Elisa Baldrighi

• PhD
• Research Assistant Professor at University of Nevada, Reno

Here, we present the first comprehensive dataset of functional traits for marine nematodes (MarNemaFunDiv). In this study, we propose 16 functional traits (life strategy, body shape, trophic group, oesophageal bulb, cuticle complexity, adhesive structures and ambulatory setae, head shape, amphid (shape and size), sensory structures (head and rest o...

This paper identifies the top-50 priority questions for meiofaunal research, highlighting their critical roles in biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity. It calls for a balanced research agenda, international cooperation, and advances in technology to overcome current challenges and unlock meiofauna’s full potential.

Marine nematodes possess all the prerequisites to serve as “simpler models” for investigating biological phenomena and are gaining attention as emerging model organisms. This review evaluates their potential to address diverse biological questions regarding ecosystem functioning, climate change adaptation, host–microbe interactions, ecotoxicology,...

Arctic regions are among the fastest warming areas of the planet. Increasing average temperatures over the last five decades have deepened the thawing of the upper-most layer of permafrost across the Arctic, which contains significant amounts of organic carbon. The progressive deepening of seasonal thawing releases carbon that is used by active mic...

Synopsis The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico, occurred in 2010 at 1525 meters depth, releasing approximately 507 M liters of oil. Research cruises in 2010 and 2011 were conducted to assess the initial and subsequent effects of the oil spill on deep-sea infauna. The spatial-temporal response of the deep-sea meiofauna...

Ocean acidification is causing major changes in marine ecosystems, with varying levels of impact, depending both on the habitat and the studied organisms. Here, we investigated for the first time the meiobenthos and nematode fauna inhabiting the sediments around Castello Aragonese (Ischia, Italy), characterized by variable pH values due to coastal...

This study is based on assessing fecal bacteria contamination along meteorological, hydrological and physical-chemical variables after high rainy events during the summer period. The study focused on four different coastal sites in the western and eastern Adriatic coast characterized by various geomorphological and hydrological features, levels of...

Meiofauna-a collective term to define microscopic animals-represent a numerically important component of biodiversity in most of Earth's ecosystems and play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles. Meiofauna have also been used as models to understand fundamental adaptive processes, have contributed to a better understanding of the animal's Tree of...

Harbors are hubs of human activity and are subject to the continuous discharge and release of industrial, agricultural, and municipal waste and contaminants. Benthic organisms are largely known to reflect environmental conditions they live in. Despite meio-and macrofauna interacting within the benthic system, they are ecologically distinct componen...

Nematodes are among the most successful metazoans inhabiting the Earth and they are pivotal components as in terrestrial as in aquatic (both in marine and freshwater) environments providing important ecosystem services. The aim of this study was to understand major research trends and topics on free-living nematodes inhabiting soil, marine and fres...

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires Member States to achieve good environmental status (GES) across their marine waters. The EU have requested ICES to advise on methods for assessing adverse effects on seabed habitats, through selection of relevant indicators for the assessment of benthic habitats and seafloor integrity and asso...

What do we know about the Adriatic Sea and the state of its health? Are purification plants enriching it with nutrients or with chemical and microbiological pollutants? [...]

Free-living nematodes were investigated in three Mediterranean commercial ports (Ancona and Trieste, Italy; Koper, Slovenia) in terms of abundance, diversity and functionality. Results indicated that r-strategist genera were dominant in all ports and that a more diverse assemblage characterized Trieste, despite the high contamination levels, sugges...

The transfer of communication and knowledge from science and research to the general public is a paramount step to raise people’s awareness about environmental issues and their negative and positive impacts on each of us. Many projects and initiatives seek to raise awareness among citizens, with particular attention to young people, about the impor...

Maerl beds, particularly those of Brittany, are important, structurally complex biogenic coastal habitats that form a unique ecosystem with high benthic biodiversity. Although they are relatively well studied throughout Europe, several faunal groups of maerl beds, such as those belonging to the meiofauna, have received little attention. We investig...

