Angelo Bonanno

• Electronic Engineering
• Italian National Research Council

The study of small pelagic fish by hydroacoustic methods in the Mediterranean Sea began in the Adriatic in the 1950’s. Since 2009, internationally coordinated, extensive, regular surveys have been conducted in the framework of the MEDIAS - Mediterranean International Acoustic Surveys – action, under the EU Data Collection Framework, to provide inpu...

Independence of science and best available science are fundamental pillars of the UN-FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries and are also applied to the European Union (EU) Common Fishery Policy (CFP), with the overarching objective being the sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resources. CFP is developed by DG MARE, the department of t...

Age and growth of the horse mackerel Trachurus trachurus, caught in the two sides of the Strait of Sicily, central Mediterranean Sea (Italy: GSA16 and Tunisia: GSA13), were estimated by length-frequency analysis using FISAT II software. The estimated Von Bertalanffy growth parameters, compared with likelihood ratio test showed significant differenc...

Understanding drivers of fish maturity is essential to predict the productivity, stability, and resiliency of exploited populations. Size at maturity for European sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in the Central Mediterranean Sea has never been published within rigorous peer review process. In the past, stock assessment working groups in the Mediterrane...

A 3D advection-diffusion-reaction model is proposed to investigate the abundance of phytoplankton in a difficult-to-access ecosystem such as the Gulf of Sirte (southern Mediterranean Sea) characterized by oligotrophic waters. The model exploits experimentally measured environmental variables to reproduce the dynamics of four populations that domina...

Differences in acoustic estimates of small pelagic fish biomass, due to data acquisition during daytime and nighttime surveys, have been recognized for many years as a problem in acoustic surveys. In the absence of a single rule for all species and for all locations, some expert groups identified specific time intervals for acoustic data acquisitio...

1. Dolphins interact with many types of fishing gear, causing damage to fishing activities and in some cases facing harm and becoming entangled as bycatch. 2. In this study, the behaviour of bottlenose dolphins during their interaction with set nets, equipped with and without interactive pingers, was investigated. Acoustic monitoring of the nets w...

The paper presents sea level and air pressure observations acquired during the 2007 experiment carried out along the southwestern coast of Sicily. The experiment aimed to quantify the atmospheric and oceanic conditions related with the phenomenon of marrobbio, a kind of meteotsunami that is frequently observed in the Strait of Sicily. Sea level dat...

This work presents a computational methodology able to automatically classify the echoes of two krill species recorded in the Ross sea employing scientific echo-sounder at three different frequencies (38, 120 and 200 kHz). The goal of classifying the gregarious species represents a time-consuming task and is accomplished by using differences and/or...

Climate change is causing a structural change in Arctic ecosystems, decreasing the effectiveness that the polar regions have in cooling water masses, with inevitable repercussions on the climate and with an impact on marine biodiversity. The Svalbard islands under study are an area greatly influenced by Atlantic waters. This area is undergoing chan...

Simple Summary Wide fluctuations in abundance arising from variations in reproductive success are characteristic of many marine fish populations, including several pelagic fish species. The European anchovy is an economically and ecologically important resource, representing one of the most abundant species of the total Mediterranean fishery produc...

Early life stages of marine fish populations may be strongly affected by environmental factors. Changes in the physical environment or the availability of food resources could lead to stress-related physiological responses affecting larval fitness, growth and survival. In the present study, we determined, for the first time, amino acid composition...

The bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, is a highly migratory and long-living fish at the top of the pelagic food web. As top predator, it plays a key role in the stability of marine food webs by exerting top-down control on its prey. The diet composition of bluefin tuna varies in relation to its growth, seasons and migratory patterns, making it difficu...

1. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) egg samples were analysed to detect their origin on a small spatial scale (200 km) by assigning genotypes to adult anchovy stocks. The novelty of this work is the application of a rapid high-throughput method for genotyping each single anchovy egg, in a single execu...

A 12-year time series (2005-2016) was examined to explore relationships between European anchovy density, growth, reproduction and habitat dynamics in an upwelling system. Specifically, data used for a daily egg production method were combined with oceanographic data, prey availability, as well as acoustic surveys of the anchovy stock in the Strait...

