Studio di possibili outbreak di Aurelia aurita,presso le infrastrutture costiere, e in particolare nel caso specifico della centrale termica Enel E.Montale, ubicata nel Golfo della Spezia.

Mediante il presente lavoro sono stati studiati gli outbreak di Aurelia aurita, in relazione alle variabili ambientali, agli effetti di questi sulle infrastrutture costiere e ai rimedi che si possono proporre. Lo studio, per definire la metodologia, prende in esame un caso specifico riguardante la protezione della centrale termoelettrica E. Montale della Spezia dagli improvvisi “attacchi” delle meduse. Il lavoro si articola come segue: •Studio dei parametri fisico-chimici, biologici e meteo-marini che influenzano la presenza e l'incanalamento di Aurelia aurita nello specchio di mare prospiciente l’opera di presa della Centrale termica. •Ricerca di una presunta ciclicità del fenomeno e individuazione delle cause, in modo da creare una previsione a breve e lungo termine dei periodi più probabili di accadimento. •Individuazione del percorso delle meduse all’interno della rada per posizionare opportuni metodi di difesa temporanei, da utilizzare solo durante i periodi reputati a rischio. •Ricerca di un sensore che avverta della presenza delle meduse in tempo utile per mettere in atto le misure difensive in seguito all’allarme. •Individuazione di una metodologia di indagine per riuscire a determinare i siti di riproduzione più probabili nel Mar Ligure e Tirreno

Assessing the citizen science approach as tool to increase awareness on the marine litter problem

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of students' attitude and behaviors towards marine litter beforeand after their participation to SEACleaner, an educational and citizen science project devoted to monitor macro-and micro-litter in an Area belonging to “Pelagos Sanctuary” (Mediterranean Sea). This approach produced interesting outcomes both for the research sector of marine pollution and environmental monitoring, as well for the scientific and environmental education. Here we focus on citizen science as an effective vector for raising young people awareness of marine litter and fostering sound behaviors. A specially designed questionnaire was administered to 87 High School students, to test the validity of such approach. The results state that the students change quantitatively their perception of beach-litter causes and derived problems, and they improved their knowledge about the main marine litter sources and the role of the sea in the waste transport and deposition along the coast.Published320-3292TM. Divulgazione ScientificaJCR Journa

Towards a Greater Integration of Marine Science into School Curricula: Shortening the Distance between Students and Ocean Challenges

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in marine science partly due to modern technologies, which allow for reaching unexplored areas and experimenting with new scientific approaches. This has resulted in a new perspective and new knowledge and interest in sciences, such as biology, chemistry, oceanography, etc. In Europe, the increasing interest and diffusion of ocean literacy confirms this, but the European Marine Science Educators Association (EMSEA) has noted that this has not been accompanied by a consequent enrichment of the scholastic programs with arguments taken from the different aspects of the marine sciences. The reasons? School programs are already too overcrowded. The intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of the marine sciences, which involves preparation in various scientific fields, are often not supported by previous teacher knowledge. Finally, there is difficulty in providing a facilitated approach to these topics for students residing away from the sea, which represents a great portion of the population. Result: While the knowledge in this sector is greatly increasing, the new generations do not seem particularly interested in following fields of study that move them in this direction. Possible solution: The new technological tools can provide help not only in investigation, but also in teaching, acting as resources to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the field of research to that of education, and so overcoming the problem of distance of many schools from the seaside. New interactive methods for approaching marine science teaching and learning can be ones that consider the involvement of students in activities related to the research itself with, as much as possible, researchers’ support. This will help address the possible shortcomings of the teachers’ knowledge and experience. Further being connected with important environmental, social, and cultural values will trigger emotions in the learners. We call these interactive methods the “Blue School.”Published43-562TM. Divulgazione ScientificaN/A or not JC

Spatial distribution of marine litter along italian coastal areas in the Pelagos sanctuary (Ligurian Sea - NW Mediterranean Sea): A focus on natural and urban beaches

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.Published140-1524A. Oceanografia e climaJCR Journa

“Nautici in Blu” project: educating for a blue future!

