Since the beginning, Miramare has taken shape as an excellent training site for researchers and students, where the research is developed for improving the management of the area as well as for verifying the effectiveness of management choices.
The Reserve provides a natural site, ideal for measuring and comparing the status of environments in disturbed and undisturbed areas. Therefore the scientific activities are mainly focused upon a systematic monitoring of chemical-physical and biological parameters, enabling the Reserve’s staff to check seasonal variations in the community of biological resources and to record any anomaly affecting it.
For this reason big importance is given to the long-term monitoring that provides the data referring to the natural history of the reserve environment, both present and future one, and to the human activity that affects it. These data are necessary to discover and monitor the changes and tendencies of the conditions of the biological, chemical and physical resources.
Monitoring the chemical and physical parameters
It involves continuous data collection of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients. Monitoring can give information about coastal water quality and it provides a large number of data that can be linked to biological observations. In this way, it is possible to understand the biology of different species living in the area.
The following activities have been carried out:
• a monitoring project of the reserve water has been developed in collaboration with the Marine Laboratory of Trieste since 2002.Tthe results have been recently presented at the conference XXXX (Varna, Bulgaria)
• a study on the different components of the light in relation to the phytoplankton abundance has been developed in collaboration with the University of Trieste since 2001 in order to collect data regarding the determinazione fluorimetrica della clorofilla "a", spettrofotometrica dell’assorbimento del particellato totale, detritico sospeso e, per differenza, della frazione vivente
• since 1998 the staff was involved into the ‘MAREA’ project ; the staff created and subsequently updated educational materials in order to explain to the public the research protocols applied to the sea environment. The so obtained texts are published in the box ‘basic concepts’.
• from June 2000 to May 2001, the optical characteristics of the water in the Gulf of Trieste have been studied at 4 different stations along the coastline. These data become very useful if related to the presence of nutrients, the primary production and the structure of the phytoplanktonic populations in the water body.
• since 2000, the staff used a prob 316 (connected to a laptop), to measure temperature, depth, percentuale di saturazione dell'ossigeno, acidità (pH), conducibilità, potenziale di ossido-riduzione, fluorescenza emessa dalla clorofilla a e torbidità. The data were recorded simultaneously at different depths in order to obtain a complete description of the water column. From these data it was possible to obtain informations on water density and salinity.
• since 1998, the oceanographic ‘Mambo’ buoy has been located inside the Reserve thanks to the collaboration with the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale of Trieste. The buoy is equipped with a centralina meteo e di sonda profilante della Idronaut Ocean Seven mod.401. It can record different chemical and physical parameters of the water column at intervals of 3 hours and automatically send the data to the research institute. A correntometro ADCP has been located on the buoy for monitoring the directions and intensities of the currents of the whole water column.
Biological monitoring
It is related to living organisms and is based upon the census of animal and vegetal species inside the Reserve. Qualitative and quantitative data about species living in the Reserve have been gathered by means of this technique since 1993. The data give useful information to monitor the presence of animal and vegetal communities according to seasonal cycles and to spot any anomaly linked to larger cycles.
The inventory of species and the study of their populations are carried out in a way to avoid, as much as possible, any biological damage. The observations, identifications and sampling are done under water directly by biologists that note down the data on waterproof cards or register them with the underwater videocamera. In the course of the years the visual census (the method used for taking the census of fish) showed that the species most in need from the environmental point of view and which are absent outside the protected area such as, for example, the brown meagre (Corvina nigra), are, instead, present within the Reserve. Recent researches have shown that this "reserve effect" makes a big difference with regards to the whole fish community. The abundance of small fish seems to prove that Miramare serves as a reproduction area and that it "recruits" fish from the neighbouring zones, which is a phenomenon already noted in other marine parks.
One of the longest studies carried out in the Reserve regards the biological characterizations of the seagrass beds (Zostera marina, Cymodocea nodosa and Posidonia oceanica). Describing their distribution in the Gulf of Trieste and understanding the causes of their regression in the local area, as well as in many areas of the Mediterranean Sea, are the main goals of the project.
Other studies on the animal and vegetal benthos allowed the sea-bed classification and sea-bottom mapping of the Reserve according to different sediments and organisms present in the area. The study of the local biocenosis allows the identification of the rarest species and the most sensitive organisms, whose presence confers to the Reserve a great ecological importance.
Since the foundation of the Reserve, a particular attention has been focused on behavioural monitoring programs. In order to provide ethological and ecological information about the whole fish community, a variety of video-techniques (including fixed, hand-held video camera and direct observation by underwater divers) have been developed. In this way the activity of different fish species has been described all over the year, with particular regard to their locomotion, feeding, territoriality and reproductive behaviours. The aim is to create, as in the species census, an archive of photographs and video-films that contain the sequences of behaviour of the reserve species.
These techniques have been accompanied by other instrumentations such as the hydrophone and the echo-sounder, which enabled the researchers to estimate local fish populations through active and passive acoustic surveys. In particular, the acoustic research made possible both the census of crustacean and fish species that produce sounds, and the evaluation of the impact of certain man-made noises on those species.
GIS (Geographic Information System)
All the different scientific activities done at the reserve created an enormous amount of data that needs to be filled in archives. The Geograpic Information System (G.I.S) appeared therefore to be the right tool for responding to this need. During the first years of its application, GIS has been used for represent the different scientific output in georeferenzial maps.
Afterwards, the high number of capabilities of the GIS and the increased familiarity with this system, induced a full utilization of it, with the implementation of the basic tools with new softwares. The latters allowed a better data storing and analyses both through the vectorial and the raster modes.
Since 1998, the Miramare staff applied its acquired experience to develop the ‘MAREA’ project. This project aims both to disseminate the results of the reserve activities and to describe the tools that allowed Miramare to become a model for other reserves. The materials regarding the MAREA project are published in the box called ‘basic concepts’.
During these years, numerous students not only used the maps prepared by the Miramare staff but also they learned the techniques of mapping and applied them for their researches.
Collaborations
Since its foundation the Reserve has collaborated with the Marine Laboratory of Trieste, the Biology Department of the University of Trieste and the Thalassographic Institute of Trieste, developing a wider and deeper comprehension of the marine ecosystem. Moreover, the Reserve collaborates also with many other italian Universities - as the University of Udine, Padova, Venice, Bologna - and research institutes - as the Science Centre of Grignano, the International Centre for Theoretical Phisics, the Laboratorio dell’Immaginario Scientifico and the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale -.
Thanks to the considerable efforts put into field research and innovative monitoring techniques, the Reserve is able to promote training courses for graduate and undergraduate students. The Reserve promotes also master and PhD opportunities in collaboration with the local University, providing research facilities and chances for hands-on experience. The Reserve final aim is the spread of scientific knowledge, in order to increase the general awareness towards the conservation and valorisation of the marine habitats, species and resources.
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