Fluttuazioni interannuali nell’abbondanza degli stadi larvali di Engraulis encrasicolus e di Sardinella aurita in relazione al riscaldamento delle acque superficiali nello Stretto di Sicilia.

Linking ecological and physical features in the Strait of Sicily preliminary results of air - sea interaction.

Stima dei flussi di calore latente e sensibile in differenti aree del Mediterraneo Centrale, attraverso strumentazione acustica e tradizionale.

Effects of waterg gun on echinoderms: biochemical changes on sea urchin (Arbacia lixula) and sea cucumber (Holothuria tubulosa)

Sources Airguns and Waterguns are used in seismic exploration the marine seafloor for different purposes such as oil and gas search, or geological-geodynamic reconstruction. In this technique a bubble of compressed air is produced with a consequently production of loud sound wave penetrating the ocean floor. The impact of seismic Airguns was assessed in some cetaceans (Kyhn et al. 2019), fish species and invertebrate (Carroll et al. 2017), but we need to know more. In this study we evaluate the biochemical changes in sea urchin (Arbacia lixula) and sea cucumber (Holothuria tubulosa) exposed to a 20 minutes of watergun noise (1 pulse each 10 s) at a distance of 50 m. For each species 40 indi…

IMAGE PROCESSING IN POLLUTION VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF SICILY AQUIFERS

It is generally acknowledged that vulnerability mapping represents an essential tool for territory management. Intrinsic vulnerability can be generally described as “the susceptibility of the aquifer systems, in their different components and in different geometric and hydrodynamics situations, to swallow and diffuse, also mitigating the effects, a fluid or water-transported pollutant, in such a way to produce impact on the groundwater quality, in space and time”. Assessment procedures of vulnerability consider a number of parameters, the estimation of which is usually difficult and very often insufficient to correctly represent aquifer’s features. As aquifers are closely influenced by nume…

A shallow water SPH model with PML boundaries

Abstract We focus on the study and implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) numerical code to deal with non-reflecting boundary conditions, starting from the Perfect Matched Layer (PML) approach. Basically, the method exploits the concept of a physical damping which acts on a fictitious layer added to the edges of computational domain. In this paper, we develop the study of time dependent shallow waves propagating on a finite 2D-XY plane domain and their behavior in the presence of circular and, more generic, rectangular boundary absorbing layers. In particular, an analysis of variation of the layer׳s thickness versus the absorbing efficiency is conducted. In our model, the m…

Stima dei flussi energetici all’interfaccia aria-mare con l’impiego di SST da Satellite e dati rilevati in situ.

La conoscenza dei flussi energetici scambiati fra oceano e bassa atmosfera è un requisito utile per modellare e comprendere il sistema climatico e la dinamica degli oceani. L’elevata difficoltà di effettuare misure in situ ed in continuo in ambiente marino induce spesso all’utilizzo ausiliario di strumentazione satellitare. Nel presente lavoro è stato effettuato un confronto tra la stima dei flussi energetici superficiali valutati con dati provenienti da satellite e quelli ottenuti da misure in situ. In particolare, per il confronto, sono stati utilizzati i dati SST acquisiti dal satellite NOAA e i dati raccolti in situ dai sensori istallati a bordo della Nave Oceanografica Urania nel corso…

The Management of Health Hazards Related to Municipal Solid Waste on Fire in Europe: An Environmental Justice Issue?

Landfilling should be the last option in an integrated Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management approach. In the European Union (EU), the policy framework to protect the environment and the public health against the impact of health hazards related to urban solid waste management has been consistently implemented in recent decades. A growing interest in the negative impact of fires in waste landfills on the environment and people’s health was reported in some European countries. In Italy, an increasing occurrence of arsons in MSW and landfills has been reported in recent years. During the summer of 2012, a multi-site arson occurred in the Palermo Municipal solid waste landfill of Bellolampo (…

Underwater noise from boats: Measurement of its influence on the behaviour and biochemistry of the common prawn (Palaemon serratus, Pennant 1777)

Abstract This study examined the effects of recorded boat noises on the behaviour and biochemistry of the common prawn ( Palaemon serratus ) in laboratory settings. The experiment was carried out in a tank equipped with a video-recording system using six groups (three control and three tested) of eight common prawns (48 animals in total). After habituation for 1 h, the behaviour of the prawns was monitored for 1 h. During the last 30 min, the animals in the test groups were exposed to noise resembling a marine area with high anthropogenic acoustic pollution. The exposure to noise produced significant changes in locomotor patterns, presence inside or outside a shelter, total protein concentr…

Simple absorbing layer conditions for shallow wave simulations with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Abstract We study and implement a simple method, based on the Perfectly Matched Layer approach, to treat non reflecting boundary conditions with the Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics numerical algorithm. The method is based on the concept of physical damping operating on a fictitious layer added to the computational domain. The method works for both 1D and 2D cases, but here we illustrate it in the case of 1D and 2D time dependent shallow waves propagating in a finite domain.

Linking air–sea energy fluxes and European anchovy potential spawning ground.

The physical and chemical processes of the sea greatly affect the reproductive biology of fishes, mainly influencing both the numbers of spawned eggs and the survivorship of early stages up to the recruitment period. In the central Mediterranean, the European anchovy constitutes one of the most important fishery resource. Because of its short living nature and of its recruitment variability, associated to high environmental variability, this small pelagic species undergo high interannual fluctuation in the biomass levels. Despite several efforts were addressed to characterize fishes spawning habitat from the oceanographic point of view, very few studies analyze the air-sea exchanges effects…

Do emissions from landfill fires affect pregnancy outcomes? A retrospective study after arson at a solid waste facility in Sicily

ObjectivesIn response to public health concern about effects of arson at solid waste management plants in July 2012, we analysed vital statistics data to evaluate any potential effect on pregnancies at different gestational ages of pollutants emitted from the landfill on fire.SettingA community living near the largest landfill plant in Sicily.ParticipantsThe study group comprised 551 births, live births and stillbirths from pregnancies of mothers residing in the extra-urban exposed area, conceived during a 40 week period during which the highest fire’s peak might have influenced pregnancy.Primary and secondary outcome measuresBirth outcomes (gestational age <37 and <32 weeks, low birt…