Biodiversity : ISPRA launches a campaign on the Sicily Channel

In these days  is starting the second ISPRA campaign for monitoring the banks of the Strait of Sicily (known as the Sicily Channel), included in the project of the Regional Observatory Biodiversity of the Sicilian Region (ORBS). In this  campaign, conducted on oceanographic ship Astrea of ISPRA, monitoring will focus on the 'Banco Avventura', 'Banco Pantelleria' and 'Banco Graham'.

The research foresees theuse of tools and methodologies that allow investigations in remote non-destructive, such  as the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), a guided camera,  which can reach up to 500 meters deep, and the MultiBeam, which allows to make detailed bathymetric charts of the seabed in 3D.

The main objectives of this monitoring is:

• develop a mapping of banks of Adventure, Graham and Pantelleria through MultiBeam, with restitution of geomorphological maps and georeferenced bionomic;

• study the biodiversity associated with individual banks through visual census carried out through remote systems and instrument samples (grab, box corer etc.);

• carry out an inventory of plant and animal species and habitats under protection (protected) or deemed at risk (endagered) by the directives and international conventions, such as the EC Directive 92/43 (Habitats Directive)

The Project ORBS, which includes such activities, is an extensive research that comes from a framework program agreement signed in 2011 between the Department of Environment of the Sicilian Region, ISPRA, CNR and ARPA Sicily.