Second sampling campaign at the Aeolian Islands completed

The second and final sampling campaign at the Aeolian Islands has recently been completed as part of the RETURN project, "multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate", funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

As in the first campaign, activities were carried out in Panarea and Salina under the coordination of researchers from the Sicilian branches of OGS, with the participation of staff from ENEA – the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development – and the University of Palermo. The main objective is to assess the role of photosynthetic organisms in creating climate change refugia and to determine whether they will be able to persist in the future, supporting associated biodiversity and ecosystem services.

To this end, the shallow hydrothermal vents of Panarea were used as natural laboratories to study the responses of seagrasses and macroalgae, along with associated communities, to multiple stressors (acidification, warming, and contamination by metals and sulfur compounds). Samples collected by OGS during the first campaign are currently being analysed at ECCSEL-NatLab Italy in Panarea.

The data gathered from this second campaign, integrated with the results of the first one carried out in September, will help highlight any seasonal-cycle-related changes in the two macroalgal species targeted by the project.