Taviani Marco

His main interests are:

• Cainozic-Recent marine paleontology and paleocology;
• extreme environments (polar, cold seeps);
• bio-sedimentology (biogenic carbonate factories, deep water coral ecosystems);
• paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (Antarctica, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Western Indian Ocean);
• scientific SCUBA diving;
• outreach.

His recent research is focused upon marine ecosystems (especially deep water corals), Cainozic-Recent marine paleontology and paleocology(Antarctica, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Western Indian Ocean); extreme environments (polar, cold seeps); bio-sedimentology (biogenic carbonate factories); paleoclimatology and paleoceanography based upon sediment cores (Mediterranean, Red Sea), drillholes (Antarctica, Mediterranean), corals (Mediterranean, Red Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Antarctica) and other natural archives, including multiple geochemical approaches. He is very involved in popularizing sciente through articles, conferences, interviews and films.
He co-organized in 2009 the “Field Course on Coral Biogeology” in the Red Sea.

Has partecipated in over 50 oceanographic missions in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Atlantic Ocean and Antarctica) often as chief-scientist, on major (over 40) and minor vessels, including submersible dives.

Expeditions as Chief Scientist

• RV Urania (missions mainly devoted to deep sea ecosystems) :
• TM95 (southern Tyrrhenian, CNR funds)
• CS96 (Strait of Sicily, CNR funds)
• LM99-Lophelia-Millennium (eastern Tyrrhenian, CNR funds)
• CORAL (Strait of Sicily and Ionian, CNR funds)
• CORTI (eastern Tyrrhenian, CNR and ESF funds)
• COBAS (western Mediterranean, Alboran; CNR and ESF funds)
• GECO (eastern Mediterranean, CNR and ESF funds)
• CORSARO (Ionian; EU and ESF funds)
• MARCOS (Strait of Sicily; EU funds)
• ARCO (Adriatic; EU funds)
• MEDCOR (Strait of Sicily; EU funds).
• ARCADIA (Adriatic; EU funds)

Project coordinator:

• 1991-93: RED SED (The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Sedimentological Project, 1991-93, partners: France, Germany, Italy, UK) (National Coordinator);
• 1994-97: TESTREEF (Temporal and SpaTial variability of western Indian Ocean REEFs: climatic and environmental record, 1994-97, partners: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, UK) (National Coordinator);
• Euromargins Moundforce: Forcing of Carbonate Mounds and Deep Water Coral Reefs along the NW European Continental Margin della European Science Foundation (National Coordinator);
• CNR Strategic National Project Mar Rosso  (co-responsible)
• Antarctica/PNRA – (Programma Nazionale Ricerche Antartide) (5 projects)
• Co-organizer of bio-geology of coral reef

Operating Unit (or Work Package) leader:

• Partecipation with responsability  (corals) in tasks of ‘Hermes’ (2004-2009) ed ’Hermione’ EU programmes
• Responsible or task coordinator in various Italian ministry (MURST) projects such as SINAPSI,  FIRB “Aplabes” (2003-05) and PNRA PolarDove projects; participation in 4 COFIN national projects (Bologna and Parma universities).

He published 230 scientific papers, over 50 on ISI journals, book chapters and various science-popular articles on Italian and International magazines. He took part to several documentaries, released interviews on Italian and international Broadcasts and TVs.

