Unit of Experimental ecology
Lab of Marine Benthic Ecology, Evolutionary ecology, Ecotoxicology
tel. ++39-0544 937311
fax ++39-0544 937411
Group Leader: Prof. Victor Ugo Ceccherelli, Prof. Marco Abbiati
E-mail : victor.ceccherelli@unibo.it; marco.abbiati@unibo.i
Research in progress :
- Ecology of coastal habitats, including rocky reefs, sedimentary bottoms, coastal lagoons and human-made structures.
- Biodiversity and conservation of coastal assemblages.
- Experimental analysis of the roles of physical and biological processes in maintaining spatial and temporal patterns in natural assemblages.
- Factors facilitating the spread of invasive species in coastal habitats.
- Fluxes of sediments and environmental impact of enhanced sediment loads in coastal areas.
- Secondary production and trophic structure in macrobenthos.
- Trophic ecology of exploited demersal fish species.
- Evolutionary ecology and adaptive strategies in coastal and estuarine invertebrates.
- Use of molecular tools for monitoring the exposure of invertebrates to pollutants.
- Application of demographic models to evaluate the effects of pollution on population dynamics of acquatic and terrestrial organisms.
- Development and validation of bioassays on invertebrates for the ecotoxicological assessment of sediment and soil.
- Design and analysis of ecological experiments in the field and in the laboratory.
- Effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbance and stress on benthic assemblages.
- Integrated coastal management, EIA and risk assessment.
Funding :
- UE 2001-2004.DELOS (Environmental design of low crested coastal defence structure).
- UE 2002-2005. EUMAR (European Marine Genetic Biodiversity).
- Comune e Provincia di Ravenna e Associazione Industriali di Ravenna 2001-2005. "Progetto di studio della Pialassa Baiona (Ravenna) ai fini di una corretta impostazione di piani di disinquinamento e recupero".
- PRIN 2002-2004 (MIUR) "La variabilità dei popolamenti bentonici di substrato duro per la stima di effetti antropici sull’ambiente marino costiero".
- Regione Emilia Romagna 2003-2004"Programma di ricerca per uno studio pilota sulle alterazioni dei popolamenti bentonici in relazione ad interventi di ripascimento delle coste per la Regione Emilia Romagna".
- ENI SpA, AGIP Division 2001-2004: BIOMARE (Project for the development of methodologies for monitoring the impact of off-shore structures in the northern Adriatic).
- UE 2004-2005: FISH&CHIPS (Toward DNA chip technology as a standard analytical tool for the identification of marine organisms in biodiversity and ecosystem research).
- UE-CADSES INTERREG 2004-2006: TWReferenceNET (Management and sustainable development of protected transitional waters).
- ENI SpA AGIP Division 2005-2007: BIODIVERSITY (A methodological approach for the characterization of biodiversity and assessment of the impact of off-shore platforms on marine ecosystems).
- Ministero dell’Ambiente e del Territorio 2004-2007: MED-RED (Artificial Marine Structures (AMS): Multifunctional tool for research and environmental management in the Mediterranean and Red Sea).
