State of health of Posidonia oceanica meadows along the northern Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria, Italy (original) (raw)

In the framework of the MEMOBIOMAR project, the distribution and conditions of Posidonia oceanica meadows along the northern Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria (Italy) were studied. Aim of the work was the assessment of the structure of the meadows, the phenology of the plant and the distribution and abundance of epiphytes. Moreover, the hypothesis of differences among meadows subjected to different levels of human disturbance was investigated. Our results suggest that human disturbance influenced some of the structural and morphological variables analysed. Epiphytes have high variability in distribution and abundances, particularly at the smallest spatial scale considered (i.e. among leaves or rhizomes) and among areas (tens of meters apart). Among the leaf epiphytes, only the bryozoan Electra posidoniae appears to be directly influenced by disturbance, while, among the epiphytes of rhizomes, similar results were observed for the red algae Peyssonnelia spp. and the foraminiferan Miniacina miniacea.