Google Scholar Profile

• Delibrias G. & Taviani M. (1985) - Dating the death of Mediterranean deep-sea scleractinian corals. Marine Geology 62: 175-180.
• Lawrence J.R. & Taviani M. (1988) - Extreme hydrogen, oxygen and carbon isotope anomalies in the pore waters and carbonates of the sediments and basalts from the Norwegian Sea; Methane and hydrogen from the mantle? Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52: 2077-2083.
• Taviani M. & Rossi S. (1989) - Salt-related deformations in the deep Antalya basin: preliminary results of the Mac Gan cruise. Marine Geology 87:  5-13.
• Bouchet P., Metivier B., Fontugne M. & Delibrias G. (1991) - Intermediate steps of southwards faunal shifts testified by last glacial submerged thanatocoenoses in the Atlantic Ocean. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeocology 86: 331-338.
• Hoang C.T. & Taviani M. (1991) - Stratigraphic and Tectonic Implications of Uranium-Series-Dated Coral Reefs from Uplifted Red Sea Islands. Quaternary Research 35: 264-273.
• Bouchet P. & Taviani M. (1992) - The Mediterranean deep-sea fauna: pseudopulations of Atlantic species? Deep-Sea Research 39 (2): 169-184.
• Guerzoni S., Lenaz R., Quarantotto G., Taviani M., Rampazzo G., Facchini M.C. & Fuzzi S. (1992) - Geochemistry of airborne particles from the lower troposphere of Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. Tellus 44B: 304-310.
• Taviani M., Reid D.E. & Anderson J.B. (1993) - Skeletal and isotopic composition and paleoclimatic significance of Late Pleistocene carbonates from banks in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 63(1), 84-90.
• Taviani M. (1994) - The “Calcari a Lucina” macrofauna reconsidered: Miocene deep-sea faunal oases from Miocene-age cold vents in the Romagna Apennine, Italy. Submarine Hydrocarbon Vents in Modern and Ancient Environments (P.Aharon ed.), Geo-Marine Letters, 14, 185-191.
• Bosworth W. & Taviani M. (1996) - Late Quaternary vertical tectonics and changes in extension direction in the southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Tectonics , 15(4), 791-802.
• Taviani M. (1998) - Axial sedimentation of the Red Sea Transitional Region (22°-25°N): pelagic, gravity flow and sapropel deposition during the late Quaternary. In: Sedimentation and tectonics of rift basins: Red Sea-Gulf of Aden (B.H.Purser & D.W.J.Bosence, eds.), Chapman & Hall: 467-478.
• Taviani M. (1998) - Post-Miocene reef faunas of the Red Sea: glacio-eustatic controls. In: Sedimentation and tectonics of rift basins: Red Sea-Gulf of Aden (B.H.Purser & D.W.J.Bosence, eds.), Chapman & Hall:  574-582.
• Taviani M. (1998) - Stable tropics not so stable: climatically-driven extinctions of reef-associated molluscan assemblages (Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean; Last Interglaciation to Present). In: Reefs and Carbonate platforms in the Pacific and Indian oceans (G.F.Camoin & G.Davis, eds.), Special Publication international Association Sedimentologists:  25, 69-76.
• Taviani M. & Zahn R.  (1998) - The stable oxygen isotope record of Pleistocene and Miocene bivalves in the CRP-1 drillhole, Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica. Studies from the Cape Roberts Project, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Scientific Report on CRP-1, Terra Antartica, 5 (3): 419-424.
• Rodriguez, A.B., Anderson, J.B. and Taviani M. (1999) - Sedimentary facies and genesis of Holocene sand banks on the east Texas inner continental shelf.  In: Isolated Shallow Marine Sandbodies: Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis and Sedimentological Interpretation (K. Bergman & J. Snedden, eds.), SEPM Special Publication, 64: 165-178.
• Domack, E.W., Taviani M. & Rodriguez A. (1999) - Recent sediment remolding on a deep shelf, Ross Sea: implications for radiocarbon dating of Antarctic marine sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews, 18: 1445-1451.
