L'analisi dei popolamenti bentonici nel monitoraggio della fascia costiera nella zona della spiaggia "attiva"

Sandy marine coastal habitats provide ecosystem services such as food supply, food web structure, and habitat provision. However, these habitats are subject to various anthropogenic disturbances, including coastal urban development and the construction of coastal defence structures. These habitats are very dynamic and difficult to investigate and monitor with conventional techniques. In this context, the TAO project, Technologies for Coastal Monitoring (Formally: Tecnologie per il monitorAggio cOstiero), focus on the implementation of a technological platform, helpful in developing monitoring plans with low environmental impact and low cost, for the investigation of littoral and supra / sub-littoral areas. This thesis, which is part of the TAO project, aims to provide useful data for evaluating the validity of these new monitoring technologies by mapping both the data obtained from the surveys carried out using acoustic instruments (Single-Beam Echosounder and Side-Scan Sonar installed aboard the autonomous OpenSWAP vehicle), and the data on the characteristics of sediments and benthic assemblages collected through direct sampling in scuba diving at Lido di Dante (northern Adriatic Sea) study site. A comparative integration of the physical-biological data and the geophysical data, recorded continuously by the acoustic instruments, was carried out. The data collected were interpolated to the entire study area and represented through cartographic software. The different variables were analyzed and correlated with each other with innovative spatial correlation techniques through linear models. This allowed highlighting possible anomalies in the characteristics of the sediments and in the distribution of the benthic assemblages that can be related both to natural sedimentological and ecological processes and to alterations induced by the presence of coastal defence structures. These integrated approaches provide innovative tools for integrated coastal zone management.