Coastal monitoring programme in the Gulf of Manfredonia (Southern Adriatic Sea): Preliminary results.

At present, news techniques and instrumentations need for real time marine environmental monitoring. This necessity arises from the need of knowing in real time the evolution of marine phenomena due to anthropic pressure or natural events. A real time observation system could permit a better management and sustainable exploitation of marine environment. The PITAGEM project (Integrated methodologies for the study of marine trophic processes and deployment and management of oceanographic platform for marine monitoring), coordinated by CNR - ISMAR of Lesina, aims to develop new oceanographic instrumentations and to set up and to manage an automatic monitoring integrated network in the Gulf of Manfredonia (Southern Adriatic Sea) and in the Gulf of Taranto (Ionian Sea). Furthermore, in the Gulf of Manfredonia another aim is to study and understand its processes. This gulf can be considered a complex area where anthropic pressure (industrial, agricultural, urban, harbour and tourist activities) plays an important role for pollution phenomena or alteration of the marine ecosystem. The technology and instrumentation developed during the PITAGEM project are the following: 1. An oceanographic platform, still under testing, deployed in the Gulf of Manfredonia, equipped with: a)a meteorological station measuring air pressure, air temperature, solar radiation, wind direction and wind speed; b)an automatic phosphorous and nitrogen compound analyser of water samples collected at five different depths; c)a multiparametric probe for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, in vivo fluorescence measurements of water samples collected at five different depths; d)a near real time communication system transmitting data via SMS. The monitoring program performed by the platform has began on October 2003, but at the moment the platform is under maintenance. 2.An eight meter vessel equipped with a surface pumping system and a multiparametric probe for measuring in continuous physico - chemical parameters of surface waters of the Gulf of Manfredonia. The monitoring program performed by the vessel has began on May 2003 with bimonthly frequency, and includes: a)horizontal continuous tracks of surface physico-chemical parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, in vivo fluorescence and turbidity) along a transect parallel to the coastline; b)vertical physico-chemical profiles (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, fluorescence) at 20 fixed stations along 4 transects (one parallel and 3 perpendicular to the coastline); c)sub-surface and bottom water sampling, by rosette, for suspended solid, nutrient (NO3, NO2, NH3, PO4, Si(OH)4, total P and N) and chlorophyll "a" analyses at fixed stations. An additional component of the project is the realization of two multidisciplinary cruises aiming to study optical properties, primary production and biogeochemical processes of the Gulf of Manfredonia. The data are stored in an integrated data bank provided with a GIS system. The platform data are validated by a data quality control check (quality flags, statistical elaboration) and compared to data which are acquired in the same sampling stations by a reference instrument (field calibration). The validation and calibration protocols will be designed and modified in according to all the developing system of the platform. The final aim of this system is to set up an ecological model to obtain forecast scenarios. The initial data obtained with the platform and the boat monitoring in the Gulf of Manfredonia show how this area is subject to high seasonal influence, that processes between coastal and central marine areas differ, and the high influence of the general winter cyclonic circulations of the Adriatic Sea in more offshore areas.