Naples, Dohrn researchers hunt for pollutants with sensors

At the dock Saint Vincent, the sailing ship Tara Ocean landed two days ago. Apparently a normal two-mast, but in reality it is one of the most equipped floating scientific laboratories with a very specific mission: to measure the impact of human activity on European seas and coasts with the project Trec (Traversing European Coastlines), an expedition coordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory together with the Tara Ocean Foundation and the European Marine Biology Resource Centre, which started in April 2023 to evaluate the levels of pollution and the health of the waters but, for the first time, also of the coastal soil. Now Tara stops in the Mediterranean Sea, or rather at the Zoological Station Anton Dohrn of Naples, among the European partners of the project and the main Italian stage of the expedition. Naples is considered a super stop because «the Gulf is a biodiversity hot spot, which is why Anton Dohrn founded the Zoological Station here 150 years ago.

Only in this Gulf do we find the organisms present throughout the Mediterranean concentrated, an extraordinary heritage” explained Iole Di Capua, marine biologist of the Szn and chief scientist on board Tara. We will know what the data collected in these days in Naples will tell us «in at least two years, then it will be Open Access, so scientists from all over the world will also be able to use them for their research” said Antonella Ruggiero of Embl. Was anything anomalous found on this year-long journey? «Yes – Ruggiero admitted – the coastal soil in Poland was devoid of humidity and low salinity. Perhaps due to the warming of the sea.” Comparisons with already existing data are also important. «Thanks to the long term sites, areas that we have been studying for some time such as MareChiara (for 40 years) off the coast of Castel dell’Ovo, or the more recent NereaSarno and NereaCapriwe can make comparisons to better understand how the biodiversity of the Gulf has varied” added Di Capua. The mouth of the Sarno will be sampled «and we hope to have confirmation of an improvement. Twenty years ago it was very polluted, we collected totally abiotic, lifeless samples. Now the organisms are there and this is good news.” The marine biologists will collect samples of water, soil, sediments and aerosols not only in Naples and Sarno but also in Pozzuoli, Cuma, and plankton in Ischia.

The reliefs

Sample collection began yesterday morning Mappatella beach, among the curious glances of many customers lying in the sun. After immersing a sensor that provides data on salinity, temperature, oxygen and conductivity into the sea, a biologist took water samples. Another research group collected the sand, and yet another, the most anthropized part of the coast, i.e. the soil of the Villa Comunale. Here, in particular, they look for DNA of organisms, traces of xenon, to verify the degree of pollution and heavy metals.

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