We are thrilled to announce that our esteemed partners, ICM- CSIC, Polytechnic University of Marche, Polytechnic University of Catalunya and Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn have proceed to a new achievement within the context of DIGI4ECO project.
The article “The re-use of offshore platforms as ecological observatories” has been published at Marine Pollution Bulletin Journal.
The authors of the article are: E. Fanelli , P. Masia , A. Premici , E. Volpato, Z. Da Ros , J. Aguzzi , M. Francescangeli , A. Dell’Anno, R. Danovaro, R. Cimino, F. Conversano and its respective DOI is the following: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.117262
The abstract and the keywords of the publication can be found below:
Abstract:
The high number of offshore platforms at the end of their productive phase offers the opportunity of their re-use and the development of effective management solutions, such as the possibility of utilizing them as ecological observatories for monitoring marine ecosystems and their biological resources. Here, through a multiparametric observatory deployed at an unproductive offshore platform, located in the Central Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea), we collected data for 13 months on benthopelagic fish assemblage and habitat conditions. A total of 155.5 h of high-frequency (30 min) video-monitoring, recorded higher fish abundances during spring-summer periods during daytime, while fish diversity was highest in autumn. Some environmental variables contributed significantly to explain the overall community variance. Our results suggest that offshore platforms can be re-converted into ecological observatories, to collect relevant amounts of information that can be difficulty obtained with alternative approaches, contributing to our understanding of changes occurring in open water ecosystems.
Keywords:
Cabled video-observatory, Decommissioning, Ecological monitoring, Fish assemblage, Offshore platform, Adriatic Sea
You can reach the full article following this link: The re-use of offshore platforms as ecological observatories – ScienceDirect