Spread of non-indigenous macroalgae and disturbance: Impact assessment of the Costa Concordia shipwreck (Giglio Island, Italy) using the ALEX index

Piazzi, Luigi; Cecchi, Enrico; Gennaro, Paola; Penna, Marina; Trabucco, Benedetta; Ceccherelli, Giulia

doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.104999

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The percentages cover here reported in P. crispa turf are consistent with previous observations carried out under both natural and disturbed conditions [26], although no significant differences emerged from the analysis. As mentioned before for Posidonia, the presence of a dense canopy formed by seaweeds (in this particular case by the P. Crispa thalli and its associated assemblage) inhibits the spread of the C. cylindracea [27].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Double Trouble: Synergy between Habitat Loss and the Spread of the Alien Species Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder) in Three Mediterranean Habitats

Casoli

Mancini

Ventura

et al. 2021

Water

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The role of habitat degradation on the spread of the alien green alga Caulerpa cylindracea is reported here by comparing observations achieved through a multi-year assessment on three Mediterraneans habitats, namely Posidonia oceanica meadows, Phyllophora crispa turf, and coralligenous reefs. Due to the peculiarity of the study site, both natural-reference and impacted conditions were investigated. C. cylindracea occurred in all the studied habitats under impacted conditions. High susceptibility to the invasion characterized impacted P. oceanica, where Caulerpa cover reached 70.0% in summer months. C. cylindracea cover did not differ significantly among conditions in P. crispa turf, where values never exceeded 5.0%. Conversely, the invasive green algae was low in abundance and patchily distributed in coralligenous reefs. Our results confirmed that habitat loss enhances the spread of C. cylindracea, although with different magnitudes among habitats. Dead matte areas of P. oceanica represented the most vulnerable habitat among those analyzed, whereas coralligenous reefs were less susceptible to the invasion under both the studied conditions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Double Trouble: Synergy between Habitat Loss and the Spread of the Alien Species Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder) in Three Mediterranean Habitats

Casoli

Mancini

Ventura

et al. 2021

Water

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“…Lower scores are obtained in shing harbours, indicating unaffected areas, which con rms the suitability of ALEX for discriminating between the sampled harbours. The results obtained by ALEX are in agreement with other studies showing that the GG harbours are hotspots of biological invasions and presented highest values of ALEX (Piazzi et al 2018(Piazzi et al , 2020Tempesti et al 2020). The correlations between ALEX values and environmental variables indicates that NIS largely prefers shallow-water habitats with a high content of organic matter, mud and silt, along with enrichment in heavy metals (Pb, Cd and Zn) and certain other elements such as phosphorus, uorine and nitrogen.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…For BO2A, thresholds are < 0.0245: high; 0.0246-0.1300: good; 0.1301-0.1988: moderate; 0.1989-0.2551: poor; 0.2552-0.3010: bad (Dauvin, 2018). Furthermore, ALEX (ALien biotic indEX, Çinar and Bakir 2014) is used to evaluate the impact of NIS on indigenous assemblages (Piazzi et al 2020). This index is based on the abundance percentages of different groups de ned from the level of species establishment and invasiveness within each sample (GI: indigenous species, GII: casual NIS, GIII: established NIS, GIV: invasive NIS).…”

Section: Benthic Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such programmes should be operated by local port management authorities, local shermen and research committees to le and implement a monitoring strategy for future management actions. For future research, it appears very important to supplement this work by studies on the macrozoobenthic species of harbour hard substrates since these habitats are known to be colonized by numerous NIS (López-Legentil et al 2015;Piazzi et al 2020).…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecological status assessment and non-indigenous species in industrial and fishing harbours of the Gulf of Gabès (central Mediterranean Sea)