The age determination in fast-growing short-living species, such as European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), has been widely recognized as a difficult task and bias introduced by readers leads to bias in reconstructing the population age structure. In this context, it is worth to note that age structure of fish population represents key informati...

We describe the analysis of SNP markers in anchovy (E. encrasicolus) egg samples to detect their origin at spatial small-scale (200 Km) by assigning genotypes to adult anchovies stocks. The novelty of this work is the application of a high-throughput rapid method for genotyping each single anchovy egg, in a single execution, using a set of 96 geno...

The Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union aims to exploit fish stocks at a level of Maximum Sustainable Yield by 2020 at the latest. At the Mediterranean level, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has highlighted the importance of reversing the observed declining trend of fish stocks. In this complex context, it is...

Understanding drivers of fish maturity are essential to predict the productivity, stability, and resiliency of exploited populations. In terms of horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, size at maturity estimates date back to the 1940s and throughout its range. However, many older estimates may...

Natural gradients of pH in the ocean are useful analogues for studying the projected impacts of Ocean Acidification (OA) on marine ecosystems. Here we document the in situ impact of submarine CO2 volcanic emissions (CO2 vents) on live shelled-pteropods (planktonic gastropods) species Creseis conica in the Gulf of Naples (Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterrane...

Coccolithophore were collected and analyzed at 10 stations during summer 2010, from coastal and offshore areas off the eastern Libyan coast (southern Mediterranean Sea). The results were compared with oceanographic data. Total coccosphere concentrations, associated with nutrient-depleted stratified waters, show good correlation with the summer data...

The study presents the biomass and spatial distribution of Sardinella aurita in the Libyan, Maltese and southern Sicily waters, estimated during four acoustic surveys in summer 2008 and 2010. Strong differences in terms of both spatial distribution and total biomass between years and areas were found, with higher total biomass in 2010 than in 2008...

The study of the relationships among environmental factors, primary production, zooplankton community, and feeding behavior of fish species represents a key aspect to obtain a deeper knowledge of biological processes acting at ecosystem level. In this context, oceanographic data and biological samples were collected in two different surveys, carrie...

Trachurus trachurus and Trachurus mediterraneus play an important role in the marine ecosystem and represent an important source of income for local economies related to fishery. This study aimed to improve the knowledge on the spatial distribution and habitat requirements of these two horse mackerels in the south-central Mediterranean Sea (Strait...

Most of the studies carried out in the past on economically important fish species rely on single species approach. Ecosystem dynamics are characterized by complex interaction among species, sharing common habitat needs and thus forming characteristic assemblages. The analysis of spatio-temporal variability of fish community, coupled to the analysi...

Due to an unfortunate turn of events, the first- and surnames of all authors were transposed in the original publication. The correct representation of the authors and their affiliations are listed above and below and should be treated as definitive.

The complex interactions between surface circulation and coastal and continental shelf morphology, as well as the presence of temperature and salinity gradients, make the Central Mediterranean an area characterized by high degree of ecosystem patchiness. The well-known effect of the physical environment in shaping community structure leads us to hy...

The knowledge of the growth history in young fishes represents an important aspect of fishery ecology. This is especially relevant in short-living species like European anchovy, since they suffer a high mortality rate in their early life stages until recruitment. Although it is well known that habitat condition significantly affects spawning dynami...

In the framework of the European Commission Blue Growth Strategy, a joint process among European countries has been put in place since 2014 to promote and implement research and innovation actions to increase the number of jobs in the marine and maritime sectors, commonly named ‘blue’, and pursue a sustainable growth in the Mediterranean area. The...

Graham Bank is a dominant physiographic element of the NW Sicily Channel (central Mediterranean Sea), affected in the last 100 years by numerous well-documented volcanic eruptions. We present the first results of a geomorphological study where the Graham Bank region in the depth interval 7–350 m was mapped for the first time with multi-beam echosou...

The goal of the present study was to verify the suitability of using melanomacrophage centres (MMCs) as response biomarkers of marine pollution in European anchovy, which are short-lived, migratory, small pelagic fish. This suitability was verified by analysing the MMC density and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase 1A (CYP1A) expression in livers of anc...

Gonads of 111 individuals of a digynic protandrous hermaphrodite fish species, white seabream (Diplodus sargus sargus), were sampled along the coast of NW Sicily (southern Tyrrhenian Sea). Theses gonads were analyzed to evaluate a macroscopic maturity scale widely used in fisheries studies, through histological examination of the gonadal tissue, to...

