Antonio Pusceddu

Università degli studi di Cagliari | UNICA · Department of Life and Environmental Sciences

Eutrophication affects coastal oceans worldwide, modifies primary production and sediment biogeochemistry and, overall, is progressively compromising marine ecosystems’ integrity. Because of their known bioturbation ability, sea cucumbers are supposed to be candidates for mitigating benthic eutrophication. To provide insights on this, we investigat...

The alien Asian date mussel Arcuatula senhousia inhabits several coastal environments worldwide. This species can form dense mats where individuals attach through byssus threads, thus altering the structure, functioning and biodiversity of the native communities. We investigated the feeding preference of different predators on this alien species in...

Introduction Holothuria tubulosa is one of the most common sea cucumbers in the Mediterranean Sea, generally associated with organically enriched coastal sediments and seagrass beds. As a deposit-feeder, it is responsible for strong bioturbation processes and plays a putative key role in sedimentary carbon cycling and benthic trophodynamics. With t...

In the framework of the periodic update of the Sardinian River Basin Management and Water Protection Plans (Italian Law 152/2006, transposition of the 2000/60/EC Directive), we investigated the AQUATOX model feasibility as a tool for assessing the relationships between Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses (DPSIR scheme). To do t...

In the last decades, the scientific community has developed many methods and approaches for the assessment of surface waters quality status and the relative impacts of anthropogenic pressures including, among the others, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, agriculture, animal farming and many other land uses. According to the Wate...

Although considerable research progress on the effects of anthropogenic disturbance in the deep sea has been made in recent years, our understanding of these impacts at community level remains limited. Here, we studied deep-sea assemblages of Sicily (Mediterranean Sea) subject to different intensities of benthic trawling using environmental DNA (eD...

Diadromous fish, like the European eel Anguilla anguilla (L., 1758), are highly threatened by dams that disrupt river connectivity, consequently impeding fish movements to reach feeding and spawning habitats. In this study, variation in eel occurrence between a historical period (1940–1970) and recent data (2016–2020) was assessed throughout the Sa...

Since rising temperature (T) will enhance biochemical reactions and coastal marine sediments are hotspots of carbon cycling, marine heatwaves’ (MHWs’) intensification caused by climate change will affect coastal biogeochemistry. We investigated the effects of MHWs on sediment organic matter (OM) in a nearshore locality (NW Sardinia, Mediterranean S...

Marine animal forests are key mesophotic ecosystems that are under threat from increasing natural and human pressures. Despite the fact that various international agreements strive to preserve these fragile ecosystems, the environmental status of the majority of these animal-structured environments is unknown. Assessing their environmental status i...

While the increasing accumulation of anthropogenic litter in the marine environment has received considerable attention over the last decade, litter occurrence and distribution in rivers, the main source of marine litter, have been comparatively less investigated. Moreover, little information is available about the amount and typology of Riverine A...

Marine heat waves (MHWs), prolonged discrete anomalously warm water events, have been increasing significantly in duration, intensity and frequency all over the world, and have been associated with a variety of impacts including alteration of ecosystem structure and function. This study assessed the effects of current and future MHWs on the Mediter...

Industrial seabed mining is expected to cause significant impacts on marine ecosystems, including physical disturbance and the generation of plumes of toxin-laden water. Portmán Bay (NW Mediterranean Sea), where an estimated amount of 60 Mt of mine tailings from sulphide ores were dumped from 1957 to 1990, is one of the most metal-polluted marine a...

Catadromous fish species can be defined important organisms for their ecological, economical, and cultural value. Because of a complex life cycle, catadromous fish species are exhibited to the cumulative effect of multiple anthropogenic threats that resulted in worldwide decline since the beginning of the 20th century. Among the most iconic catadro...

The increasing harvesting of low trophic level organisms is rising concern about the possible consequences on the ecosystem functioning. In particular, the continuous demand of sea cucumbers from the international market lead to the overexploitation of either traditionally harvested and new target species, including the Mediterranean ones. Sea cucu...

Restoration is considered an effective strategy to accelerate the recovery of biological communities at local scale. However, the effects of restoration actions in the marine ecosystems are still unpredictable. We performed a global analysis of published literature to identify the factors increasing the probability of restoration success in coastal...

Global change is striking harder and faster in the Mediterranean Sea than elsewhere, where high levels of human pressure and proneness to climate change interact in modifying the structure and disrupting regulative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. Rocky reefs are particularly exposed to such environmental changes with ongoing trends of degradation...

Microplastic particles (MPs) contamination of aquatic environments has raised a growing concern in recent decades because of their numerous potential toxicological effects. Although fish are among the most studied aquatic organisms, reports on MPs ingestion in freshwater environments are still scarce. Thus, there is still much to study to understan...

Attempts to control marine invasive alien species (IAS) with native predators gained contrasting results, so far. To explore the feasibility of this approach to control the invasive marine alga Caulerpa cylindracea, we investigated the foraging behaviour of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus on three native macroalgae (Ulva sp., Penicillus capita...

Seafloor macrolitter is ubiquitous in world's oceans; still, huge knowledge gaps exist on its interactions with benthic biota. We report here the colonization of plastic substrates by the Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum (L. 1758), occurring both in controlled conditions and in the wild at ca. 85 m depth in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Ju...

Timing and rates of release of particulate organic matter (POM) beneath the Antarctic sea ice during the melting season are relatively unknown. To shed light on this topic, we investigated: i) quantity and biochemical composition of POM released below annual sea ice in Terra Nova Bay (TNB, Ross Sea, Antarctica) through sediment traps deployed at 10...

The interaction between microbial communities and benthic algae as nitrogen (N) regulators in poorly illuminated sediments is scarcely investigated in the literature. The role of sediments as sources or sinks of N was analyzed in spring and summer in sandy and muddy sediments in a turbid freshwater estuary, the Curonian Lagoon, Lithuania. Seasonali...

River ecosystems are characterised by a naturally high level of hydrodynamic perturbations which create aquatic-terrestrial habitats indispensable for many species, as well as for the human beings' welfare. Environmental degradation and habitat loss caused by increasing anthropogenic pressures and global change affect freshwater aquatic ecosystems...

In benthic ecosystems, organic matter (OM), prokaryotes, and meiofauna represent a functional bottleneck in the energy transfer towards higher trophic levels and all respond to a variety of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The relationships between OM and the different components of benthic communities are influenced by multiple environmenta...

Portmán Bay is one of the most contaminated and chronically impacted coastal marine areas of the world. Here, from the 1957 to 1990, about 60 million tons of mine tailings from the processing of sulfide ores were dumped directly at the shoreline. The resulting deposit provides a unique opportunity to assess the impact of mine tailings on coastal ma...

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous contaminants of the marine environment and the deep seafloor is its ultimate sink compartment. Manipulative and field experiments provided evidence of the ingestion of MPs by deep-sea fauna, but knowledge of MPs’ fate once ingested remains still scant. We provide evidence of MPs partial retention and fragmentation...

The rapid response of benthic foraminifera to environmental factors (e.g. organic matter quality and quantity, salinity, pH) and their high fossilisation potential make them promising bio-indicators for the intensity and recurrence of brine formation in Arctic seas. Such an approach, however, requires a thorough knowledge of their modern ecology in...

The non-indigenous mud crab Dyspanopeus sayi (Smith, 1869), native to the western Atlantic, was recorded for the first time in a Sardinian lagoon. The first three specimens of this crab species were collected in the central area of the Santa Gilla lagoon on December 2013. Occurrence of the species was also recorded on December 2018 (102 specimens)...

A comprehensive set of physiographic and environmental features, anthropogenic pressures, as well as the soft-bottom macrozoobenthic assemblages were analyzed in seven nanotidal lagoons located in the Sardinia island (western Mediterranean Sea). We hypothesized that the common typology, and the restricted climatic and geographical settings of the s...

The seaweed Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder) is one of the most successful marine bioinvaders worldwide. Caulerpa cylindracea can influence the quantity and biochemical composition of sedimentary organic matter (OM). However, it is still unknown if the effects of C. cylindracea on both OM and small metazoans (i.e. meiofauna) can change according to di...

Abstract. The rapid response of benthic foraminifera to environmental factors (e.g., organic matter quality and quantity, salinity, pH) and their high fossilisation potential make them promising bio-indicators for the intensity and recurrence of brine formation in Arctic seas. Such approach, however, requires a thorough knowledge of their modern ec...

Bottom trawling in the deep sea is one of the main drivers of sediment resuspension, eroding the seafloor and altering the content and composition of sedimentary organic matter (OM). The physical and biogeochemical impacts of bottom trawling were studied on the continental slope of the Gulf of Castellammare, Sicily (southwestern Mediterranean), thr...

Ingestion of microplastics (MPs) has been documented in several marine organisms, but their occurrence in deep-sea species remains almost unknown. In this study, MPs were investigated in two economically and ecologically key crustaceans of the Mediterranean Sea, the Norwegian lobster Nephrops norvegicus and the shrimp Aristeus antennatus. Both the...

Fully protected areas (FPAs) help preserving biodiversity and reversing the global decline of fishery resources. Stocks of the European spiny lobster Palinurus elephas (Fabr. 1787), among the most precious gourmet seafood worldwide, are currently facing a dramatic decline. Previous attempts of recovery based on fishery restrictions or active post-l...

While variations in sedimentary organic matter (OM) quantity, biochemical composition and nutritional quality as well as in meiofaunal abundance and assemblage composition at the macro- and mesoscale are relatively well known, information about variations at the microscale is much scarcer. To shed some light on this issue, we tested the null hypoth...

Seagrass meadows are an important organic matter (OM) reservoir but, are currently being lost due to global and regional stressors. Yet, there is limited research investigating the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic stressors on the structure and functioning of seagrass benthic assemblages, key drivers of OM mineralization and burial. Here, using...

Bottom trawling in the deep sea is one of the main drivers of sediment resuspension, eroding the deep seafloor and altering the content and composition of sedimentary organic matter (OM). The physical and biogeochemical impacts of bottom trawling on the seafloor were studied in the continental slope of the Gulf of Castellammare, Sicily (Southwester...

The global plastic economy demands to reduce the flow of plastic into oceans and promote remedial actions for already accumulated seafloor litter. In this perspective, baseline levels of contamination and tools for dating litter items in order to assess the efficacy of those actions, are thus needed. In this note we discuss the utility of introduci...

1. A number of policy measures have been adopted to cope with ongoing ocean degradation. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are among them. MPAs and their coverage have increased worldwide, including in EU waters. Natura 2000 (Nat2000) sites are at the core of the EU biodiversity conservation strategy and have been established to protect habitats and sp...

A high biodiversity is essential to guarantee the stability and functioning of coastal marine ecosystems. In this perspective, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive provides prescriptions to maintain (or restore) marine biodiversity in order to achieve a Good Environmental Status (GES). Eutrophic conditions - as determined by the accumulation of...

This study reports data on benthic litter abundance, composition and distribution obtained during deep-sea trawl surveys conducted along the Sardinian continental margin down to the bathyal plain, at depths comprised from 740 to 1740 m. None of the investigated sites was litter free. Density ranged from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of>1300 litter it...

Although propagule pressure is recognized as an important determinant of invasion dynamics, the role of propagule quality (i.e. the physical condition of a propagule) has received little attention. In particular, how the performance of vegetative propagules differing in quality varies across heterogeneous landscapes is yet to be explored. Caulerpa...

A review of 573 studies on active restoration actions in the marine environment, published in the last 25 years, was carried out at global scale. We assessed how, where, at which spatial and temporal scales and under which socio-ecological settings restoration studies have been carried out, from very shallow to deep sea habitats. Results show that...

A review of 573 studies on active restoration actions in the marine environment, published in the last 25 years, was carried out at global scale. We assessed how, where, at which spatial and temporal scales and under which socio-ecological settings restoration studies have been carried out, from very shallow to deep sea habitats. Results show that...

Whilst the successful establishment and spread of invasive species can be determined by above‐ground processes, results are often equivocal. Emergent research, mostly from terrestrial ecosystems, demonstrates that below‐ground processes (nutrient cycling, chemical properties) under microbial control can mediate interactions between native and invas...

