Impacts of pollutants and other human-induced stressors on transitional and coastal systems

Research activities are related to the fate of pollutants (heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs, PCDD/Fs), their ecological impact and their biological effects. Issues such as source location, transport mechanisms, inputs and outputs, mass balances, interaction with particles and biota, accumulation in sediments, exchanges at the interfaces, bioaccumulation, biomagnification and toxicity are taken into account. Sediment contamination studies (including accumulation rates and chronologies) deal with the assessment of environmental quality, history of inputs and present trends in natural as well as human impacted systems (i.e. harbours and coastal urban areas). Quantitative information about pollutant levels and distribution are integrated with the evaluation of the physiological impact on aquatic organisms.

Research work encompass laboratory activities to estimate toxicological effects induced by man at individual levels and field studies aiming at assessing fluxes between different compartments. Our investigations are also focused on the development of risk assessment approaches as a tool to address environmental pollution issues. Multispecies/multicompartment models are implemented to obtain a better understanding of the relationships among environmental variables, and provide a predictive tool to decide among different management options.

Spatial distribtion of Hg,Cu, PCBs, PAHs in the superficial sediment layer (0-5 cm) of the whole Lagoon of Venice. Distribution of values derived from 400 samples collected in the year 2007