Search results for "mediterranean sea."
showing 10 items of 830 documents
Effects of aquaculture waste feeds and antibiotics on marine benthic ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea
2022
Intensive aquaculture is an important source of organic waste and antibiotics into the marine environment. Yet, their impacts on benthic marine ecosystems are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the ecological impacts of fish feed waste alone and in combination with three different antibiotics (i.e., oxytetracycline, florfenicol and flumequine) in benthic ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea by performing a field experiment. We assessed the fate of the antibiotics in the sediment and their accumulation in wild fauna after two weeks of exposure. Moreover, we investigated the impact of the feed waste alone and in combination with the antibiotics on sediment physico-chemical properties, on…
How building an underwater pipeline connecting Libya to Sicilian coast is affecting environment: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments…
2009
The purpose of this study was to determine the variation of concentrations and distribution of PAHs in the sediments of the Gela coastal area (Italy) caused by the construction of an underwater pipeline connecting Libya to Sicilian coast. The receiving terminal of offshore pipeline, crossing the Mediterranean Sea, 516 Km long, up to 1127 meters deep, is located in Gela (Sicily, Italy). No bibliographic data regarding hydrocarbons are available for this area. In this paper we report the results of analysis on the water and organic along PAHs.The total concentrations of 16 PAHs in the sediments, analyzed during five surveys, ranged from 2.4 to 434 microg/kg of dry weight. The highest concentr…
Distribution of REEs in box-core sediments offshore an industrial area in SE Sicily, Ionian Sea: Evidence of anomalous sedimentary inputs
2009
The distribution of rare earth elements and yttrium (REEs+Y) has been investigated in box-core sediments recovered from four stations in the Sicilian coastal zone seawards of Augusta, one of the most industrialized and contaminated areas in the Mediterranean region. Shale-like REE patterns and low Y/Ho ratios (close to the chondritic ratio) suggest a dominant terrigenous (geogenic) source for REE. Slight enrichment of LREE over the HREE is interpreted as due to preferential adsorptive transfer of LREE from seawater to sediment particles. Samples from offshore cores exhibit slightly positive Gd and negative Ce anomalies. It is here hypothesized that main drivers of anthropogenic Gd flux towa…
Benthic foraminiferal response to trace element pollution. The case study of the Gulf of Milazzo, NE Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea).
2013
The response of benthic foraminiferal assemblages to trace element pollution in the marine sediments of the Gulf of Milazzo (north-eastern Sicily) was investigated. Since the 1960s, this coastal area has been a preferred site for the development of two small marinas and a commercial harbour as well as for heavy industry. Forty samples collected in the uppermost 3-4 cm of an undisturbed layer of sediment in the littoral environment were used for this benthic foraminiferal analysis. The enrichment factors (EFs) of selected trace elements (As, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) were also calculated. Changes both in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and in some trace elements concentrations have pr…
Accumulation of trace metals in sediments in a Mediterranean Lagoon: Usefulness of metal sediment fractionation and elutriate toxicity assessment.
2015
International audience; The authors investigated sediment quality in Bizerte Lagoon (Tunisia) focusing on geochemical characteristics, metal sediment fractionation and elutriate toxicity assessment. Nickel, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr and Cd partitioning in sediments was studied; accumulation and bioavailability were elucidated using enrichment factors, sequential extractions, redox potential, acid volatile sulfide and biotest procedures in toxicity evaluation. Results revealed an accumulation for Pb and Zn, reaching 99 and 460 mg kg−1 respectively. In addition, the acid volatile sulfide values were high in both eastern and western lagoon areas, thus affecting metal availability. Mean enrichment factor …
Skoulekia meningialis n. gen., n. sp. (Digenea: Aporocotylidae Odhner, 1912) a parasite surrounding the brain of the Mediterranean common two-banded …
2010
This study describes a new aporocotylid genus and species, Skoulekia meningialis n. gen., n. sp. which was detected in the ectomeningeal veins surrounding the optic lobes of the brain of the common two-banded seabream Diplodus vulgaris (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817) from the Gulf of Valencia (Mediterranean Sea). A detailed morphological description of S. meningialis is provided, including drawings, measurements and scanning electron microscopy images as well as a phylogenetic study of S. meningialis and closely related taxa using DNA sequence data obtained from whole ITS2 and partial 18S and 28S rDNA regions. Morphology as well as molecular phylogeny strongly support the erection of a new g…
Stress-70 proteins in marine mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis as biomarkers of environmental pollution: a field study.
2004
In the present work we have investigated levels of stress-70 proteins in the gills of mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis collected seasonally from subtidal rocky shores at 6 different sites of the Rovinj coastal area (Northern Adriatic, Croatia). 1-D analysis (SDS-PAGE) using monoclonal mouse antibodies anti-HSP70 detected two bands of stress-70 proteins, 70 and 72 kDa constitutively present during the year. 2-D analysis (IEF+SDS-PAGE) proved that the antibodies used detected HSP70 (pI 5.7–5.9) and HSP72 (pI 5.5–5.6). The quantification of stress-70 proteins was possible using 200 ng of external HSP70 protein standard included on every blot. Maximal levels of HSP72 and HSP70 were observed in …
Jellyfish Stings Trigger Gill Disorders and Increased Mortality in Farmed Sparus aurata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Mediterranean Sea
2016
11 pages, 4 figures
Diagnostic accuracy of the light microscope method to detect the eggs of Cardicola spp. in the gill filaments of the bluefin tuna.
2017
Trematode blood flukes of the genus Cardicola are potentially lethal in bluefin tuna cultures. The present study proposed a new method to detect aporocotylid eggs in tuna gills. Aporocotylid eggs were detected by analysing a pair of gill filaments of five transversal areas of the eight holobranches of one hundred Atlantic bluefin tuna and observed with glycerol and a stereomicroscope with an oblique brightfield. Data were gathered according to holobranches, transversal areas and their combination. Eggs were uniformly distributed among the holobranches, but they had the highest prevalence in the second and fifth transversal areas, which is controversial with respect to previous studies of eg…
Metal concentrations and detoxification mechanisms in Solea solea and Solea senegalensis from NW Mediterranean fishing grounds
2013
10 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables