INTERDISCIPLINARY PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES IN FIELD

The practical course aims to deepen with the students some aspects of the applied ecology related to environmental monitoring and the implementation of management strategies. Measurements and applications are carried out together, directly in the field and combined with laboratory analyses of the samples taken in the field. In this case the course will be a full immersion study on the application of ecological status indicators for the determination of the environmental quality of the transitional environments through the study of biological communities (macroalgae, aquatic plants, terrestrial plants and benthic invertebrates). Biological communities are indeed more suitable than environmental parameters for an objective assessment of the environment quality.The course will therefore offer the opportunity to use knowledge and skills acquired during the course of study, both in theoretical terms (community analysis, application of indices, spatial analysis through GIS applications) and laboratory practices (recognition and systematic classification of organisms).

Ability to:
determine the environmental quality of transition environments and coastal areas, by applying indices suggested by the present legislation (WFD and HD);
define a sampling plan for monitoring both aquatic and terrestrial habitats;
classify specimens belonging to both plant and marine invertebrate communities

Students must have a good knowledge about analytic methods for aquatic and terrestrial plant communities and benthic macrofauna.

Field sampling activities will be carried on both transitional waters and coastal environments. Collected samples will be analyzed in the lab, for the taxonomic classification of all the specimens. Seminars on specific topics wil also be offered.
In particular, the activitiy will be focused on the following ecoloigcal status indexes:
Macrophyte Quality Index (MaQI),
M-AMBI (Multivariate Marine Biotic Index),
BITS (Benthic Index based on Taxonomic Sufficiency),
multimetric phytoplankton index (MPI),
salt marshes and sand dune vegetation, as the gamma connectivity index

No reference text needed. Students will be provided with slides and scientific papers

Preparation of a report about the field and laboratory activities, the applied indexes; results arrangment for a final presentation.

Teaching activities are based on field and laboratory activites; seminars on specific topics will be held by experts about analytical techinques and/or indicators suitable for envrionmental monitoring. All teaching materials will be available on the Moodle platform.

Italian

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Natural capital and environmental quality" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development