Mosbahi

Pezy

Neifar

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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This study from January to December 2018 was the rst initiative of a Port Baseline Survey (PBS) aimed at assessing the impact of biological invasions in harbours of the Gulf of Gabès (GG). A total of 12 shing and industrial harbours were seasonally prospected during 2018. A total of 174 macrobenthos taxa were recorded, belonging to eight zoological groups, with a dominance of crustaceans (32%), molluscs (31%) and polychaetes (20%). Among these taxa, 57 were Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) for Tunisian waters, while 27 species were recorded for the rst time in GG harbours and three decapods ( Dyspanopeus sayi, Hippolyte prideauxiana and Pilumnus minutus ) and one amphipod ( Hamimaera hamigera ) were newly recorded from Tunisian waters. Two main categories of harbours are distinguished according to their macrobenthic communities and environmental features (essentially edaphic factors). The industrial harbours yield higher numbers of species and abundance of NIS than the shing ports. The ALEX metric is used to evaluate the biological invasion status of the Gulf of Gabès harbours, showing that their status ranges from unaffected in shing harbours to extremely affected in industrial harbours. Three biotic indices (AMBI, BO2A and BENTIX) are applied to assess the ecological status of harbours, which varies from moderate to good. ALEX and the other biotic indices are signi cantly correlated with harbour characteristics, maritime tra c and edaphic factors (organic matter and chemical contamination). The present study gives an overview of all available benthic data, the impact of biological invasions and the ecological quality status of harbours in the Gulf of Gabès. The results could be considered as providing important baseline data for the implementation of environmental policies and management plans in the future.

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“…The island is included in the Tuscan Archipelago and, like many islands in this area, has a volcanic origin. The island has an area of 21 km 2 and the maximum height is 498 m. It is a major touristic attraction, being mostly known for the bathing area (in north-west Campese bay), offshore fishing, and more recently for the capsizing of Costa Concordia cruise ship [28]. As Figure 1 illustrates, the only connection to the mainland is made through ferries that operate on the eastern coast from the Giglio port.…”

Section: Target Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Expected Impact of Marine Energy Farms Operating in Island Environments with Mild Wave Energy Resources—A Case Study in the Mediterranean Sea

2021

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A particularity of island areas is that they are subjected to strong sea state conditions that can have a severe impact on the beach stability, while on the other hand, they rely mainly on diesel combustion for electricity production which in the long run is not a sustainable solution. The aim of this work is to tackle these two issues, by assessing the impact of a hybrid marine energy farm that may operate near the north-western part of Giglio Island in the Mediterranean Sea. As a first step, the most relevant environmental conditions (wind and waves) over a 27-year time interval (January 1992–December 2018) were identified considering data coming from both ERA5 and the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative for Sea State. An overview of the electricity production was made by considering some offshore wind turbines, the results showing that even during the summertime when there is a peak demand (but low wind resources), the demand can be fully covered by five wind turbines defined each by a rated power of 6 MW. The main objective of this work is to assess the coastal impact induced by a marine energy farm, and for this reason, various layouts obtained by varying the number of lines (one or two) and the distance between the devices were proposed. The modelling system considered has been already calibrated in the target area for this type of study while the selected device is defined by a relatively low absorption property. The dynamics of various wave parameters has been analysed, including significant wave height, but also parameters related to the breaking mechanics, and longshore currents. It was noticed that although the target area is naturally protected by the dominant waves that are coming from the south-western sector, it is possible to occur extreme waves coming from the north-west during the wintertime that can be efficiently attenuated by the presence of the marine energy farm.

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Spread of non-indigenous macroalgae and disturbance: Impact assessment of the Costa Concordia shipwreck (Giglio Island, Italy) using the ALEX index

Cited by 12 publications

References 51 publications

Double Trouble: Synergy between Habitat Loss and the Spread of the Alien Species Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder) in Three Mediterranean Habitats

Double Trouble: Synergy between Habitat Loss and the Spread of the Alien Species Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder) in Three Mediterranean Habitats

Ecological status assessment and non-indigenous species in industrial and fishing harbours of the Gulf of Gabès (central Mediterranean Sea)

The Expected Impact of Marine Energy Farms Operating in Island Environments with Mild Wave Energy Resources—A Case Study in the Mediterranean Sea

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