EGU25-19619, updated on 15 Mar 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19619
EGU General Assembly 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Tracing Holocene dynamics of lagoon’s ecological quality: a stratigraphic-based, benthic foraminiferal approach from the Po Plain (N Adriatic Sea)
Amanda Vecchi1, Giulia Barbieri1, Éric Armynot du Châtelet2, Fabrizio Frontalini3, Ilaria Mazzini4, Simone da Prato5, Stefano Claudio Vaiani1, and Veronica Rossi1
Amanda Vecchi et al.
  • 1University of Bologna, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmentas Sciences, Bologna, Italy (amanda.vecchi3@unibo.it)
  • 2Université de Lille, CNRS, Univ. Littoral Côte-d’Opale, Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, Lille, France
  • 3University of Urbino, Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, Urbino, Italy
  • 4CNR - Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering, Rome, Italy
  • 5CNR - Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, Pisa, Italy

Lagoonal environments are highly biodiverse coastal ecosystems, extremely susceptible to multiple anthropogenic and natural stressors (eutrophication, contaminants, storms and floods, relative sea-level rise among others). Given their ecological importance, effective monitoring and restoration strategies are essential to safeguard their integrity. The quantitative assessment of the Ecological Quality Status (EcoQS) represents a fundamental step in designing action plans through an ecosystem-based approach that incorporates biological indicators, as mandated by the EU Water Framework Directive (2000) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC).

This study aims to contextualize the EcoQS of a modern lagoon (Bellocchio Lagoon) belonging to the Po coastal plain (N Adriatic Sea), by comparing current values with pristine reference conditions from the past. To achieve this purpose, we integrated analyses of benthic foraminiferal assemblages from sediment cores and modern samples to reconstruct environmental changes and EcoQS temporal trends mainly applying the Foram-AMBI index, which is based on species sensitivity to organic-matter enrichment.

Reference conditions were reconstructed analyzing the foraminiferal assemblages encased within the well-dated sedimentary successions of a near-site humid area, whose Holocene record reflects depositional environments comparable, though on a different scale, to the Bellocchio Lagoon.

A reliable comparison of past and present environments was based on the identification of three distinct biofacies within the Bellocchio Lagoon, by means of cluster analyses based on the benthic foraminiferal thanatocoenoses. Each biofacies corresponds to a sub environment (i.e. inner lagoon, outer lagoon, and salt marsh - channels) characterized by a typifying foraminiferal content and a set of environmental parameters (i.e. sand, calcium carbonate and total organic matter content). Using the Modern Analogue Matching technique, cores assemblages were compared to the biofacies, enabling the identification of modern analogues for past depositional settings. The reconstruction of long-term ecosystems’ dynamics and the assessment of the Ecological Quality Ratio, calculated comparing the EcoQS derived from core samples with the EcoQS of modern biocoenoses, allow to evaluate the present-day ecological conditions in the context of the natural and human forcing factors that have affected lagoonal environments over time.

How to cite: Vecchi, A., Barbieri, G., Armynot du Châtelet, É., Frontalini, F., Mazzini, I., da Prato, S., Vaiani, S. C., and Rossi, V.: Tracing Holocene dynamics of lagoon’s ecological quality: a stratigraphic-based, benthic foraminiferal approach from the Po Plain (N Adriatic Sea), EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19619, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19619, 2025.