Fishery production is highly dependent on fish growth and environmental factors; primary production and temperature are the two most important variables affecting almost all biological rates, especially individual growth or population production rate. The growth of European anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, was compared between two populations inhab...

Field data on chlorophyll distribution are investigated in a two-dimensional spatial domain of the Mediterranean Sea by using for phytoplankton abundances an advection-diffusion-reaction model, which includes real values for physical and biological variables. The study exploits indeed hydrological and nutrients data acquired in situ, and includes i...

In this study the description of underwater vocal repertoire of bearded seal in Svalbard (Norway) was extended. Two autonomous passive acoustic recorders were deployed for one year (August 2014–July 2015) in the inner and outer parts of the Kongsfjorden, and 1728 h were recorded and 17 220 vocalizations were found. Nine different vocalization class...

Our knowledge for the distribution of Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) in the Mediterranean Sea is limited and fragmented. In the current work habitat suitability modeling was applied to summer acoustic surveys data of Atlantic mackerel juveniles derived from the north part of the Mediterranean (i.e., acoustic data from the Gulf of Lions, pelag...

Anchovies represent the largest world’s marine fish catches and the current threats on their populations impose a sustainable exploitment based on sound scientific information. In the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), the existence of several populations has been proposed but a global view is missing. Using a multidisciplinary approach, he...

The European hake Merluccius merluccius is one of the most important commercial species for the Mediterranean fisheries. In the Strait of Sicily, the species has some extended nursery areas, but its trophic ecology was not studied in detail, despite knowledge of the diet composition of fishes and their adaptability to food resource fluctuations is...

We present data on distribution patterns of living coccolithophores at 18 selected hydrographic stations, and oceanographic measurements collected at 68 stations during the TIR09 cruise carried out on board of R/V Urania in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (central part of the Mediterranean Sea) during summer 2009. The survey enabled us to provide indic...

The Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) is a semi-pelagic fish species with a wide geographical distribution and commonly found on the continental shelf. In recent years, the species has received some attention due to its ecological role in pelagic food webs. Stable isotope of nitrogen and carbon (δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C) and Stomach Content Analys...

A comparative study was performed to identify differences in the amino acid composition of the eyes from zebrafish (Danio rerio) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) larvae and their link to the environmental adaption of the species. Amino acids in the acidic hydrolysates of eyes from 11 zebrafish and 12 sardine were determined with the use of high-per...

Small pelagic fish are among the most ecologically and economically important marine fish species and are characterized by large fluctuations all over the world. In the Mediterranean Sea, low catches and biomass of anchovies and sardines have been described in some areas during the last decade, resulting in important fisheries crises. Therefore, we...

During last years theoretical works shed new light and proposed new hypothesis on the mechanisms which regulate the time behaviour of biological populations in different natural systems. Despite of this, the role of environmental variables in ecological systems is still an open question. Filling this gap of knowledge is a crucial task for a deeper...

During last years theoretical works shed new light and proposed new hypothesis on the mechanisms which regulate the time behaviour of biological populations in different natural systems. Despite of this, the role of environmental variables in ecological systems is still an open question. Filling this gap of knowledge is a crucial task for a deeper...

An alternative method to the traditional hydrated oocyte (HO) method has been evaluated for the Sicilian anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus. The method is based on the processing of ovarian whole mount images and the identification of the spawning batch in oocyte size frequency distributions and shows the advantage that it can be applied to various oo...

The Graham Bank (NW Sicily Channel, Central Mediterranean) is characterised by a complex seafloor morphology, where morphostructural highs, submarine plain, escarpments, and negative and positive relieves indicate a complex structural setting and the occurrence of seepage fluids. New high-resolution acoustic data (multibeam, Chirp profiles) and mul...

L’Istituto IAMC di Capo Granitola da più di quindici anni effettua delle campagne scientifiche a bordo di navi oceanografiche (Urania, G. Dallaporta e Minerva Uno). Nel corso dei campionamenti ittioplanctonici e zooplanctonici è previsto l’utilizzo di strumenti campionatori come retini Bongo 40, Bongo 60, Bongo 90 e Calvet. Questo report descrive l...