Bottom trawling is a major driver of sedimentary dynamics in the deep sea, resuspending surface sediments and eroding the seafloor. Although the impacts of trawling on deep-sea sediment properties and the resulting impairment of the ecosystem functioning have been previously documented, its repercussions on the bioavailability of organic matter sti...

Industrial bottom trawl fishery is among the human activities with most impact on deep-sea ecosystems, due to its widespread geographical distribution and to its strong effects on renewable natural resources. One of the main goals of the EU Euforfleet-2 Project ISLAND (ExplorIng SiciLian CAnyoN Dynamics) was to explore the role of bottom trawling i...

By means of ROV surveys, we assessed the quantity, composition and bathymetric distribution of marine litter in 17 sites along the Sardinian continental margin (Central Western Mediterranean) at depths ranging from 100 to 480m. None of the investigated sites was litter free, but the mean density of litter (0.0175±0.0022itemsm(-2)) was lower than th...

Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder), among the most successful marine bio-invaders on a global scale, poses severe threats to biodiversity. However, the effects of this seaweed on the quantity and the biochemical composition of sedimentary organic matter are still poorly known. Since the whole set of sedimentary features affects the availability of subst...

Aim A key paradigm of deep‐sea ecology is that the ocean interior is a food‐limited environment, which limits the faunal growth. Here, we estimated the efficiency of deep‐sea fauna in exploiting resources to assess the potential response of deep‐sea organisms to changes in the food inputs expected with global change. Location Mediterranean Sea. T...

Gas platforms can exert relevant effects on various ecosystem properties of the hosting area, modifying patterns of productivity and particle sedimentation. We hypothesised that the presence of gas platforms is associated with higher organic matter (OM) contents and we tested the null hypothesis by which benthic trophic conditions do not vary signi...

In the Mediterranean Sea hard-bottom macroalgal meadows may switch to alternative and less-productive barrens grounds, as a result of sea urchins overgrazing. Meiofauna (and especially nematodes) represent key components of benthic ecosystems, are highly-diversified, sensitive to environmental change and anthropogenic impacts, but, so-far, have bee...

The demonstration of the existence of metazoan life in absence of free oxygen is one of the most fascinating and difficult challenges in biology. Danovaro et al. (2010) discovered three new species of the Phylum Loricifera, living in the anoxic sediments of the L’Atalante, a deep-hypersaline anoxic basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Multiple and indep...

The demonstration of the existence of metazoan life in absence of free oxygen is one of the most fascinating and difficult challenges in biology. Danovaro et al. (2010) discovered three new species of the Phylum Loricifera, living in the anoxic sediments of the L’Atalante, a deep-hypersaline anoxic basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Multiple and indep...

Theoretical ecology predicts that heterogeneous habitats allow more species to co-exist in a given area. In the deep sea, biodiversity is positively linked with ecosystem functioning, suggesting that deep-seabed heterogeneity could influence ecosystem functions and the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). To shed ligh...

We investigated meiofauna and sedimentary C cycling in seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) and unvegetated sediments invaded and not invaded by the non-indigenous tropical algae Caulerpa cylindracea. In both habitats, invaded sediments were characterized by higher organic matter contents. No effect was observed for prokaryotes and C degradation rates. In...

With this first double issue of 2015, Advances In Oceanography and Limnology (AIOL Journal) is facing an important regime shift. Published in house until 2007 by the Italian Association of Oceanography and Limnology (AIOL, www.aiol.info) as the Proceedings of the AIOL National Congress, it has been transformed starting from 2011 in a regular scient...

Bottom trawling represents nowadays one of the most severe anthropogenic disturbances at sea, and determines large impacts on benthic communities and processes. Bottom trawling determines also local sediment resuspension and the effects of the injection of large amounts of surface sediments into the water column have been repeatedly investigated. F...

The Descriptor 5 (Eutrophication) of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive aims at preventing the negative effects of eutrophication. However, in coastal systems all indicators based on water column parameters fail in identifying the trophic status and its effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. We investigated benthic trophic statu...