Diapositiva 1

1
Adriatic Forum ICZM Expert Group
Palombina beach The scientific approach
Antonio Pusceddu
Ancona (I) July 15 2006, Palombina beach
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Beaches are not deserts they play a key role in
coastal ecology
To the casual observer, beaches may simply appear
as barren stretches of sand - beautiful, but
desert-like systems On the contrary, beaches are
diverse and productive transitional ecosystems
that serve as the critical link between marine
and terrestrial environments. Sandy beaches
provide habitats for hundreds of plant and animal
species (most of which are insects and
worms) Beaches support a rich trophic web of
life in the adjacent submerged marine system,
which includes worms, bivalves, and crustaceans
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For their boundary position, beaches represent
the conveyor location integrating terrestrial and
marine ecosystem services and as such theyre
exploited for a variety of human activities
COASTAL RECLAMATION
TOURISM
RENOURISHMENT
ACCIDENTS AT SEA (OIL SPILLS)
INDUSTRIAL, DOMESTIC AND AGRICULTURE WASTES
ANTI-EROSION TOOLS
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Beaches and ICZM
Beach and bathing-related recreational management
is an important component of Integrated Coastal
Zone Management. This is even exacerbated for
those beaches located in urban coastal areas
where the quality of the recreational resource is
continuously threatened by the anthropogenic
pressure But, were still searching for
batteries of indicators for assessing the
health of beach ecosystems and also exploring
new tools for remediation
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The PALOMBINA Beach a typical example of
conflicting uses of the shorelines between
industrial, urban and environmental services

• Located between the port of Ancona and the API
  oil refinery
• Compressed by two very stiff transport pathways
  (the SS.19 (Flaminia) and the national railway
  Bologna Lecce)
• Important recreational and bathing uses
• Degeneration of water quality in summertime
  related to eutrophication
• Therefore, we need integrated actions and tools
  for addressing these cross-cutting ecological and
  socio-economic issues

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Is the Palombina Beach human-affected? Evidences
from a Beach Litter survey
Beach litter is among the more evident
indicators of human impact on the coastal marine
environment
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Beach litter
It includes wood, glass, organic detritus,
plastics, tissues Only a limited fraction is
natural the more abundant fractions is
anthropogenic
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What about Palombina?

• Sampling
• Summer and Winter 2002
• 8 transects of 5 stations each
• At each station beach litter (gt 0.5 cm)
  collected from 1m2 squares (3 replicates per
  station)
• Organic load (gravimetric) and meiofauna (sand
  worms)

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Results
Accumulation close to the API refinery No
temporal variations
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Litter in Palombina

• Relatively constant composition
• Dominance of marine organic detritus
• Increase of plastics in summer

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Litter Spiaggia di Palombina

• Biodegradable fraction is generally dominant
• Increase if persistent materials in summer

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Hydrocarbons
Total IPA
Port
API
9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
-1
5.0
mg Kg
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Transect
Summer
Winter

• No statistical differences between transects
• Increase of concentrations in winter

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Litter accumulation the role of barriers
A detritus fragment trespassing the barriers is
less probably removed from waves The amount of
litter remains more or less constant in summer,
despite the cleaning operations This implies
major inputs in summer and accumulation of non
degradable litter
Non degradable litter
25
20
-2
15
g m
10
5
0
Winter
Summer
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Beach litter and ecological response
Organic detritus and meiofauna
20
50
-2
40
15
30
-2
10
g m
n ind 10 cm
20
5
10
0
0
Winter
Summer
Meiofauna
The summer accumulation of organic detritus is
associated with a collapse of sand living
organisms as an effect of dystrophic crises
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Conclusions

1. Beach litter provides a syntehtic tool for
   assessing pressures and human impact levels of
   beaches
2. A seasonal sampling strategy but replicated at
   very short spatial scale is sufficient to detect
   patterns of change
3. The composition more than the quantity of litter
   provides elements for assessing the levels of
   putative impact

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What we need and aim to do

1. To develop new indicators, protocols and
   management tools able to improve socio-economic
   and environmental sustainability of the Palombina
   beach
2. To provide new scientific elements on actions of
   intervention for the quality assessment, the
   protection and the recovery of the beach
   ecosystem
3. To identify ecologically sustainable
   biotechnological solutions for improving beach
   utilization