Sea-level changes in the Adriatic from tide-gauge data Fabio RaicichAssessing the impact of climate change in Italian coastal areas: tools and methods of risk and vulnerability assessment. Silvia Torresan, Elisa Furlan, Petra dalla Pozza, Diana Derepasko, Andrea Critto, Melania Michetti, Mattia Amadio, Jaroslav Mysiak 35131, Padova, Italy alessandro.fontana@unipd.it, livio.ronchi@gmail.com ANNAMARIA CORREGGIARI CNR-ISMAR Institute of Marine Sciences in BolognaVia Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy anna.correggiari@bo.ismar.cnr.it STEFANO FURLANIUniversity of 34128, Trieste, Italy Stefano.furlani@units.it MLADEN JURAČIĆ, IGOR FELJAUniversity of Zagreb -Faculty of Science, Department of Geology Horvatovac 102a, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia mjuracic@geol.pmf.hr, igorfelja@geol.pmf.hr In the last years strong e orts have been done by the scienti c community to reconstruct the post-LGM transgression and describe it through geophysical models that could match with the observed eld data. Notwithstanding, the eustatic curve is still largely unconstrained before 8 ka BP because of the few available data. Northern Adriatic is one of the very few places in the Mediterranean Basin where the sea-level variations occurred between Lateglacial and Early Holocene are recorded. These changes are documented by sediments and landforms, thanks to the gentle slope of the continental shelf and the occurrence of lagoon and paralic environments, which are strongly sensitive even to subtle variations of the sea level. This research considered the large database of CHIRP-Sonar pro les and stratigraphic cores collected by CNR-ISMAR of Bologna, especially through the oceanographic missions carried out on-board of the research vessel Urania. A major issue is the recognition and characterization of the periods of rapid increase of the sea level, which punctuated some phases during the Lateglacial and the rst part of Holocene, which caused the abrupt submersion of large sectors of the coast. In the study area the remnants of a large barrier-island system formed during Younger Dryas and drowned in place soon after are present. Moreover, important information about a sea-level jump occurred around 9.5-9.2 ka BP have been recently documented in the deltaic plain of Po River and in the submerged shelf. This phase of transgression led the Adriatic to enter in the Gulf of Trieste, dramatically transforming the area between Istria and the coast of Friuli. Some key questions, still partly unsolved, are related to the main indexes allowing the identi cations of sea-level jumps and the possible occurrence of sea-level stillstands or the apparent decrease of the marine rise because of the increase in sediment supply.Keywords: transgressive deposits, lagoon environments, submarine landforms We investigated MIS 5.5 fossil tidal notches located in tectonically stable coasts of the central Mediterranean. In these stable areas, the elevation of the base of the MIS 5.5 notch ranges from 2.09 to 12.48 m, with a mean of 5.7 m. Such variability,...

This is the first description of a Mediterranean mesophotic coral reef. The bioconstruction extended for 2.5 km along the Italian Adriatic coast in the bathymetric range −30/−55 m. It appeared as a framework of coral blocks mostly built by two scleractinians, Phyllangia americana mouchezii (Lacaze-Duthiers, 1897) and Polycyathus muellerae (Abel, 1959), which were able to edify a secondary substrate with high structural complexity. Scleractinian corallites were cemented by calcified polychaete tubes and organized into an interlocking meshwork that provided the reef stiffness. Aggregates of several individuals of the bivalve Neopycnodonte cochlear (Poli, 1795) contributed to the compactness of the structure. The species composition of the benthic community showed a marked similarity with those described for Mediterranean coralligenous communities and it appeared to be dominated by invertebrates, while calcareous algae, which are usually considered the main coralligenous reef-builders, were poorly represented. Overall, the studied reef can be considered a unique environment, to be included in the wide and diversified category of Mediterranean bioconstructions. The main reef-building scleractinians lacked algal symbionts, suggesting that heterotrophy had a major role in the metabolic processes that supported the production of calcium carbonate. The large amount of available suspended organic matter in the area could be the main nutritional source for these species, as already suggested in the literature referred to Mediterranean cold-water corals.

Short-term exposure to air pollution, as well as to climate variables have been linked to a higher incidence of respiratory viral diseases. The study aims to assess the short-term influence of air pollution and climate on COVID19 incidence in Lombardy (Italy), during the early stage of the outbreak, before the implementation of the lock-down measures. The daily number of COVID19 cases in Lombardy from February 25 th to March 10 th 2020, and the daily average concentrations up to 15 days before the study period of particulate matter (PM 10 , PM 2.5 ), O 3 , SO 2, and NO 2 together with climate variables (temperature, relative humidity – RH%, wind speed, precipitation), were analyzed. A univariable mixed model with a logarithm transformation as link function was applied for each day, from 15 days (lag15) to one day (lag1) before the day of detected cases, to evaluate the effect of each variable. Additionally, change points (Break Points-BP) in the relationship between incident cases and air pollution or climatic factors were estimated. The results did not show a univocal relationship between air quality or climate factors and COVID19 incidence. PM 10 , PM 2.5 and O 3 concentrations in the last lags seem to be related to an increased COVID19 incidence, probably due to an increased susceptibility of the host. In addition, low temperature and low wind speed in some lags resulted associated with increased daily COVID19 incidence. The findings observed suggest that these factors, in particular conditions and lags, may increase individual susceptibility to the development of viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The present paper provides a multidisciplinary fine-scale description of a Mediterranean mesophotic new habitat dominated by the bivalve Neopycnodonte cochlear (Poli, 1795), building large and thick pinnacles on vertical cliffs at two study areas along the southern Italian coast. The pinnacles, constituted by a multilayered aggregation of living and dead specimens of N. cochlear, were interconnected with each other to form a framework of high structural complexity, never observed before for this species. The bioconstruction, considerably extended, resulted very complex and diversified in the associated community of structuring organisms. This latter included 165 taxa attributable to different ecological groups occurring in different microhabitats of the bioconstruction. Among the secondary structuring taxa there were scleractinians, serpulids and bryozoans, all contributing to the deposition of calcium carbonate, and poriferans, helping to bind shells together or eroding carbonate by boring species. In comparison with coralligenous sensu stricto and the recently described Mediterranean mesophotic coral reef, the Neopycnodonte bioconstruction showed peculiar features, since it lacked the major contribution of encrusting coralline algae and scleractinians as reef builders, respectively.The main marine bioconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea is localized in the euphotic zone and is well known under the name of coralligenous which is typically considered to be the climax biocoenosis of the circalittoral zone 1 . Coralligenous reefs are widely distributed and consist of thick carbonate concretions mainly built by red calcareous algae, with the variable contributions of sessile invertebrate calcium carbonate depositors (e.g., scleractinians, serpulids, bryozoans) 2-4 . The large amount of different habitats associated with such bioconstructions support the highest values of biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea 2 . However, with increasing depth and as a result of light attenuation, benthic sessile invertebrates progressively replace algal concretions, becoming the most important habitat builders 5 .The biogenic role of animal bioconstructors has been repeatedly studied in Mediterranean deep-water habitats, where the predominant colonial scleractinians build large three-dimensional (3D) carbonate structures referred to as Cold-Water Corals (CWC) and provide substrate and habitat for a multitude of other organisms 6-11 . Figure 3. Geophysical survey of the Santa Maria di Leuca area and localization of dive points. (a) Digital elevation model of the seafloor derived by the multibeam survey. (b) Details of the ESE-WNW-oriented slope. Note that the slope seems to be very irregular along the portion with a higher gradient. (c) Raw data from the Side-Scan Sonar survey. (d) Classification of the seafloor and localization of dive points (white circles); the bioconstructions can be easily mapped, while shallower and deeper sectors seem to have a similar, even though unclear, acoustic signal. Maps have been created with: (a) ES...