Collaboration with the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples
On 20 and 21 February, ISPRA researchers went to the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park as part of the SeaForest LIFE project.
The first day they presented to the Park Director, Dr Romano Gregorio, the preliminary data on the census of boats present in summer in the two Marine Protected Areas present within the Park (the MPA of Santa Maria di Castellabate and the MA Costa degli Infreschi and della Masseta), at the Center for Studies and Research on Biodiversity in Vallo della Lucania (SA).
On 21 February an operational meeting was held with the Head of the Marine Protected Areas and Park Community Service, Dr Francesco De Luca, and the members of the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples, at Villa Matarazzo (Castellabate - SA). Thanks to this important meeting, a collaboration between the Carabinieri and SeaForest LIFE has started. The Carabinieri will guarantee technical and logistical support to ISPRA researchers for monitoring activities on Posidonia oceanica in the MPAs of the Cilento National Park. Thanks to the precious help that will be provided by the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples, our project will be able to collect important data to better quantify the precious carbon stored by the Posidonia oceanica meadows under the sea surface, so useful to mitigate, at least in part, the effect of climate change on our future.
Marini Pulcini, Sante Francesco Rende, Luca Parlagreco and Silvia Maltese participated for ISPRA, and the Mar. Magg. Sandro Buccalo (Comandante Aliquota Subacquei Napoli), the Mar. Magg. Santi Scolaro (Vice Comandante), and the Brig. Fabio Vitozzi, the Vice Brig. Gennaro Attore, the Vice Brig. Giovanni Falco (infermiere F. SUB), the App. Sc. Q.S. Salavatore Pantalena, the App. Sc. Marco Panico for the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples.
The first results of the SeaForest LIFE project are now available
Under Action A1.1, the assessment of the extent of the habitat in the Blue Carbon study areas was carried out through the analysis of high-resolution and medium-resolution multispectral satellite images. Using the satellite images we could detect the presence and extent of seagrass meadows with different degrees of density and coverage (<25% to 100%) in the study areas. These systems, together with the in situ observations, represent powerful tools to map the extension of the Posidonia oceanica meadows minimizing the CO2 emissions related to the in situ survey activities. This Remote Sensing analysis activity was mainly performed by qualified ISPRA researchers, with the support of the external service of the University of Calabria Spin-off “3D Research”, which mainly dealt with the water column correction procedure. Maps of P. oceanica meadows in the Blue Carbon areas have been updated (from 1999 to 2019).
From the point of view of variations, slight reductions in the areas covered by P. oceanica were found in all Blue Carbon areas in the three National Parks (Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago di LaMaddalena, Parco Nazionale dell'Asinara, Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni). In addition, for all the study areas, the information layers to estimate the carbon storage in P. oceanica have been prepared using the Invest Model (Natural Capital Project).
At the same time, a cartographic study has been carried out in order to quantify the pressure induced by the anchorage of pleasure boats on P. oceanica meadows in the investigated Blue Carbon areas. This survey was carried out using semiautomatic and automatic boat recognition procedures. The acquired data enabled us to quantify the level of pressure exerted by pleasure boating on the Blue Carbon P. oceanica habitat.
The preliminary results have pointed out that the investigated Blue Carbon areas represent, in the three National Parks, the most frequented areas for recreational boating. In these areas there are a lot of boats anchoring on P. oceanica habitat, leading to a foreseeable impact and degradation on the conservation status of the seagrass meadows with possible negative effects on the Blue Carbon production and CO2 storage capacity.
The full report has been uploaded to the Products section of our website and is available here.
ESP10 Hannover
Today, 24/10/2019, we presented our project at the 10th World Conference on Ecosystem Services organized by the Ecosystem Services Partnership in Hannover, Germany.
We have been invited and hosted at this great event by the LIFE communication stand and this is a source of great pride for us.
Our latest publication and the ecosystem services offered by Posidonia oceanica were at the center of the stand and disseminated to a large number of insiders from all over the world.
SEAFOREST LIFE BROCHURE
Newly released the SeaForest LIFE brochure.
The publication, the result of the collaboration between the various project partners, summarizes the objectives and shows the first results that SeaForest LIFE is obtaining in the fight against climate change and the conservation of Posidonia oceanica meadows in the project areas.
We are trying to set up a system that can be exported throughout the Mediterranean Sea and that, through the sale of carbon credits deriving from conservation actions aimed at Posidonia oceanica, allows us to counter CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and economically recognize the ecosystem services that this marine plant offers to all of us.
The brochure will be presented in Hannover at the 10th world conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP).
Download the PDF version of the brochure and find out more about the SeaForest LIFE project.
Monitoring visit 2019
MONITORING VISIT
The monitoring visit 2019 to our project was held on Tuesday 1st October.
An important moment of evaluation and camparison with the monitor of the NEEMO - THIMESIS team.