The project "Nautici in Blu", realized by Marevivo in the collaboration with a lot of research institutes and private companies, aims to involve students of Nautical High School in educational lecture, experiences and activities regarding the Marine Resources and new occupational fields that are emerging in the framework of marine environmental protection. The present project performed in 2017, 2018 and 2019, involved more than 1000 students in the Italian Nautical High Schools. The program of the project it is repeated in each school and it is conceived as a "shared laboratory" of ideas lasting four days. It has as its primary objective to convey a more effective and correct information on the Sea Resource and provide information on the employment opportunities that are emerging in the field of environmental protection and of the ecosystem services (Blue Jobs), also in light of the establishment of the new National Technological Cluster of the Sea Economy in which the Technical Institutes are given an important role for Blue Growth. The project give to each school the educational illustrated cards about the biological, ecological, historical, oceanographical, climatological and political status of the marine environment. In detail INGV and CNR contributing to the project in 2018 and 2019 sharing the information about marine litter problem and providing the monitoring protocol realized in the framework of SEACleaner project to evaluate the presence, size, typology and quantity of the beached marine litter. Moreover, a specific questionnaire is administrated (pre- and post- activities) to the students and the teachers to assess the effectiveness of this approach.PublishedVienna, Austria7SR AMBIENTE – Servizi e ricerca per la societ

“Sea, earth and energy: A challenge for our future” - An inter-disciplinary project for marine science education in primary schools

"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.PublishedBruges, Belgium2TM. Divulgazione Scientific

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Chemically Characterized Microplastics within the Protected Area of Pelagos Sanctuary (NW Mediterranean Sea): Focus on Natural and Urban Beaches

Data on the abundance and distribution of Anthropogenic Marine Debris (AMD) on the coastal areas of the northern Tyrrhenian coast are still scarce. The objective of this study is to characterize, in terms of size, color, morphology and polymeric nature, the Large Microplastics (LMPs), i.e., plastic objects within 1 and 5 mm, sampled on three beaches located within the coastal macro-area of the Pelagos Sanctuary, an international protected zone in the north-western Mediterranean. The beaches have similar morphological characteristics but different degrees of urbanization. LMPs were sampled seasonally for one year. The polymeric nature of a representative subsample of the collected LMPs was investigated using a portable Raman instrument, to assess the feasibility of in situ characterization. In this study, 26,486 items were sorted by typology (Expanded Polystyrene-EPS, fragments, and resin pellets), size, and for fragments and resin pellets, also by color and chemical nature. Statistical data on the quantity, density, type, spatial distribution, and seasonality of the sampled LMPs are presented. Differences in LMP abundance and composition were detected among sites. A seasonality trend emerges from our statistical analysis, depending on both LMP typology and urbanization degrees of the beaches. Our data do not show the existence of a relationship between the size of the investigated MPs and their color, while they suggest that the type of polymer influences the degree of fragmentation. This underlines the need to further investigate the mechanisms leading to the production and dispersion of MPs in coastal areas, taking into account both the urbanization of the beach, and therefore the possible sources of input, and the different types of MPs. Finally, a Raman portable instrument proved to be a valuable aid in performing in situ polymeric characterization of LMPs

Monitoring macro & micro plastic in Pelagos Sanctuary: a citizenscience successful approach

SEACleanerII is the present follow up of the SEACleaner citizenscience project (2014-2016) implemented by CNR-ISMAR in collaboration with other Research and Organization Centers (DLTM, INGV), 5 Regional/National Parks in South Liguria and North Tuscany, and many associations School Institutions. The project’s aim is to collect data on the type, distribution and principal pollution sources of macro and micro “Anthropogenic Marine Debries” (AMDs) on several beaches in a vast area belonging to the Pelagos Mammals Santuary. SEACleaner takes advantage of the ministerial program Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro to involve hundreds of secondary school students. Strong collaborations and synergies have been activated with other citizenscience projects focused on biological surveys, through Reef Check Protocol MAC-e, in the same selected areas. Results were made public by means of scientific publications (also for generic public), a master thesis and trough the documentary “MARINE RUBBISH. A challenge to share” distributed by CNR-WEB TV, realized for the 10th of Researchers Night in Bruxell in 2015, and presented in various national and international Environmental Film Festival. In 2016 the network has been extended to ENEA-UTMAR of La Spezia. SEACleanerII focuses on microplastics which represent a major problem for marine mammals in the considered area. It provides data collected during repeated campaigns at the same georeferenced stations, with seasonal time lapse. Compared to the previous project, the survey is restricted to marine high protected areas and to some neighboring urban beaches, in order to compare situations that differ for anthropization, tourist exploitation, cleaning beach actions etc. Here we present some preliminary results of the last year of microplastic collection and a brief review of past SEACleaner results.PublishedSan Diego, California, USA2TM. Divulgazione Scientific

Marine pollution and environmental awareness: An efficient way to approach high school students towards marine sciences

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].PublishedBruge, Belgium2TM. Divulgazione Scientific