Will Posidonia save the Mediterranean?

    Will Posidonia save the Mediterranean?

    Cultivating Posidonia oceanica by exploiting its particular characteristics in stabilizing and consolidating the seabed to protect the coastal ecosystem of the Mediterranean. This is the ambitious idea translated into the first artificial system in the world capable of safeguarding the fragile coasts of the Mare Nostrum. This is the Start project, presented yesterday in Bari by a group of researchers from Puglia and funded under the 2007-2013 Puglia OP, developed by Tct srl of Brindisi in partnership with Legambiente Puglia.



    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    Cultivate the Posidonia oceanica exploiting its particular characteristics in the stabilization and consolidation of the seabed for protect the coastal ecosystem of the Mediterranean. This is the ambitious idea translated in the first artificial system in the world capable of safeguarding the fragile coasts of the Mare Nostrum. It is the Start project, presented yesterday in Bari by a group of researchers from Puglia and funded under the 2007-2013 Puglia OP, developed by Tct srl of Brindisi in partnership with Legambiente Puglia.



    The Brindisi experts have developed uno special aquarium equipped with closed water circuit systems, capable of maintain stable environmental conditions, cultivate the Posidonia oceanica seedlings and acclimatize them to the replanting site, in order to increase their final survival and the success of operations at sea. But after having mounted "the 1.500 cuttings implanted in the tank every time", the Tct team even assessed that "their growth had been higher than that observed in normal explant and re-implant situations". At the end of the project, after nine months of artificial cultivation, the average survival of each cutting was around 94,4 per cent of cases.

    "When maritime works are carried out within 30 meters of depth and Posidonia meadows are intercepted, the environmental impact assessment provides for the mitigation of the damage through the transplantation of plants destined to be destroyed in another part of the seabed", explained Giuseppe Scordella, scientific coordinator of the research. "Our project fits in the middle of this phase: before the re-planting we tried to keep the Posidonia in a sort of incubator".

    According to the latest data released by the Observatory oncoastal erosion for the recovery and enhancement of the coasts is equal to 1.047 sq km the area of ​​the Apulian territory affected by erosion, the industrial and urbanized area at risk exceeds 148 sq km and the area of ​​high ecological value affected by the problem is equal to almost 500 sq km. Puglia with its 836 km of coastline, of which 208 in severe erosion, has environmental, naturalistic and morphological diversity to protect.

    La Posidonia oceanica, which occupies about the 3% of the entire basin of the Mediterranean Sea, it produces flowers and leaves that can be up to one meter in length forming underwater grasslands, which constitute a strong brake on waves and currents. Since 1990 it has been in the red list of protected and endangered species.



    Augustus Rubei

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