Preprint volume - SIBM

Pre-print Volume - Oral presentations
Topic 1: BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION SCIENCE: CONTRIBUTING TO MANAGEMENT
been recently developed, including: the CEM project (Coastal Environment Monitoring
Protocol), involving recreational scuba divers in monitoring activity all along the
whole Italian littoral (www.progettomac.it); Seawatching Volunteer Monitoring
Programme (SVMP) promoted by Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre
(http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/) and the newly promoted project ‘For-Mare:
training and research in marine protected areas’ (www.for-mare.eu) for university
students, school teachers and citizens. Started in 2007, SVMP is the result of interest
showed by the participants who took part to snorkelling week-ends for tourists and
residents proposed by the Seawatching group. The regular participation of the same
people for several years and their enthusiasm in learning about marine life gave birth to
data-gathering activity involving volunteers who spend week-ends doing snorkelling
and collecting data on habitat and species that characterize the MPA of ‘Cinque Terre’.
For-Mare started in summer 2009 as a pilot project which involved students from the
University of Pavia who took part to a summer stage in marine ecology and geobotany
and developed scientifically relevant studies on population ecology of marine species
(Raineri and Savini, 2010) and terrestrial flora (Di Silvestro, unpublished data) in the
MPA of Isole Pelagie, AG. The aim of this paper is to report the experiences and
preliminary results obtained from these last two mentioned projects (SVMP; For-Mare)
by arguing their future development in the light of valuable scientific data collection.
Materials and methods – (1) SVMP was conducted in ‘Cinque Terre’ MPA from July
to September 2007, 2008 and 2009. Volunteers were organized to work in couple and
each couple received an underwater board, pencil, waterproof-sheets for recognizing
Mediterranean marine organisms (fishes, benthic organisms, algae and plants) and for
evaluating cover (for benthic organism) and size (for fishes) classes. For each
investigated site, couples reported the name of the site, locality, maximum depth,
duration of the survey, visibility and seawater temperature. Habitats such as
supralittoral, rocky shore, Posidonia oceanica meadow and cave were investigated and
from 1 to 3 habitats were monitored during each survey. Data on both benthic and
pelagic species for each habitat were collected. For benthic organisms, species’ names
were reported and data of abundance (number of individuals) or cover range (%) were
given using a quadrat (50×50 cm). Regarding pelagic species, visual-census techniques
were applied: couple of volunteers looked at different directions and monitored an area
of 5 m 2 for 5 minutes. 3 replicates were made by each couple. Name of the species,
number of individuals and size classes (cm) were reported. For planktonic organisms
(Ctenophora and Scyphoza) number of individuals and distances among them were
recorded. (2) For-Mare pilot stage was conducted in June 2009. Nineteen participants
followed a one-week summer course in Linosa Island- Isole Pelagie. Training was
provided by a marine biologist, a geobotanist and a scuba diving instructor. The stages
provided fundamental knowledge in marine biology and geobotany (taught courses),
followed by field work activity (snorkeling and trekking). The first halve of the week
students followed demonstrations concerning commonly non-destructive methods used
for marine (bionomic transect, quadrats) and terrestrial (floristic surveys, morphometric
analysis) census in population ecology studies. The second halve of the week students
were requested to perform an original study by organising them in four working
groups. Each groups developed experimental design, data collection, interpretation and
presentation of results under teachers’ supervision. At the end of the stage the four
41 st S.I.B.M. CONGRESS Rapallo (GE), 7-11 June 2010
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