INSTITUTE OF BIOPHYSICS Secondary Seat of Pisa

Marine carbon cycle

Research Line: Biophysics of the sea
Research group: Marine carbon cycle

Staff: Chiara Santinelli, Giovanni Checcucci, Valtere Evangelista,  Stefano Vestri
PhD students: Giancarlo Bachi
Postdocs: Simona Retelletti Brogi, Marco Sartore
Collaborators: Yuri Galletti, Margherita Gonnelli

Our research focus is the marine carbon cycle, with a specific attention on the dynamics of dissolved organic matter (DOM). DOM is one of the largest reservoirs of reactive carbon on Earth and plays a key role in regulating the capability of the oceans to store CO2. It also represents the main source of energy for the heterotrophic prokaryotes, regulating the marine food web. The DOM comes from all the biological processes in the oceans, but it is also impacted by the anthropogenic activity, through riverine and atmospheric inputs. Our research activities aim at a comprehensive understanding of DOM, by studying its dynamics in the ocean as well as in the rivers and in atmospheric depositions. We are also very interested in studying how DOM-microbes interaction regulates C cycle in the ocean.

Brief history

Since 2000 we have collected more than 10.000 samples covering the entire Mediterranean Sea from the surface to the bottom.
Since 2007 we have measured monthly samples from a LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) station in the Gulf of Naples (in collaboration with Stazione Zoologica di Napoli).
In 2014 we have started a time series of measures in the Arno River,
Since 2015 we have collected the total atmospheric depositions at the ENEA Station for Climate Observations on Lampedusa island.
Since 2017 we are one of the 6 labs certifying the concentration of the consensus reference material used to validate DOC measurements (“DOC-CRM program” https://hansell-lab.rsmas.miami.edu/consensus-reference-material/index.html)

Research topics:

  • Marine Carbon cycle
  • DOM-microbes interaction
  • Mediterranean Sea role in the global carbon cycle
  • Dissolved organic matter (DOM) dynamics
  • Optical properties (absorption and fluorescence) of Chromophoric DOM
  • DOM biological lability
  • Riverine DOM dynamics
  • Atmospheric DOM deposition
  • DOM-metal interaction
  • Use of fluorescence as indicator of organic contamination of natural water, including drinking water
  • Extracellular Enzyme Activity

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

  1. Hansell Dennis, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the Med Sea and in the ocean, Certified Refrence Material (CRM) analysis, Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry, RSMAS – University of Miami, FL, US.
  2. Lenoble Veronique, DOM metals interactions, Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie, MIO, Marseille (France)
  3. Mission Benjamin, DOM microbes interactions, Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie, MIO, Marseille (France)
  4. Omanovic Dario, Optical properties of DOM at the land-sea interface and DOM metals interactions, Center for Marine and Environmental Research, Ruder Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
  5. Pulido Villena Elvira, DOM input from the atmosphere, