Ecoseas Laboratory - M3HABs - Risk Monitoring, Modelling and Mitigation of Benthic Harmful Algal Blooms (ENPI-CBCMED)

Title

M3HABs - Risk Monitoring, Modelling and Mitigation of Benthic Harmful Algal Blooms (ENPI-CBCMED)

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Ostreopsis cells

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Ostreopsis mat covering macrolgal communities (left) and sampling of benthic microalgae (right)

Keywords

; benthic dinoflagellates; marine ecology; connectivity; human health; coastal management

Coordinator / Lead partner

CoNISMA Ulr-University of Genoa –Mariachiara Chiantore (Coordinator and WP Leader Bloom Modeling), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Principal investigator(s)

Luisa Mangialajo (expertise on ecology of coastal ecosystems and sampling strategies); Anna Fricke (post doc, expertise on benthic algal ecology)

Partnership

CoNISMA (Italy) Ulr-University of Genoa (Coordinator), Urbino and Marche
CNR-IBF (Italy)
ARPAL-Genova (Italy)
CNRS-LOV (France)
Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis, ECOMERS (France)
CNRS (Lebanon)
INSTM (Tunisia)
OnAir Srl (Italy)
DHI Italy (Italy)

Funding bodies and amount

European Community under ENPI-CBCMED program

Total budget: 1.998.060 € (146.000 € to ECOMERS)

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Grant period

24 months (January 2014 - December 2015)

The project in a nutshell

Blooms of benthic harmful microalgae (benthic HABs) are a topic of increasing interest, due to the potential hazard they can cause to human health. Over the past decades, blooms of the dinoflagellate Ostreopsis have increased in frequency and intensity in the Mediterranean Sea, accompanied by human mass intoxications.
The project has started in January 2014 and will help to increase awareness and implement measures to manage benthic HABs through the development of common monitoring procedures, automated counting methods and modelling predictive tools. The M3-HABs project provides an interdisciplinary platform to develop a common Pan-Mediterranean strategy, ease the communication between stakeholders and reduce the risk factors for human health, environment and economic activities.
In this context, the ECOMERS laboratory will provide specific competences in the study of the effects of human impacts and changes in marine vegetation in the facilitation of benthic HABs.(1000 characters max, including spaces)

Contacts

Luisa Mangialajo (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) Anna Fricke (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Research