Final Governance guidelines Deliverable 5.3.1 EU Interreg Project WATERCARE

We describe the process of the development of a citizen science platform on Ocean Literacy designed and implemented during the lockdown period of 2020. As restrictions due to the COVID-19 health emergency did not allow researchers to organise public events and field data collection activities related to Ocean Literacy, we decided to take advantage...

We describe the process of the development of a citizen science platform on Ocean Literacy designed and implemented during the lockdown period of 2020. As restrictions due to the COVID-19 health emergency did not allow researchers to organise public events and field data collection activities related to Ocean Literacy, we decided to take advantage...

More than 80% of wastewaters are discharged into rivers or seas, with a negative impact on water quality along the coast due to the presence of potential pathogens of faecal origin. Escherichia coli and enterococci are important indicators to assess, monitor, and predict microbial water quality in natural ecosystems. During rainfall events, the amo...

This manual was drawn up during the activities foreseen in the EU INTERREG Watercare project. After the design and implementation of the WQIS in the pilot site of Fano, the authors have drafted this manual in order to be used for field operation by all partners of the project. For more information about the WQIS, you can refer to the deliverables...

Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) close to water bodies are a cause of grave environmental concern. In the past few decades, major storm events have become increasingly common in some regions, and the meteorological scenarios predict a further increase in their frequency. Consequently, CSO control and treatment according to best practices, the adopti...

This study presents a description of Bispira riccardi sp. nov., a new habitat-forming sabellid polychaete from the mesophotic NW Mediterranean Sea. Individuals, up to 20 cm long, show a peculiar morphology of radioles, thoracic uncini, companion chaetae and ventral shield of the collar. The phylogenetic position of this new taxon in the genus Bispi...

In the Adriatic Sea, massive rainfall events are causing flooding of rivers and streams, with severe consequences on the environment. The consequent bacterial contamination of bathing water poses public health risks besides damaging tourism and economy. This study was conducted in the framework of WATERCARE, an EU Interreg Italy-Croatia Project, wh...

In the Adriatic Sea, massive rainfall events are causing flooding of rivers and streams, with severe consequences on the environment. The consequent bacterial contamination of bathing water poses public health risks besides damaging tourism and the economy. This study was conducted in the framework of WATERCARE, an EU Interreg Italy-Croatia Project...

Indonesia is biologically one of the most diverse areas in the world. Nevertheless, its biodiversity is underestimated, and this is particularly evident for meiobenthic assemblages. Seagrass meadows are known to be ecosystem engineers that can significantly modify the habitat heterogeneity and, thereby, increase the meiobenthic diversity. Therefore...

The aim of this study is to develop a relocatable modelling system able to describe the microbial contamination that affects the quality of coastal bathing waters. Pollution events are mainly triggered by urban sewer outflows during massive rainy events, with relevant negative consequences on the marine environment and tourism and related activitie...

Bioindicators assess the mangroves ecological state according to the types of pressures but they differ with the ecosystem’s specificities. We investigated benthic meiofauna diversity and structure within the low human-impacted mangroves in French Guiana (South America) in response to sediment variables with various distances to the main city. Cont...

One of the most important pieces of climate change evidence is ocean acidification. Acidification effects on marine organisms are widely studied, while very little is known regarding its effects on assemblages’ β-diversity. In this framework, shallow hydrothermal vents within a Marine Protected Area (MPA) represent natural ecosystems acting as labo...

Pockmarks are circular-shaped depressions that increase seabed heterogeneity and are characterized by discontinuous fluid emissions. To understand how environmental conditions of pockmarks affect the structure of macro- and meiofauna, we investigated two sites in a pockmark field in the northwestern Madagascar margin. In a comparative approach, we...

Epibiosis is a common phenomenon in marine systems. In marine environments, ciliates are among the most common organisms adopting an epibiotic habitus and nematodes have been frequently reported as their basibionts. In the present study, we report several new records of peritrich and suctorian ciliates-nematode association worldwide: from a deep-se...

Hydrothermal venting is rather prevalent in many marine areas around the world, and marine shallow vents are relatively abundant in the Mediterranean Sea, especially around Italy. However, investigations focusing on the characterization of meiofaunal organisms inhabiting shallow vent sediments are still scant compared to that on macrofauna. In the...

