0000000000319310
AUTHOR
Antonella Arcangeli
showing 6 related works from this author
Cetacean presence and distribution in the central Mediterranean Sea and potential risks deriving from plastic pollution
2021
Abstract The Sardinian and Sicilian Channels are considered hotspots of biodiversity and key ecological passages between Mediterranean sub-basins, but with significant knowledge gaps about marine mammal presence and potential threats they face. Using data collected between 2013 and 2019 along fixed transects, inter and intra-annual cetacean index of abundance was assessed. Habitat suitability, seasonal hot spots, and risk exposure for plastic were performed using the Kernel analysis and the Biomod2 R-package. 661 sightings of 8 cetacean species were recorded, with bottlenose and striped dolphins as the most sighted species. The north-eastern pelagic sector, the coastal waters and areas near…
Amount, composition, and spatial distribution of floating macro litter along fixed trans-border transects in the Mediterranean basin
2018
Marine litter is a major source of pollution in the Mediterranean basin, but despite legislative requirements, scant information is available for the ongoing assessment of this threat. Using higher size classes as proxy for litter distribution, this study gave a synoptic estimation of the amount, composition, and distribution of floating macro-litter in the Mediterranean. The average amount of macro-litter was in a range of 2-5 items/km2, with the highest in the Adriatic basin. Seasonal patterns were present in almost all study areas and were significant in the Ligurian Sea, Sardinian-Balearic basin, and Central Tyrrhenian Sea. Plastic accounted for > 80% of litter in all areas and seaso…
Turtles on the trash track: loggerhead turtles exposed to floating plastic in the Mediterranean Sea
2019
Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) spend most of their life in large marine areas occupying a variety of habitats where they are exposed to different types of threats. Among these, marine litter is known to pose a risk of entanglement or ingestion. Areas of risk exposure can be identified where the species overlap with litter accumulations, but gathering data on this highly mobile species and marine litter, especially in high sea areas, is challenging. Here we analysed five years of sea turtle and marine litter data collected by a network of research bodies along fixed trans-border transects in the Mediterranean Sea. Ferries were used as observation platforms to gather systematic data on …
The challenge of habitat modelling for threatened low density species using heterogeneous data: The case of Cuvier’s beaked whales in the Mediterrane…
2018
We are grateful to the ACCOBAMS Secretariat for their support in this work, including a small grant for the analysis. The Mediterranean population of Cuvieŕs beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), a deep-diving cetacean, is genetically distinct from the Atlantic, and subject to a number of conservation threats, in particular underwater noise. It is also cryptic at the surface and relatively rare, so obtain robust knowledge on distribution and abundance presents unique challenges. Here we use multiplatform and multiyear survey data to analyse the distribution and abundance of this species across the Mediterranean Sea. We use a novel approach combining heterogeneous data gathered with different …
Trends in summer presence of fin whales in the Western Mediterranean Sea Region: new insights from a long-term monitoring program
2020
Background The Mediterranean subpopulation of fin whale Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758) has recently been listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of threatened species. The species is also listed as species in need of strict protection under the Habitat Directive and is one of the indicators for the assessment of Good Environmental Status under the MSFD. Reference values on population abundance and trends are needed in order to set the threshold values and to assess the conservation status of the population. Methods Yearly summer monitoring using ferries as platform of opportunity was performed since 2008 within the framework of the FLT Med Network. Data were collected along sever…
A spatially explicit risk assessment approach: Cetaceans and marine traffic in the Pelagos Sanctuary (Mediterranean Sea).
2017
15 páginas, 5 figuras, 2 tablas.-- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited