The “SEAmPhonia” project (acronym for “An innovative enlightening approach to enable the modeling of marine ecosystems by the acoustic 3D field”), coordinated by the National Research Council (CNR), was funded under the PRIN 2022 funding program.
The project stems from the idea of transferring knowledge gained in the field of solar physics to marine science. In particular, the project aims to understand the phenomena underlying the influence of underwater noise on the balance of the ecosystem. Underwater noise is considered one of the many pollutants of the sea, especially following the increase in human activities through the use of boats, offshore platforms, etc. Underwater noise is also included in the European Directive known as MSFD as one of the indicators of sea health and is the focus of countless international research initiatives, such as the joint action of several countries, including Italy, as part of the JPI Oceans initiative.
Observations of fluctuations in the light spectrum of the Sun’s surface have made it possible to study the interior of our star, even without having to install any sensors there. This has been achieved by interpreting the data using the theory of acoustic wave propagation, similar to what is done in terrestrial seismology.
Underwater noise is usually studied through the distribution of power in the frequency spectrum, where the different contributions of the sources (seismic events, boats, fish, cetaceans, algae, etc.) are identified. The impact of noise on the ecosystem is distinguished between that which can cause physiological damage to the functional capacities of organisms and that which can cause behavioral distortion, such as navigation or predator-prey relationships.
SEAmPhonia aims to study not so much the individual impacts of noise on the marine ecosystem, but rather the physical processes that can be characterized through the acoustic field, introducing an observation system based on a series of hydrophones installed at the Acqua Alta oceanographic platform of the CNR-ISMAR and on an analysis of data never before carried out. The initial tests with traditional hydrophones will be accompanied by activities, both in the laboratory and in the open sea, for the development of an alternative technology based on optical fibers, which will provide useful innovations for underwater acoustic investigation systems. This is a first step towards the transformation of civil systems for underwater noise observation and the development of instrumentation.
SEAmPhonia is an integrated example of interdisciplinarity, knowledge transfer, technological development, and policy decision support. The project scored 96/100 in the PRIN 2022 evaluation and received approximately €200,000 in funding from the MUR and approximately €75,000 in co-financing. During the drafting of the project, particular attention was paid to the selection of the evaluation panel so that such an interdisciplinary proposal could be evaluated in its entirety, given the plurality of skills required of the evaluators and the desired absence of cognitive bias of any kind.
The project, coordinated by Angela Pomaro, researcher at CNR-ISMAR, involves colleagues from the Department of Earth System Science and Environmental Technologies (CNR-DSSTTA), the Universities of Rome Sapienza/Tor Vergata for their expertise in helioseismology and data analysis, the National Institute of Optics (CNR-INO) for the development and testing of fiber instrumentation, and the University of Padua for support in the design of fiber instrumentation. Other colleagues from the Institute of Marine Engineering (CNR-INM) and OGS contributed to the drafting of the proposal and will participate in the development of the project.
