Case Study: LifeWatch Italy Phytoplankton VRE

LifeWatch Italy, the Italian node of LifeWatch ERIC, has promoted and stimulated the debate on the use of semantics in biodiversity data management. Actually, biodiversity and ecosystems data are very heterogeneous and need to be better managed to improve the actual scientific knowledge extracted, as well as to address the urgent societal challenges concerning environmental issues. LifeWatch Italy has realized the Phytoplankton Virtual Research Environment (hereafter Phytoplankton VRE), a collaborative working environment supporting researchers to address basic and applied studies on phytoplankton ecology. The Phytoplankton VRE provides the IT infrastructure to enable researchers to obtain, share and analyse phytoplankton data at a level of resolution from individual cells to whole assemblages. A semantic approach has been used to address data harmonisation, integration and discovery: an interdisciplinary team has developed a thesaurus on phytoplankton functional traits and linked its concepts to other existing conceptual schemas related to the specific domain

The Top-Implart Proton Linear Accelerator: Interim Characteristics of the 35 Mev Beam

In the framework of the Italian TOP-IMPLART project (Regione Lazio), ENEA-Frascati, ISS and IFO are developing and constructing the first proton linear accelerator based on an actively scanned beam for tumor radiotherapy with final energy of 150 MeV. An important feature of this accelerator is modularity: an exploitable beam can be delivered at any stage of its construction, which allows for immediate characterization and virtually continuous improvement of its performance. Currently, a sequence of 3 GHz accelerating modules combined with a commercial injector operating at 425 MHz delivers protons up to 35 MeV. Several dosimetry systems were used to obtain preliminary characteristics of the 35-MeV beam in terms of stability and homogeneity. Short-term stability and homogeneity better than 3% and 2.6%, respectively, were demonstrated; for stability an improvement with respect to the respective value obtained for the previous 27 MeV beam

Interactive Effect of UVR and Phosphorus on the Coastal Phytoplankton Community of the Western Mediterranean Sea: Unravelling Eco- Physiological Mechanisms

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Biotic indices for ecological status of transitional water ecosystems

1 - The biological elements, proposed by the WFD as quality elements for the classification of ecological status of the transitional waters are: composition, abundance and biomass of phytoplankton; composition and abundance of other aquatic flora (i.e. macroalgae and angiosperms); composition and abundance of benthic invertebrate fauna; composition and abundance of fish fauna. 2 - Although the directive proposed these biological elements, it doesn\u2019t provide clear indication on the \u201cbiocriteria\u201d to achieve. WFD suggested that ecosystem health should be defined by comparison to reference conditions. 3 - Recently, there has been a growing interest and need for sound and robust ecological indices to evaluate transitional ecosystem status and condition, mainly under the scope of the Water Framework Directive implementation. 4 - A good biotic index should reflect the biological integrity; respond to environmental stresses in monotonic way; be measurable with low error; be cost-effective; be not invasive (i.e. the measure methods do not significantly disturb or alter habitats and biota). 5 - Several indices have been developed for environmental quality assessment using macrobenthic assemblages, ranging from the comparison of a single metric to complex multivariate analyses. Some indices were developed for fish assemblages and for macrophytes, but only few indices were proposed considering the phytoplankton. 6 - In this report, we shown and compare several biotic indices used for evaluating ecological status of transitional water ecosystems using the five biological quality elements

Biotic indices for ecological status of transitional water ecosystems

1-The biological elements, proposed by the WFD as quality elements for the classification of ecological status of the transitional waters are: composition, abundance and biomass of phytoplankton;composition and abundance of other aquatic flora (i.e. macroalgae and angiosperms); composition and abundance of benthic invertebrate fauna; composition and abundance of fish fauna2-Although the directive proposed these biological elements, it doesn’t provide clear indication on the “biocriteria” to achieve. WFD suggested that ecosystem health should be defined by comparison to reference conditions3 - Recently, there has been a growing interest and need for sound and robust ecological indices to evaluate transitional ecosystem status and condition, mainly under the scope of the Water Framework Directive implementation4-A good biotic index should reflect the biological integrity; respond to environmental stresses in monotonic way; be measurable with low error; be cost-effective; be not invasive (i.e. the measure methods do not significantly disturb or alter habitats and biota)5-Several indices have been developed for environmental quality assessment using macrobenthic assemblages, ranging from the comparison of a single metric to complex multivariate analysesSome indices were developed for fish assemblages and for macrophytes, but only few indices were proposed considering the phytoplankton6-In this report, we shown and compare several biotic indices used for evaluating ecological status of transitional water ecosystems using the five biological quality elements