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RESEARCH PROGRAM

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Research Units
Similar research programs:
Scientific and education field classification
International Patent Classification
  • FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • PHYSICS
    • MEASURING (counting G06M); TESTING
      • INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (separating components of materials in general B01D, B01J, B03, B07; apparatus fully provided for in a single other subclass, see the relevant subclass e.g. B01L; measuring or testing processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or micro-organisms C12M, C12Q; investigation of foundation soil in situ E02D1/00; sensing humidity changes for compensating measurements of other variables or for compensating readings of instruments for variations in humidity, see G01D or the relevant subclass for the variable measured; testing or determining the properties of structures G01M; measuring or investigating electric or magnetic properties of materials G01R; systems or methods in general, using reception or emission of radiowaves or other waves and based on propagation effects, e.g. Doppler effect, propagation time, direction of propagation, G01S; determining sensivity, graininess, or density of photographic materials G03C5/02; testing component parts of nuclear reactors G21C17/00; [N: controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; measuring degree of ionisation of ionised gases, i.e. plasma H05H1/00A; testing electrographic developer properties G03G15/08H6])
Geographical classification
Keywords
SEAMOUNTS, BIODIVERSITY, DEEP SEA

Tyrrhenian Seamounts ecosystems: an Integrated Study (TySEc)

Università Politecnica delle Marche
Abstract
Seamounts are among the most important topographic features of the ocean floor. Extending over a considerable depth range from base to summit, and showing a variety of substrates and habitats, they constitute unique ecosystems for biota in the open ocean.
The proposed research activities will be conducted on a Tyrrhenian seamount, the Vercelli Ridge, situated northwest of Olbia (Sardinia) (41°05’00 N / 10°53’00 E; summit depth: 55 m). From a geologic point of view, the Vercelli seamount represents a submerged intrusion of granitic material occurred about 7 Ma ago during a extensional tectonic regime that involved the entire northern portion of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Few previous works have studied the geology of the Vercelli intrusion highlighting a different petrologic affinity in relation to the average chemism of the other batholitic intrusions of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The high levels of species richness found on the seamounts are related to different factors: the high productivity of these environments, coexistence, in a relatively limited area, of various biocoenoses characterised by different bathymetric ranges, the role of seamounts as “stepping stones” during the dispersion of benthic organisms, and the high percentage of endemisms. Therefore seamounts are considered important habitat, nurseries, and/or refugees for numerous species of fish and invertebrates.
The aim of the proposed research project is to study the peculiar geomorphological and >>>

Principal Investigator
Giorgio Bavestrello Università Politecnica delle MARCHE
Research Objectives
Due to the extraordinary interest of seamounts, to their importance in the ecosystem functioning and to their high degree of vulnerability, international agreements and research programs have been established to preserve and study these peculiar habitats. Examples are the treaty between France and Australia regarding the seamounts arising between Australia and New Caledonia or the Oasis Project of the European Community to study the seamounts of the Middle Atlantic Ridge. In 2006 Greenpeace International, in agreement with ACCOBAMS, has chosen the Thyrrenian seamounts as possible Marine Protected Areas due to their peculiar biological richness and environment.
These data clearly indicate the need of a long-term project allowing the record of lacking data on all the Mediterranean seamounts.
The main task of the TySEc Project is to conduce an integrated study on one of the most interesting and less known seamount of the Tyrrhenian area: the Vercelli seamount placed in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea (41°05’00 N / 10°53’00 E, depth of the top, 55 m).

The detailed tasks, regarding the different aspects of the study, can be listed as follows:

1) To conduce a geomagnetic and geologic study of the characteristics of the Vercelli seamount through a survey in high resolution covering both the topographic structure and its neighbourhood regions. The morphological pattern will be defined by a high resolution sampling with multibeam coverage that >>>

First Results
The principal expected result of this project is the detailed description of the seamount Vercelli, both for what concern the abiotic factors and their influence on the ecosystem.
The resulting product of this work will be the creation of a conceptual model representing the Vercelli ecosystem’s trophodynamic, based on mass budgets, and built through a specialised software (for example ECOPATH suite). Such modelling will provide the tools for a careful and correct management of the marine environment.
Concerning the geomorphological ambit, the main result will be the marine high resolution geomagnetic survey of the Vercelli seamount, that will define more precisely the magnetic characteristics of the area. Aim of this survey is to obtain the most detailed possible sampling of the anomaly related to the granitic intrusion, so to be able to modelling it.
Another result, linked to the realisation of the magnetic model for the area and achievable in concomitance to the magnetic survey, will be the acquisition of high resolution bathymetric data.
Moreover the magnetic model will be integrated with data concerning the lithological characteristics, the age of the intrusion, the tectonic and geodynamic pattern of the investigated area, and the physical parameters of the rocks, as magnetic susceptibility and density.
These results will contribute to create an exhaustive geological knowledge on the intrusive structure and will define the specific >>>

Timescale
24 months
National and international background
Seamounts are major topographic features of the ocean floor (Smith and Jordan 1988, Epp and Smoot 1989). Extending over a considerable depth range from base to summit, and according a variety of substrates and habitats, they constitute unique ecosystems in the open ocean (Boehlert and Genin 1987).
Considering its geographical position and its geological evolution the Vercelli seamount may be associated to the the Northern Tyrrhenian domain northwestward of the Sardinian coast. This morphologic element shows a conic shape running along a SW-NE direction, its bottom lays at 1800 m, while its top is at 55 m below the sea level. From the morphological and bathymetrical point of view, the northern portion of the Tyrrhenian sea is characterized by a sequence of structural highs running along a N-S and NNE-SSE direction with an association of flat sedimentary basins: from West to East there are several seamounts like Etruschi, Cialdi and Tiberino (Marani and Gamberi, 2004). Observing the general eastward trend of distribution of the structural highs of the North Tyrrhenian sea, the Vercelli seamount is located southerly of the other basin structures near to the discontinuity of the 41st parallel zone.
From a geological point of view, the Vercelli seamount is a granitic intrusion occurred during the Late Miocene (Barbieri et al., 1989). The chronological evolution of the magmatic products of the Tyrrhenian Sea is connected to an eastward migration of the subduction >>>