• Rodriguez A.B., Anderson J.B., Banfield L.A., Taviani M., Abdulah K. & Snow J.N., (2000) - Identification of a - 15 m middle Wisconsin shoreline on the Texas continental shelf. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 158: 25-43.
• Taviani, M. (2001)- Fluid venting and associated processes. In: Anatomy of a mountain: the Apennines and adjacent Mediterranean (G.B.Vai & P.Martini, eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Chapter 20: 351-366.
• Taviani M. (2002) – The Mediterranean benthos from Late Miocene up to Present: ten million years of dramatic climatic and geological vicissitudes. Biologia Marina Mediterranea, 9 (1): 445-463.
• Taviani M. & Beu A.G. (2003) - The paleoclimatic significance of Cenozoic marine macrofossil assemblages from Cape Roberts Project drillholes, McMurdo Sound, Victoria Land Basin, East Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 198: 131-143.
• Roveri M. & Taviani M. (2003) – Calcarenite and sapropel deposition in the Mediterranean Pliocene: shallow- and deep-water record of astronomically driven climatic events. Terra Nova, 15: 279-286.
• Rodriguez A.B., Anderson J.B., Siringan F.P. & Taviani M. (2004) Holocene evolution of the east texas coast and inner continental shelf: along-strike variability in coastal retreat rates. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 74: 406-422.
• Peckmann J., Thiel V., Reitner J., Taviani M., Aharon P. & Michaelis W. (2004)  - A microbial mat of a large sulfur bacterium preserved in a Miocene methane-seep limestone. Geomicrobiology Journal, 21, 247-255.
• Remia A. & Taviani M. (2005) - Shallow-buried Pleistocene Madrepora-coral mounds on a muddy continental slope, Tuscan Archipelago, NE Tyrrhenian Sea. Facies, 50, 419-425.
• Taviani M., Corselli C., Freiwald A., Malinverno E., Mastrototaro F., Remia A., Savini A., Tursi A. (2005) First geo-marine survey of living cold-water Lophelia reefs in the Ionian Sea (Mediterranean basin). Facies, 50, 409-417.
• Zinke J., Reijmer J., Taviani M., Thomassin B. & Dullo W-C. (2005) Facies and faunal assemblage changes in response to the Holocene transgression in the Lagoon of Mayotte (Comoro Archipelago, SW Indian Ocean). Facies, 50, 391-408 (published online 22 February 2005 DOI 10.1007/s 10347-004-0040-7).
• Taviani M., Freiwald A.& Zibrowius H. (2005) - Deep-coral growth in the Mediterranean Sea: an overview. In: Deep-water Corals & Ecosystems (A.Freiwald & M.Roberts, eds.), Springer-Verlag, 137-156.
• López Correa, M., Freiwald A., Hall-Spencer J. & Taviani M. (2005) - Distribution and habitats of Acesta excavata (Bivalvia: Limidae), with new data on its shell ultrastructure. In: Deep-water Corals & Ecosystems (A.Freiwald & M.Roberts, eds.), Springer-Verlag, 173-205.
• Zibrowius H. & Taviani M. (2005) - Remarkable sessile fauna associated with deep coral and other calcareous substrates in the Strait of Sicily, Mediterranean Sea. In: Deep-water Corals & Ecosystems (A.Freiwald & M.Roberts, eds.), Springer-Verlag, 807-819.
• Montagna P., McCulloch M., Taviani M., Remia A. & Rouse G. (2005) High resolution trace and minor element compositions in deep-water solitary scleractinian corals (Desmophyllum dianthus) from the Mediterranean Sea and the Great Australian Bight. In: Deep-water Corals & Ecosystems (A.Freiwald & M.Roberts, eds.), Springer-Verlag, 1109-1126.
• Lucente C. & Taviani M. (2005) – Chemosynthetic communities as fingerprints of submarine sliding-linked fluid seepage, Miocene deep-sea strata of the Romagna Apennines, Italy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 227, 176-190.
• Roveri M., Boscolo G., Rossi M., Gennari R., Iaccarino S.NM., Lugli S., Manzi V., Negri A., Rizzini F. & Taviani M. (2005) - The Adriatic foreland record of the Messinian events (Central Adriatic Sea, Italy). GeoActa, 4, 239-258.