The occurrence of hydrothermal vent ecosystems at Secca delle Fumose, Pozzuoli Bay (Gulf of Naples), represented an opportunity to study the benthic assemblages under the thermal stress of hydrothermal emissions in a very shallow environment (9–14 m water depth). In autumn 2016, the macrobenthic community was sampled by scuba divers at four sites l...

Open sandy beaches support key ecological functions and a distinctive biodiversity, but are threatened by an increasing anthropogenic pressure. Among these threats is the occurrence of green tides of Ulva spp., expression of the eutrophication phenomenon. Our study aimed at determining the impact of green macroalgal accumulations on benthic meiofau...

Several individuals belonging to a new species of the genus Chromadorita (Nematoda: Adenophorea) were collected in a cold-seep area in the Gulf of Guinea during two French cruises: BIOZÄIRE 2 (2001) and BIOZAÏRE 3 (2003–2004) on board the R/V L’Atalante. In this area, rich chemosynthetic benthic communities have been discovered at 3150 m depth in t...

Ports receive a variety of contaminants related to a wide range of anthropogenic activities - including ship ballast water (BW) - that ultimately find their way to sediments. Benthic meiofauna from four Adriatic ports (Ancona, Trieste, Koper, and Split) was assessed for the main environmental pollutants, to evaluate the effects of human activities...

Ports are subject to a variety of anthropogenic impacts, and there is mounting evidence of faecal contamination through several routes. Yet, little is known about pollution in ports by faecal indicator bacteria (FIB). FIB spatio-temporal dynamics were assessed in 12 ports of the Adriatic Sea, a semi-enclosed basin under strong anthropogenic pressur...

The main objective of the present study was to investigate invertebrate colonization processes at deep-sea hydrothermal vents in response to environmental factors and to the presence of complex artificial substrata (i.e., synthetic sponges). We set out a pilot experiment at 1700 m depth on the Lucky Strike vent field (Eiffel Tower, Mid-Atlantic Rid...

The global scale of the biodiversity crisis has stimulated research into the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). Even though the deep sea is the largest biome on Earth, BEF studies in deep-sea benthic ecosystems are scant. Moreover, the small number of recent studies, which mostly focus on meiobenthic nematodes, repor...

The report includes and examines the list of taxonomists from IAMC (Institute for Coastal Marine Environment), IGG (Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources), ISE (Institute of Ecosystem Study), and ISMAR (Institute of Marine Sciences), who responded to the Taxonomy Census 2016, their scientific publications and the number of taxa described new...

The global scale of the biodiversity crisis has stimulated research on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) in several ecosystems of the world. Even though the deep-sea seafloor is the largest biome on Earth, BEF studies in deep-sea benthic ecosystems are scarce. In addition, the few recent studies, mostly focus on...

Meiofauna and macrofauna are closely linked by numerous types of interactions, but comparative studies are rare. It has been postulated that meiofauna and macrofauna diversities are related, and that a higher functional diversity of meiobenthic and/or macrobenthic organisms can enhance a higher functional diversity. A simultaneous study of the deep...

The large-scale deep-sea biodiversity distribution of the benthic fauna was explored in the Mediterranean Sea, which can be seen as a miniature model of the oceans of the world. Within the framework of the BIOFUN project ("Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Contrasting Southern European Deep-sea Environments: from viruses to megafauna"), we...

A comparative study for abundance, biomass and diversity was carried out for the prokaryote, meiofauna and macrofauna communities at three depth stations (1200, 1800 and 2100 m) along the Malta Escarpment (Mediterranean Sea). Our investigation showed a two-fold increase with depth in prokaryote abundance; the contribution of prokaryote biomass to t...

The deep-sea represents a substantial portion of the biosphere and has a major influence on carbon cycling and global biogeochemistry. Benthic deep-sea prokaryotes have crucial roles in this ecosystem, with their recycling of organic matter from the photic zone. Despite this, little is known about the large-scale distribution of prokaryotes in the...