Nel seguente Report Tecnico vengono riportate le principali attività svolte all'interno della campagna oceanografica che fa parte del progetto MEDSUDMED “Small Pelagic Fish: Stock Identification and Oceanographic Processes Influencing their abundance and distribution”. Le ricerche condotte in questo survey sono state finalizzate prevalentemente all...

La campagna oceanografica “Ancheva 2006”, condotta dal Gruppo Interdisciplinare di Oceanografia dell’IAMC-CNR (Sezione di Mazara del Vallo) in collaborazione con il “Reparto Tecnologia della Pesca” dell’ISMAR Sezione Pesca Marittima del CNR di Ancona, ha avuto come principale obiettivo la valutazione della distribuzione ed abbondanza di piccoli pel...

La campagna oceanografica Ancheva 2010 condotta a bordo della N/O “Mariagrazia” è parte integrante del Progetto Medias, ed è stata condotta dal Gruppo Interdisciplinare di Oceanografia dell’IAMC-CNR (U.O di Capo Granitola-Campobello di Mazara).Il principale obiettivo di tale campagna di misura è stato quello della valutazione della distribuzione ed...

La campagna oceanografica Ancheva 2007 parte integrante di un progetto finanziato dal Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali, condotta a bordo della N/O “G. Dallaporta”, dal Gruppo Interdisciplinare di Oceanografia dell’IAMC-CNR (Sezione di Mazara del Vallo) in collaborazione con il “Reparto Tecnologia della Pesca” dell’ISMAR Sezione Pesca...

Engraulis encrasicolus and Sardina pilchardus stocks are highly variable in terms of recruitment, biomass and spatial distribution. Changes in habitat conditions may influence both the survival of the early life stages and the adult stages. Detailed studies on the spatial distribution and habitat selection of such species have been performed in dif...

The National Research Council of Italy (CNR) has been undertaking scientific and technological activities aimed at implementing intelligent and automated systems for the collection of data in support of oceanography and fisheries science, as well as providing services for fishing operators. Two independent operational units autonomously developed t...

The spatio-temporal behaviour of total chlorophyll concentration is investigated in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea by using a stochastic approach. The study is based on a reaction–diffusion–taxis model, which is used to analyse the dynamics of five phytoplankton groups, responsible for about 80% of the total chlorophyll a inside the euphotic zone...

The Multi-Beam Echo Sounder (MBES) is a tool that allows getting information about bathymetric, morphological and compositional characteristics of the seabed surface. Although this is still one of the most important features in hydrography, MBES can now also discriminate the acoustic imaging of the water mass by recording sampled reflectivity measu...

The sustained exploitation of marine populations requires an understanding of a species' adaptive seascape so that populations can track environmental changes from short- and long-term climate cycles and from human development. The analysis of the distributions of genetic markers among populations, together with correlates of life-history and envir...

Graphical plot of fdist/Lositan [55, 56] simulation. Blue dots represent interpolation between mean values of FST and HE in each marker (microsatellite locus) analyzed. Blue dots falling within light grey area represent neutral markers whereas those within the yellow and the red areas represent outlier markers under balancing and directional select...

Summary of the microsatellite loci and primers for their PCR amplification used in the present study. (DOCX)

Pairwise comparisons of several differentiation genetics estimators. In S4A Table are showed values from G'ST and GST while in S4B Table the values from DEST. (DOCX)

In S5A Table are provided results from the assignment test for first generation migrants. The numbers within the table refer to the individuals that were allocated outside the sampling localities examined in this study (receiving sampling locations). The original sampling sites detected for each migrant are reported along the first row (native samp...

Pairwise estimates of LnRH values [60] for detecting loci under selection. Values in red are those exceeding the threshold of significance set at ±2.58. (DOCX)

Graphical plot of Hierarchical Island Model [59] simulations under the assumption of population structured in two (K = 2; S3A Fig) and three (K = 3; S3B Fig) clusters. Dots represent the interpolation between mean values of FST and HE in each marker (microsatellite locus) analyzed. Red, green and purple lines represent 1%, 5% and 95% percentiles of...