• Whitehead J., Ehrmann W., Hart C., Harwood D.M., Hillenbrand C-D., McMinn A., Quilty P.G., Taviani M. & Thorn V. (2006) - Late Miocene palaeoenvironment of East Antarctica documented from palaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical evidence. Global and Planetary Change. 50, 127-147.
• Montagna P., McCulloch M., Taviani M., Mazzoli C. & Vendrell B. (2006) -  Phosphorus in cold-water corals as a proxy for seawater nutrient chemistry. Science, 312, 1788-1791.
• Bassetti M.A., Jouet G., Dufois F., Berné S., Rabineau M. & Taviani M. (2006) -   De-glacial sedimentary processes and deposits in the outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Lions (western Mediterranean). Marine Geology, 234, 93-109.
• Jouet G. , Berné S., Rabineau M., Bassetti M.A., Bernier P., Dennielou B. & Taviani M. (2006) - Shoreface migrations at the shelf edge and sea-level changes around the Last Glacial Maximum (Gulf of Lions, NW Mediterranean). Marine Geology, 234, 21-42.
• Taviani M., Remia A., Esu D. & Sami M. (2007) - Messinian Lago-Mare mollusc fauna from the Gorgona island slope, Tyrrhenian sea. Geobios 40, 351-358.
• Berné S., Jouet G.,, Bassetti M.A., Dennielou B. & Taviani M. (2007) – Late Glacial to Preboreal sea-level rise recorded by the Rhone deltaic system (NW Mediterranean). Marine Geology, 245, 65-88.
• Trincardi F., Foglini F., Verdicchio G., Asioli A., Correggiari A., Minisini D., Piva A.,  Remia A., Ridente D. & Taviani M. (2007) – The impact of cascading currents on the Bari Canyon System, SW-Adriatic Margin (Central Mediterranean). Marine Geology, 246, 208-230.
• Taviani M., López Correa, M., Zibrowius H., Montagna P., McCulloch M. & Ligi M.  (2007) – Last Glacial deep-water scleractinian corals from the Red Sea. Bulletin of Marine Science, 81 (3): 361-370
• Scherer R.P., Bohaty S.M., Dunbar R.B., Esper O., Flores J-A, Gersonde R., Harwood D.M., Roberts A.P. & Taviani M. (2008) -  Antarctic records of precession-paced insolation-driven warming during early Pleistocene Marine Isotope Stage 31. Geophyical Research Letters 35: L03505.
• Montagna P., Silenzi S., Devoti S., Mazzoli C., McCulloch M., Scicchitano G., Sparaini F. & Taviani M.  (2008). High-resolution natural archives provide new tools for climatic reconstruction and monitoring the Mediterranean Sea. Rendiconti Lincei 19: 121-140.
• Anderson J.B., Rodriguez A.B.,, Milliken K. & Taviani M. (2008) – The Holocene evolution of the Galveston estuary complex,, Texas: Evidence for rapid change in estuarine environments. In: Anderson G.B. & Rodriguez A.B. (eds.), Response of Upper Gulf Coast Estuaries to Holocene Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise, Geological Society of America Special Paper 443: 89-104.
• Simms A.R., Anderson J.B., Rodriguez A.B., & Taviani M.  (2008) – Mechanisms controlling environmental change within an estuary: Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, USA. In: Anderson G.B. & Rodriguez A.B. (eds.), Response of Upper Gulf Coast Estuaries to Holocene Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise, Geological Society of America Special Paper 443: 121-146.
• Bassetti M.A., Berné S., Jouet G., Taviani M., Dennielou B., Flores J.-A., Gaillot A., Gelfort R., Lafuerza S. & Sultan N. (2008) – 100-kyr and rapid sea-level changes recorded by prograding shelf sand bodies in the Gulf of Lions (Western Mediterranean Sea). Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems.
• Wisshak M., López Correa, M., Gofas S., Salas C., Taviani M., Jakobsen J. & Freiwald A. (in press) - Shell architecture, element composition, and stable isotope signature of the giant deep-sea oyster Neopycnodonte zibrowii sp. n. from the NE Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research I, 56, 374-407.
