Algarium Veneticum – Venice
Archive of Adriatic Studies
Algarium Veneticum is an algal herbarium based on the collection assembled between 1941 and 1950 by Michelangelo Minio, Nicolò Spada and Giacomo Zolezzi, and currently enriched by new sampling for the study and monitoring of marine biodiversity and the transitional environments.
1. Chlorophyta
This collection includes exsiccata of green algae(Chlorophyta).
2. Minio e Spada collection – Gracilaria confervoides (L.) Grev.
It includes 19 carpets with 884 exsiccata identified by the Authors as Gracilaria confervoides (L.) Greville (Rhodophyta), collected between 1941 and 1950 at 107 sampling stations distributed in the historic center of the city of Venice, the islands of Chioggia, Lido and Murano.
3. Minio e Spada collection – Miscellanea
Includes 9 carpets containing 285 exsiccata belonging to different taxa of red, green and brown algae, collected between 1941 and 1950 in the Venice Lagoon.
4. Herbarium Thuret
It Includes a specimen of the Mediterranean Corallina Areschoug (Rhodophyta), collected in 1870 in Biarritz, France, and from the historic Herbarium Thuret. It represents the oldest specimen from the Algarium Veneticum.
Marine invetebrates – Venice
Archive of Adriatic Studies
Collections of marine invertebrates include mainly benthic organisms sampled during research projects to study the biodiversity and subsidence of the Venice Lagoon. The collections also include organisms from different Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean geographical areas.
1. Foraminifera from the Lagoon of Venice.
The most important part of this collection consists of foraminifera from the Lagoon and Gulf of Venice. There are also collections from the Adriatic Sea, some bays of Australia, Brazil, and China formed during different research projects.
2. Foraminifera from the Ross Sea (Antarctica).
The work from which this collection is taken, concerns the current distribution of benthic foraminifera present in the surface sediments (0-1 cm) of 4 sediment samples taken in the western sector of the Ross Sea, during the ANTA05 oceanographic campaign, as part of the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA). Comparison between the quantitative data and the hydrographic pattern of the investigated areas, characterized by different oceanographic conditions, showed the close relationship between the type and areal variability of benthic foraminiferal microfauna and water masses. The presence and distribution of foraminiferal associations in this area of the Ross Sea is closely related to local oceanographic conditions. Comparison of the occurrence of the most abundant species with the main abiotic parameters in the Antarctic environment (organic carbon content, biogenic silica content, and presence of calcium carbonate) has allowed us to expand our knowledge of the ecology of benthic foraminiferal microfauna in this area, which is useful for paleoenvironmental and oceanographic reconstructions.
3. Recent agglutinated foraminifera from the North Adriatic.
This section includes some agglutinated foraminifera (Protista) from surface sediments of two Upper Adriatic sites on which shell composition analyses were performed. Chemical-mineralogical analyses of the agglutinated shells by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray scattering spectroscopy suggest that the chemical composition of the granules on the surface of the shells mirrors that of the seafloor sediments in which they live. Only a few species, such as /Reophax nana/ and /Leptohalysis scottii/, show clear selectivity of agglutinated clasts. In particular, /R. nana/ from the site with higher hydrodynamic conditions at the bottom shows preferential selection of heavy minerals containing high concentrations of Zircon (Zr) and Titanium (Ti) even though these elements occur in very low concentrations in the surrounding sediment. Similarly, /L. scottii/ exclusively selects mica flakes to build the shell. It follows that the differences in composition recorded in the shells of the foraminifera considered, although they are conditioned by the composition of the surrounding sediment, also reflect distinct strategies of adaptation to different environments.
Core repository – Naples
CNR-ISMAR cores repositories are multipurpose facilities for the conservation and non-destructive processing of sediment cores. They constitute a key strategic service for ISMAR’s scientific community, for the CNR in general, but also for other national (OGS, INGV, ICR, AM, PNRA, Universities) and international (UW, OSU, Stanford Univ., BIO Canada, USGS, etc.) agencies as they allow optimal preservation of sediment samples for very long periods.
The core repository ISMAR Naples detached branch contains about 2,800 m of marine sediment cores taken from 1994 to the present in selected areas of the Mediterranean Sea at different depths, and consists of a room maintained at a constant temperature of 5° C, with a volume of about 150 m3, with a floor area of about 70 m2, located in the Technical Area of the Institute, inside the Port of Naples about 500 m from the CNR-ISMAR Headquarters.
Within the Institute there is also a small 4 m3 cold room that can hold up to a maximum of 132 m of core. This air-conditioned environment (5°C) is used for the storage of sediment samples in transit at the laboratories of the headquarters during the phases necessary to carry out tests and analyses and is in support of the coordinated workings that are conducted in particular at the CNR-ISMAR laboratories of cutting and description, photography, sedimentology, micropaleontology, petrophysics, biology and geochemistry.
Personnel involved:
- Flavia Molisso
- Monica Capodanno
- Costantino Di Gregorio
- Mauro Gilardi
Core repository Bologna
The core repository ISMAR Bologna detached branch contains more than 7000 m of marine sediment cores taken at 2100 stations in European and non-European seas and more than 400 m of soundings taken on land or in shallow water in the coastal area. The cold storage room of more than 200 m2 (usable volume approx. 750 m3) is kept at constant humidity and temperature (5°C) and equipped with an alarm system in case of abnormal behavior, it is also monitored 24 h a day for 365 days/year. It is equipped with special racks for storing cores and is one of the largest facilities dedicated for this purpose among European research institutes. A freezer cell (-20°C) with a volume of 36 m3 with control characteristics identical to the previous one and an area of more than 250 m2 for storing dry samples and rocks are part of the facility.
In the area in front of the core cell, there is also a 280 m2 laboratory with a range of instruments for sediment core processing. One area is dedicated to longitudinal cutting of cores, one to photography, and another to sub-sampling. A system for high-resolution automatic scanning of magnetic susceptibility data has been set up by ISMAR personnel. The infrastructure is completed with a laboratory for x-ray radiography of cores equipped with a shielded cabinet-cabin, industrial X-ray tube, thermostatic bench, automatic developer, and drying cabinets. The facility also provides workstations, technical scales and microscopes for preliminary observations of samples.
Personnel involved:
- Annamaria Correggiari
- Andrea Gallerani
- Ilaria Conese
- Alessandro Remia
- Fabio Savelli