Assessing the marine geodiversity of the southern Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Naples (Italy)

Geodiversity refers to the natural variety of geological, geomorphological, and soil features, including their assemblages, interactions, properties, and systems (Gray, 2004). Since natural environments consist of both abiotic and biotic components, an integrated approach to environmental management that values both geodiversity and biodiversity is essential (Gray, 2008; Crofts, 2014). Abiotic heterogeneity is closely linked to the diversity of the biotic component, influencing spatial resource variability, the distribution benthic habitats and, consequently, biodiversity (e.g., Harris and Baker, 2020; Kaskela et al., 2017; Kaskela and Kotilainen, 2017, 2022, among others).

Despite its importance, marine geodiversity has received limited attention in scientific studies (see Crisp et al., 2021). This research focuses on assessing marine geodiversity at a regional scale in the southern Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Naples (Italy) calculating the geodiversity index that considers bedrock geology, seabed substrate and geomorphology. The goal is to explore the relationship between geodiversity and biodiversity in the two areas, where benthic habitat distribution studies have been conducted in recent years (Prampolini et al., 2021 and references therein; Taviani et al. 2019; FEAMP-ISSPA, 2022 and references therein).

This work aligns with ongoing pilot studies on biodiversity monitoring and restoration in the Italian Sea as part of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), a project under Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) within the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) initiative. The results will be shared through the NBFC Geoportal (http://seamap-explorer.data.ismar.cnr.it:8080/mokaApp/applicazioni/pnrrb) and the Biodiversity Science Gateway.

 

References

Crisp et al., 2021, doi: 10.1177/0309133320967219

Crofts, 2014, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2014.03.002

Gray, 2004, doi: 10.1002/jqs.859

Gray, 2008, doi: 10.1144/SP300.4

Harris and Baker, 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814960-7.00060-9

Kaskela and Kotilainen, 2017, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.07.014

Kaskela and Kotilainen, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.34194/geusb.v52.8317

Kaskela et al., 2017: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2017.05.013

Prampolini et al., 2021, doi:  https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13152913

Taviani et al. 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39655-8