• Roveri M., Bertini A., Casentino D., Di Stefano A., Gennari R., Gliozzi E., Grossi F., Iaccarino S.M., Lugli S., Manzi V., Taviani M.  (2008) - A high-resolution stratigraphic framework for the latest Messinian events in the Mediterranean area. Stratigraphy 5 (3-4): 323-342.
• Freiwald A., Beuck L., Rüggeberg A., Taviani M. and R/V Meteor M70-1 participants (2009) – The white coral community in the central Mediterranean revealed by ROV surveys. Oceanography 22: 58-74.
• Taviani M., in  Naish T. et al. (2009) -  Obliquity-paced Pliocene  West Antarctic ice  sheet oscillations. Nature 458: 322-328.
• Marcano M.C., Mukasa S., Lohman K.C., Stefano C., Taviani M., & Andronikov A. (2009) -  Chronostratigraphic and paleonenvironmental constraints derived from the 87Sr/86Sr and d18O signal of Miocene bivalves, Southern McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Global and Planetary Change  (in press).
• Montagna P*., McCulloch M., Mazzoli C., Taviani M., Silenzi S. (2008) - High-resolution geochemical records from cold-water corals: proxies for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstructions and the role of coral physiology. CIESM, 2008.Impacts of acidification on biological, chemical and physical system in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. /CIESM Workshop Monographs/ 36, 55-60.
• Taviani M., Angeletti L, Dimech M., Mifsud C., Freiwald A., Harasewych M.G. & Oliverio M. Coralliophilinae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) associated with deep-water coral banks in the Mediterranean. The Nautilus (accepted).
• Marcano M.C., Mukasa S., Lohman K.L., Stefano C., Taviani M. & Andronikov A. (2009) - Chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental constraints signal of Miocene bivalves, Southern McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Global and Planetary Change, 69: 124-132.
• Taviani M., Hannah M., Ishman S.E., Johnson K., Olney M., Riesselman C., Tuzzi E., Askin R., Beu A.G., Blair S., Cantarelli V., Ceregato A., Corrado S., Mohr B., Nielsen S.H., Persico D., Petrushak S., Raine J.I., Warny S. & the ANDRILL_SMS Science Team (2010) – Terra Antartica (in press).
• Costantini F., Taviani M., Remia A., Pintus E., Schembri P.J. & Abbiati M. Deep-water Corallium rubrum (L. 1758) from the Mediterranen Sea: preliminary egnetic characterization.. Marine Ecology (in press).
• López Correa M., Montagna P., Vendrell B., McCulloch M. & Taviani M. (2010) - Stable   isotopes (δ18O & δ13C), trace and minor element compositions of Last Glacial to Recent scleractinians and bivalves at Santa Maria di Leuca deep-water coral province, Ionian Sea. Deep Sea Research II
• Beuck L., Freiwald A. & Taviani M. (2010) - Spatiotemporal bioerosion patterns successions in  cold-water scleractinians from off Santa Maria di Leuca (Apulia, Ionian Sea). Deep Sea Research II
• Mastrototaro F., D'Onghia G., Corriero G., Matarrese A., Maiorano P., Panetta P., Gherardi M. , Longo C. , Rosso A., Sciuto F., Sanfilippo R., Gravili C., Boero F, Taviani M. & Tursi A. (2010) - Biodiversity of the white coral ecosystem off Cape Santa Maria di Leuca (Mediterranean Sea): an update. Deep Sea Research II
• Malinverno E., Taviani M., Rosso, A., Violanti, D., Villa I., Savini, A., Vertino A., Remia  A. & Corselli.C. (2010) -  Stratigraphic framework of the Apulian deep-water coral province, Ionian Sea. Deep Sea Research II
• Rosso A., Vertino A., Di Geronimo I., Sanfilippo R., Sciuto F., Di Geronimo R., Violanti D., Corselli C., Taviani M., Mastrototaro F. & Tursi A. (2010)  – Hard- versus soft-bottom thanatofacies from the Santa Maria di Leuca deep-water coral province, Recent Mediterranean. Deep Sea Research II
• Taviani M. (2010). The deep-sea chemoautotroph microbial world as experienced by the Mediterranean metazoans through time. Lecture Notes of Earth Sciences, Springer publishers series (in press).