Patents :
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Selected Publications :
- Virgilio M., S. Maci, Abbiati M., 2005 Comparisons of genotype-tolerance responses in populations of Hediste diversicolor (Polychaeta: Nereididae) exposed to copper stress. Marine Biology, 147: 1305-1312
- Martin D, Bertasi F, Colangelo MA, de Vries M, Frost M, Hawkins SJ, Macpherson E, Moschella PS, Satta MP, Thompson RC, Ceccherelli VU, 2005 Ecological impact of coastal defence structures on sediment and mobile fauna: Evaluating and forecasting consequences of unavoidable modifications of native habitats. Coastal Engineering, 52: 1027-1051
- Bulleri, F., Airoldi, L., 2005 Artificial marine structures facilitate the spread of a non-indigenous green alga, Codium fragile ssp. tomentosoides, in the north Adriatic Sea. Journal of Applied Ecology, 42: 1063-1072
- Bonacina C; Hamza W; Pasteris A., 2005 Modelling the population dynamics of Daphnia obtusa (Kurz) in Lake Orta (N. Italy) under pre- and post-liming conditions. Aquatic Ecology, 39: 93-106
- Airoldi L., Abbiati M., Beck M. W., Hawkins S.J., Jonsson P.R., Martin D., Moschella P. S., Sundelöf A., Thompson R. C., Åberg P., 2005 An ecological perspective on the deployment and design of low- crested and other hard coastal defence structures. Coastal Engineering, 52: 1073-1087
- Airoldi L., Francesca Bacchiocchi, C. Cagliola, F. Bulleri, M. Abbiati, 2005 Impact of recreational harvesting on assemblages in artificial rocky habitats. Marine Ecology Progress Series 299: 55-66.
- Virgilio M, Abbiati M. 2004 Habitat discontinuity and genetic structure in populations of the estuarine species Hediste diversicolor (Polychaeta: Nereididae). Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 61: 361-367
- Cristoni C, Colangelo MA, Ceccherelli VU., 2004 Spatial scale and meiobenthic copepod recolonization: testing effect of disturbance size in a seagrass habitat. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol. 298: 49-70
- Pasteris A, Vecchi M, Reynoldson TB, Bonomi G. 2003 Toxicity of copper-spiked sediments to Tubifex tubifex (Oligochaeta, Tubificidae): a comparison of the 28-day reproductive bioassay with a 6-month cohort experiment. Aquat Toxicol. 65: 253-65
- Airoldi L. 2003 The effects of sedimentation on rocky coast assemblages. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annul Review 41: 161-236
Postgraduate training :
- 1) PhD programme in Ecology - Consortium of the University of Parma and University of Bologna (administrative office: Parma).
- 2) PhD programme in Environmental Science: Protection and management of natural resources - University of Bologna (administrative office: Bologna).
Collaborations :
- : Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Ferrara, Italy
- : Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Palermo, Italy
- : Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, University of Parma, Italy
- : Dipartimento Scienze dell’Uomo e dell'Ambiente, University of Pisa, Italy
- : Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche e Ambientali, University of Lecce, Italy
- : Biology Institute, University of Oslo, Norway
- : Centre d'Estudis Avancats de Blanes (CSIC), Girona, Spagna
- : Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA
- : Coastal Waters Program, The Nature Conservancy, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
- : Department of Marine Ecology, Goteborg University, Sweden
- : Department of Statistics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- : Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- : Institute for Nature Conservation Research, Tel Aviv University, Israel
- : Laboratoire d’Oceanographie Biologique, Université de Bordeaux 1, Arcachon, France
- : Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK
- : National Water Research Institute, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
- : Tjarno Marine Biological Laboratory, Göteborg University, Strömstad, Sweden
- : WL - Delft Hydraulics Delft, The Netherlands
Links :
Laboratory of Experimental Ecology
http://www.ecology.unibo.it/
C.I.R.S.A.
http://cirsa.ambra.unibo.it/cgi-bin/cirsa/home.pl
Environmental Sciences
http://www.ambra.unibo.it/
Research group :
Selvaggia Santin (PhD student)
Romina Passaro (PhD student)
Giovanni Fontana (PhD student)
Federica Costantini (PhD student)
Francesco Colosio (PhD student)
Trevor J. Willis (Postdoc)
Massimiliano Virgilio (Postdoc)
Massimo Ponti (Postdoc)
Francesca Bertozzi (Postdoc)
Fabio Bertasi (Postdoc)
Andrea Pasteris (Research Associate)
Marina Antonia Colangelo (Research Associate)
Laura Airoldi (Research Associate)
Victor Ugo Ceccherelli (Full professor)
Marco Abbiati (Full professor)
Ms. Silvia Bacchi (Researcher Assistant)
Mr. Johan van Etten (Researcher Assistant)
