa like Tardigrada. Given that, to date, no data are available on the meiofauna in Porto Paone, beside an old report on the presence of a new Gastrotricha (Coull & Chandler, 1992), this work represent a starting point to monitor the environmental recovering of the Flegrean marine area

FIRST SURVEY OF MEIOFAUNAL COMMUNITIES IN PORTO PAONE, NISIDA

Nisida is a volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago (A Zone of the Campi Flegrei Regional Park). It lies very close to Cape Posillipo, just north of Napoli and it is now connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. The islet has a circular shape, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone. In the 1800s Nisida was the site of a Bourbon prison, then an Italian state penitentiary, and, now, a reformatory for juvenile offenders. Since then the access to the island has been limited and this results in a very preserved area, but in the 1900 Nisida was encroached upon by the unsightly steel industry in Bagnoli affecting the state of health of marine communities. The meiofauna (metazoans between 1000 and 45 µm) are a fundamental component of terrestrial, and marine benthic ecosystems, forming an integral element of food webs, and playing a critical role in nutrient recycling. The presence and the abundance of meiofauna taxa will give then an idea on the environmental status after the stop of industrial activity in 1992. Using a morphological approach (GIERE, 2009) we performed a meiofauna survey in Porto Paone, the natural bay of about 19000 m2 on the southwest side of the islet. Sampling were made from January to June in 12 areas resulting by the division of Porto Paone bay in three concentric loops subdivided in quorters. In each areas we collected 4 samples trying to cover all kind of substrate present. The fauna, narcotized with MgCl2 at 7.0%, was then fixed and preserved in a 10% neutral formalin solution, previously added with Bengal Rose. The extraction, repeated three times, was performed by gradient centrifugation of Ludox AM-30 (d = 1.210), and filtering the supernatant by means of two sieves (1.0 and 0.063 mm) overlapped (PFANNKUCHE and THIEL, 1988), animals retained on the finer sieve were then identified to taxon. Statistical analyses were performed with ANOVA. We found a discrete diversity resulting in the presence of many phyla representatives including very sensitive taxa like Tardigrada. Given that, to date, no data are available on the meiofauna in Porto Paone, beside an old report on the presence of a new Gastrotricha (BODEN, 1965), this work represent a starting point to monitor the environmental recovering of the Flegrean marine area

Meiofaunal communities of Nisida and the environmental status of the Flegrean area

Nisida is a volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. It lies very close to Cape Posillipo, just north of Napoli. The islet has a circular shape, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone. In the 1800s Nisida was the site of a Bourbon prison, then an Italian state penitentiary, and, now, a reformatory for juvenile offenders. Since then the access to the island has been limited and this results in a very preserved area, but in the 1900 Nisida was encroached upon by the unsightly steel industry in Bagnoli affecting the state of health of marine communities. Recently Meiofauna has acquired an important role as a indicator of the marine ecosystem. We performed a meiofauna survey in Porto Paone, sampling were made from June 2014 to December 2015 in 4 areas resulting by the division of the bay in 4 quadrants (North-South; West-East), in each area 4 samples to cover all kind of substrate present were collected. To have a comparable parameter of the anthropic effect on meiofauna communities we performed sampling also in the closest area of Bagnoli during the period from November to December 2015. The fauna extraction was performed according to Heip et al. (1985). In Porto Paone, throughout the whole study period we found a diversity resulting in the presence of 24 taxa. A seasonal fluctuation has been observed with a major diversity during fall with the presence of 20 taxa versus 14 taxa in summer. Comparing the same period (November/December 2015) of sampling in Porto Paone and in Bagnoli we found a significant differences in taxa presence resulting in respectively 20 and 8. Beside to give an overview of the meiofaunal communities in Porto Paone to fill the gap in the recent literature, this work represent a starting point to monitor the environmental recovering of the Flegrean marine area

Meiofaunal communities of Nisida and the environmental status of the Flegrean area.

Nisida is a volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. It lies very close to Cape Posillipo, just north of Napoli. The islet has a circular shape, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone. In the 1800s Nisida was the site of a Bourbon prison, then an Italian state penitentiary, and, now, a reformatory for juvenile offenders. Since then the access to the island has been limited and this results in a very preserved area, but in the 1900 Nisida was encroached upon by the unsightly steel industry in Bagnoli affecting the state of health of marine communities. Recently Meiofauna has acquired an important role as a indicator of the marine ecosystem. We performed a meiofauna survey in Porto Paone, sampling were made from June 2014 to December 2015 in 4 areas resulting by the division of the bay in 4 quadrants (North-South; West-East), in each area 4 samples to cover all kind of substrate present were collected. To have a comparable parameter of the anthropic effect on meiofauna communities we performed sampling also in the closest area of Bagnoli during the period from November to December 2015. The fauna extraction was performed according to Heip et al. (1985). In Porto Paone, throughout the whole study period we found a diversity resulting in the presence of 24 taxa. A seasonal fluctuation has been observed with a major diversity during fall with the presence of 20 taxa versus 14 taxa in summer. Comparing the same period (November/December 2015) of sampling in Porto Paone and in Bagnoli we found a significant differences in taxa presence resulting in respectively 20 and 8. Beside to give an overview of the meiofaunal communities in Porto Paone to fill the gap in the recent literature, this work represent a starting point to monitor the environmental recovering of the Flegrean marine area