Coastal environments are among the most dynamic and complex natural systems on Earth [...]

Maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment were the primary objectives of two European projects that the National Research Council of Italy had participated in, with numerical applications in two areas located in the northern part of Sardinia, Italy. Specifically, two operational Numerical Prediction Systems (NPS) for pollution risk management were developed; the first was applied to the area of the Bonifacio...

Available knowledge on the European white oaks ( Quercus , sect. Quercus ) plastome still exhibits large gaps, mostly in respect of detailed phylogeny and information from southern Europe and adjacent Near East. We investigated DNA sequence polymorphism at two plastid loci on 270 individuals representing 13 white oak species/taxa and retrieved several hundred sequences of the same two DNA regions from GenBank to fill the above...

This paper investigates the dynamics of the cross-shore extensions of banquettes, a sedimentary structure mostly made by rests of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile, in a sandy urban beach located in the Gulf of Cagliari, Italy, western Mediterranean. A video monitoring station was installed above the promontory south of the beach. We analysed a four-year image database and related these dynamics to wave and wind parameters (obtai...

In the Mediterranean Sea unique environmental characteristics and sensitive assets coexist with intense maritime traffic that is represented by frequent daily passages of vessels along the main waterways. In order to assess the risk of oil stranding in case of at-sea emergencies and provide key products for environmental agencies or policymakers preparedness, a geographically relocatable, operational numerical system is implem...

Seagrass wrack are commonly found on the beach face of the sandy shore all around the world and often persists in situ during the whole year, favouring the emergence of conflicts for the use of the sandy coasts for bathing or for other recreational purposes. As a consequence, these deposits are often removed from the beach during the summer months, temporary stocked, and relocated on the shore face in the next autumn or winter...

Oil extraction platforms are potential sources of oil spills. For this reason, an oil spill forecasting system was set up to support the management of emergencies from the oil fields in the Italian seas. The system provides ready-to-use products to the relevant response agencies and optimizes the anti-pollution resources by assessing hazards and risks related to this issue. The forecasting system covers seven working oil platf...