Contains information concerning the PCR multiplexing protocols, the genotyping procedures and the power analysis with different set of markers to detect genetic differentiation. (DOCX)

AMOVA on microsatellite DNA. Samples were divided into groups according to the bottom depth. (DOCX)

Values of the 13 environmental variables considered for each locality. (DOCX)

Summary of genetic variability observed at 14 microsatellite loci in the sampled locations. (DOCX)

Fish larvae data collected in year 2009 were used to examine the effects of particular environmental conditions on the structure of larval assemblages in two oligotrophic Mediterranean areas (the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Strait of Sicily). For this purpose, relationships with environmental variables (temperature, salinity and fluorescence),...

The acquisition of oceanographic data for scientific purposes is often quite complex due to the difficulties related to the marine environment. The expensive installation of oceanographic buoys is very often preferred, but they require long-term maintenance and are limited to a single-point acquisition. In other cases, the oceanographic surveys are...

Trophic ecology of adults of European sardine (Sardina pilchardus) and anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) was examined and compared among various regions of central Mediterranean Sea. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) were adopted as a tool to determine changes in feeding behaviour of adults of sardines and anchovies. In...

This paper reports on the first study on the ichthyoplankton community structure in the Gulf of Sirte and its spatial distribution in relation to environmental conditions and zooplankton abundance. The results make an important contribution to the future management of fisheries in this unexplored, but much exploited, area. Biological samples were c...

Noise through its interaction with the nonlinearity of the living systems can give rise to counter-intuitive phenomena. In this paper we shortly review the noise induced effects in different ecosystems. The transient dynamics of these ecosystems are analyzed through generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of multiplicative noise, which...

Geostatistical techniques were applied and a series of spatial indicators were calculated (occupation, aggregation, location, dispersion, spatial autocorrelation and overlap) to characterize the spatial distributions of European anchovy and sardine during summer. Two ecosystems were compared for this purpose, both located in the Mediterranean Sea:...

The Naples Bay is a Neogene–Quaternary basin located between the southern Apennines fold and thrust belt and the Tyrrhenian basin. This marine sector is characterised by significant Quaternary extension and intense volcanism at the Ischia and Procida islands, the Campi Flegrei and Somma–Vesuvius volcanic complexes started in the latest Pliocene-Ear...

Analyses of the total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), C/N ratio and isotopic (δ 13C and δ 15N) composition of organic matter (OM) in surficial sediments, integrated with hydrographic measurements, have been used to evaluate the sources and distribution of sedimentary organic matter on the Catalonian shelf and slope (northwest Mediterrane...

The caramote prawn, Melicertus kerathurus, is a Penaeidae species inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea and the Est Atlantic Ocean. Caramote prawn represents a commercially important species in terms of both aquaculture and fishing; however, there is poor information on its reproductive biology in Mediterranean and, particularly, in Tunisian waters. To...

In order to investigate the larval population structure, specimens of Engraulis encrasicolus larvae from five different locations in the Strait of Sicily were analyzed by means of otolith readings, morphometric and genetic techniques. The distribution of age in day, identified by means of the otolith readings and associated with the oceanographic p...

An analysis of the influence of environ- mental conditions on the pelagic fish community structure and species distribution in two areas of the Central Mediterranean sea, the Sicilian–Maltese and the Libyan continental shelves, is presented. The Libyan waters suffer from the lack of historical information on these species, and a thorough characteri...

Merluccius merluccius is an economically and ecologically important demersal species inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; however, reproductive knowledge about this species, along the North African coast is still missing. Monthly samples were collected from November 2010 to October 2011 along the North Tunisian coast. Morphometr...

The Strait of Sicily plays a crucial role in determining the water-mass exchanges and related properties between the western and eastern Mediterranean. Hydrographic measurements carried out from 1998 to 2013 allowed the identification of the main water masses present in the Strait of Sicily: a surface layer composed of Atlantic water (AW) flowing e...

The Strait of Sicily represents the connection between the eastern and western Mediterranean basins and is characterized by high interannual variability in circulation, resulting in very different environmental conditions. The Tyrrhenian Sea shows different circulation patterns, along a latitudinal gradient. Particularly, central Tyrrhenian area di...

A number of scientific papers in the last few years singled out the influence of environmental conditions on the spatial distribution of fish species, highlighting the need for the fisheries scientific community to investigate, besides biomass estimates, also the habitat selection of commercially important fish species. The Mediterranean Sea, altho...