The range of activities provided by SELC includes execution of surveys and monitoring of biological components mainly, but not exclusively, in lagoons and coastal environments.

The experience and skills gained are focused mainly on aquatic vegetation mapping and surveys of benthic component on consistent and inconsistent substrate, activities for which it was developed a robust equipment park and a set of methodological protocols particularly suited for lagoon environment.

Methods used were developed and used in important collaborations with public research and have led to many publications on national and international journals. Diving operations are carried out by scientists with FIPSAS-CMAS senior patent. Offshore activities, vessels, reliefs (including submerged ones), undergoes to appropriate security protocols and falls within the management and safety assessment system, according to the latest legislation.

Other activities provided to support the marine biology service, concern the execution of sedimentological and hydrological surveys, and execution of investigations along the coast and offshore. The surveys on natural environments "tegnùe" - rocky and organogenic submerged structures protruding from the bottom - and on sites like the coastal protective structures newly-constructed, are a point of strenght in the operational organization of SELC.

All surveys, measurements and sampling operations are conducted in full coordination with the benthic laboratory and the core structure for the subsequent determination and integrated assessment activities.

For investigation on coastal environments an appropriated equipment park able to cover all needs is a key factor - SELC owns equipment for sampling on consistent substrates, Sorbonne for inconsistent substrates, photo reliefs and video reliefs.

To measure the distribution of the lagoon and coastal communities like seagrasses, is used boats, equipped with precision radiolocation system and GIS mapping sistem.

Transplantation of seagrasses is a good example of a mitigation and compensation activities in the lagoon and coastal environments, this type of activity needs a deep knowledge of environmental requirements of the species concerned, of the characteristics of acceptor and donor sites and of methodologies best suited to different cases.

BENTHIC LABORATORY

The marine biology laboratory is devoted to advanced study and to the determination of the species from time to time considered in the studies conducted in the current investigations or monitoring.

Here are conducted all steps leading to the determination of taxonomic fitobentonici organisms (algae and seagrasses) and zoobentonici and estimation of the main functional and structural descriptors of the biological communities, on which it's based the subsequent phase of integrated assessment, aimed at different needs of the job.

Seagrasses
We permorm systematic recognition of species and the measurement of phenological parameters and of functional descriptors (density, wet and dry biomass , leaf-area-index, size and number of leaves per clump, producing foliage / rhizomes, plastrocronic interval, determination of epiphytic and estimating of their coverage and biomass). These parameters are necessary for the evaluation of the biological status of the grasslands and the analysis of any actual pressure.

Macroalgae
We perform the systematic recognition of red algae (Rhodophyceae), brown (Phaeophyceae) and green (Chlorophyceae) and we perform the estimation of specific coverage and of biomass (wet and dry).

Zoobenthos
We make the determination of all species belonging to major phyla (Anthozoa, Crustacea, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Polychaeta, Sipunculida and Tunicata) and we estimate their abundance and biomass (wet and dry).

We also perform more specific investigations on the microphytobentonic and meiozoobenthonic fraction. Ecological indices calculated on the basis of results from bethic investigations are used for all assessments aimed at identifying the appropriate level of environmental quality.

NEWS