Search results for " diving"

Effects of recreational scuba diving on Mediterranean fishes: evidence of involuntary feeding?

2013

Despite a large body of literature assessing the impacts of recreational scuba diving on marine habitats, little attention has been paid to the potentially harmful effects this has on fishes. The aim of this study was the assessment of the immediate response of different fish species to divers’ activities. A decrease of fishes’ natural diffidence towards divers is shown, probably due to an enhanced availability of their prey as a result of divers’ contacts with the substrate.

Breathing 100% oxygen during water immersion improves postimmersion cardiovascular responses to orthostatic stress

2016

Abstract Physiological compensation to postural stress is weakened after long‐duration water immersion (WI), thus predisposing individuals to orthostatic intolerance. This study was conducted to compare hemodynamic responses to postural stress following exposure to WI alone (Air WI), hyperbaric oxygen alone in a hyperbaric chamber (O 2 HC), and WI combined with hyperbaric oxygen (O 2 WI), all at a depth of 1.35 ATA, and to determine whether hyperbaric oxygen is protective of orthostatic tolerance. Thirty‐two healthy men underwent up to 15 min of 70° head‐up tilt (HUT) testing before and after a single 6‐h resting exposure to Air WI ( N  = 10), O 2 HC ( N  = 12), or O 2 WI ( N  = 10). Heart …

Cephalopod prey of two Ziphius cavirostris (Cetacea) stranded on the western Mediterranean coast

2000

The stomach contents of two Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), male and female, stranded on the western Mediterranean coast were analysed. Food consisted exclusively of hard cephalopod remains. The character of this teuthophagous diet agrees with the offshore and deep diving behaviour of Z. cavirostris.

Redds of brown trout in the deep channels of a hydroelectric power station

2019

Two episodes of Taravana syndrome in a breath-hold diver with hyperhomocysteinemia

2018

Key Clinical Message Taravana syndrome is a rare dysbaric disease characterized by neurologic signs and symptoms. Differently from others decompression illness, it has unspecified pathophysiology and unclear predisposing factors. Our cases suggest that thrombophilic state due to hyperhomocysteinemia could increase the risk to develop Taravana syndrome.

Shallow-water benthic hydroids from the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean)

2013

Forty species of benthic hydroids, belonging to 15 families and 21 genera, were found in a collection, obtained by SCUBA diving, from the Maltese Islands. Paradoxically for the well studied Mediterranean region, the hydroid fauna of these islands is virtually unexplored. Of 40 species, 33 were identified to species level, with 28 of them reported for the first time for the study area. Hydractinia monocarpa is recorded for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, and a presumed new species of the genus Clytia has been found. The most speciose families are Campanulariidae with 10 species (25%), Aglaopheniidae with six species (15%) and Sertulariidae with five species (12%). Aglaophenia and Cl…

Magnetic resonance findings in scuba diving-related spinal cord decompression sickness

1997

Scuba diving is associated with risk of severe decompression sickness (DCS type II), which results from rapid reduction of the environmental pressure sufficient to cause the formation into tissue or blood of inert gas bubbles previously loaded within tissues as a soluble phase. DCS type II constitutes a unique subset of ischemic insults to the central nervous system (CNS) with primarily involvement of the spinal cord. Ten patients with diving-related barotrauma underwent neurologic examination. Two of them presented progressive sensory and motor loss in the extremities at admission and were presumed affected by spinal cord DCS. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated abnormalities in …

The operational sex ratio of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus populations: the case of the Mediterranean marine protected area of Ustica Island (…

2009

We investigated, with a series of field and laboratory observations, the possible effect of the starfish Marthasteria glacialis predation on the operational sex ratio (OSR), i.e. the number of sexually mature males divided by the total number of sexually mature adults of both sexes at any one time, of the edible sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. The OSR was estimated three times during the sea urchin summer spawning period (July 2004, June 2005 and July 2006) on barren substrates of Ustica Island Marine Protected Area (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). Four sites were selected: two characterized by high M. glacialis density (take zone C) and two controls with low starfish density (no-take zo…

Can recreational scuba divers alter natural gross sedimentation rate? A case study from a Mediterranean deep cave

2010

Abstract Di Franco, A., Ferruzza, G., Baiata, P., Chemello, R., and Milazzo, M. 2010. Can recreational scuba divers alter natural gross sedimentation rate? A case study from a Mediterranean deep cave. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 871–874. Submarine caves are environments with features distinguishing them from other littoral habitats but, despite their ecological importance, their response to anthropogenic disturbance has been seldom verified. One potential threat affecting natural communities within caves is represented by recreational scuba diving. Divers' disturbance within marine caves is mainly related to physical contacts and increased sediment resuspension potentially affecti…

IS HYPOXIA-INDUCIBLE FACTOR (HIF-1) ALPHA INVOLVED IN TARAVANA SYNDROME?

2021

Breath holding diving (BH) is a discipline practiced by an increasing number of people. BH-divers are exposed to extreme environmental conditions such as: increased hyperbaric pressure and low temperature that caused change in arterial blood gases (1-2) and induced an human diving response which includes bradycardia, reduced cardiac output, increased arterial blood pressure and peripheral vasoconstriction (3). Some of these adaptations are still not fully understood, so we decided to investigate some biomarkers that should be involved in this disorders starting to analyse Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α). We enrolled in our study 31 healthy free divers from different part of Sicily…