Modelling CO budget of mussel farms across the Mediterranean Sea.

The role of bivalve aquaculture as a carbon sink is highly debated, without a general consensus on the components to include in the budget. This study proposes to estimate the terms of the budget using a scope-for-growth-based model. The model was applied at 12 Mediterranean sites, with environmental forcings provided by operational oceanography data spanning over 12 years.

Coupling habitat-specific temperature scenarios with tolerance landscape to predict the impacts of climate change on farmed bivalves.

Due to climate change, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, prolonged and characterized by higher peak values, compared with climatological averages. However, the thermal tolerance of organisms depends on the actual exposure, which can be modulated by environmental context and microhabitat characteristics. This study investigated the frequency of occurrence of mass mortality events in the next decades for two species of farmed bivalves, the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the clam Ruditapes philippinarum, in a shallow coastal lagoon, characterised by marked diurnal oscillations of water temperature.

A stratified compartmental model for the transmission of (Platyhelminthes: Monogenea) in gilthead seabream () fish farms.

The rapid development of intensive fish farming has been associated with the spreading of infectious diseases, pathogens and parasites. One such parasite is (Platyhelminthes: Monogenea), which commonly infects cultured gilthead seabream ()-a vital species in Mediterranean aquaculture. The parasite attaches to fish gills and can cause epizootics in sea cages with relevant consequences for fish health and associated economic losses for fish farmers.

Multidisciplinary long-term survey of Manila clam grown in farming sites subjected to different environmental conditions.

In recent years recurrent bivalve mass mortalities considerably increased around the world, causing the collapse of natural and farmed populations. Venice Lagoon has historically represented one of the major production areas of the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum in Europe. However, in the last 20 years a 75 % decrease in the annual production has been experienced.

Identifying knowledge gaps for successful restorative aquaculture of : a bibliometric analysis.

Active restoration is necessary to enhance the recovery of Ostrea  reefs, which contribute to many ecosystem services. Restoration can be integrated within aquaculture practices, bringing positive environmental changes while maximising space utilisation. The restoration project MAREA (MAtchmaking Restoration Ecology and Aquaculture) aims to bring back   in the North-West Adriatic addressing the feasibility of its cultivation.

Digital twins for land-based aquaculture: A case study for rainbow trout ( ).

The virtual, digital counterpart of a physical object, referred as digital twin, derives from the Internet of Things (IoT), and involves real-time acquisition and processing of large data sets. A fully implemented system ultimately enables real-time and remote management, as well as the reproduction of real and forecasted scenarios. Under the emerging framework of Precision Fish Farming, which brings control-engineering principles to fish production, we set up digital twin prototypes for land-based finfish farms.

How to cope in heterogeneous coastal environments: Spatio-temporally endogenous circadian rhythm of valve gaping by mussels.

Transitional coastal zones are subject to high degrees of temporal fluctuation in environmental conditions, with these patterns varying in space. Gaining an in depth understanding of how sessile organisms cope with and respond to such environmental changes at multiple scales is needed to i) advance fundamental knowledge, ii) predict how organisms may react to stressors and iii) support the management of halieutic resources in transitional coastal areas. We addressed this question using mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) as model system.

Predicting shifting sustainability trade-offs in marine finfish aquaculture under climate change.

Defining sustainability goals is a crucial but difficult task because it often involves the quantification of multiple interrelated and sometimes conflicting components. This complexity may be exacerbated by climate change, which will increase environmental vulnerability in aquaculture and potentially compromise the ability to meet the needs of a growing human population. Here, we developed an approach to inform sustainable aquaculture by quantifying spatio-temporal shifts in critical trade-offs between environmental costs and benefits using the time to reach the commercial size as a possible proxy of economic implications of aquaculture under climate change.

An R package for simulating growth and organic wastage in aquaculture farms in response to environmental conditions and husbandry practices.

A new R software package, RAC, is presented. RAC allows to simulate the rearing cycle of 4 species, finfish and shellfish, highly important in terms of production in the Mediterranean Sea. The package works both at the scale of the individual and of the farmed population.

Climate change impacts on marine water quality: The case study of the Northern Adriatic sea.

Climate change is posing additional pressures on coastal ecosystems due to variations in water biogeochemical and physico-chemical parameters (e.g., pH, salinity) leading to aquatic ecosystem degradation.

Linking food web functioning and habitat diversity for an ecosystem based management: a Mediterranean lagoon case-study.

We propose a modelling approach relating the functioning of a transitional ecosystem with the spatial extension of its habitats. A test case is presented for the lagoon of Venice, discussing the results in the context of the application of current EU directives. The effects on food web functioning due to changes related to manageable and unmanageable drivers were investigated.

Global uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of a food-web bioaccumulation model.

A global uncertainty and sensitivity analysis (UA/SA) of a state-of-the-art, food-web bioaccumulation model was carried out. We used an efficient screening analysis technique to identify the subset of the most relevant input factors among the whole set of 227 model parameters. A quantitative UA/SA was then applied to this subset to rank the relevance of the parameters and to partition the variance of the model output among them by means of a nonlinear regression of the outcomes of 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations.

Spatially distributed ecological risk for fish of a coastal food web exposed to dioxins.

The ecological risk posed by 2,3,7,8-polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) congeners to five edible fish species of the aquatic food web of Venice Lagoon, Italy, was estimated by applying a state-of the-art kinetic bioaccumulation model. Site-specific data were used to define a representative food web. The experimental data set for model validation and application included PCB and PCDD/F congener concentrations in sediments, in water, and in five organisms (both invertebrates and fish).

The seasonal distribution of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorous in the lagoon of Venice: a numerical analysis.

This paper investigates the seasonal evolution of the spatial distributions of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, in relation to the estimation of the N and P loads, which were obtained in the framework of the DRAIN project. Such investigation is carried out by using a 3D reaction-diffusion model which has been calibrated against salinity data and then used for obtaining the most likely scenario of the spatial and seasonal distribution of DIN and DIP. The consequences of different management policies are also discussed, in relation to the current Italian legislation, which sets quality standards for both DIN and DIP in the lagoon of Venice.

Fault detection in a real-time monitoring network for water quality in the lagoon of Venice (Italy).

In the context of monitoring water quality in natural ecosystems in real time, on-line data quality control is a very important issue for effective system surveillance and for optimizing maintenance of the monitoring network. This paper presents some applications of recursive state-parameter estimation algorithms to real-time detection of signal drift in high-frequency observations. Two continuous-discrete recursive estimation schemes, namely the Extended Kalman Filter and the Recursive Prediction Error algorithm, were applied to assuring the quality of the dissolved oxygen (DO) time series, as obtained from the Lagoon of Venice (Italy) during August 2002, through the real-time monitoring network of the Magistrato alle Acque (the Venice Water Authority).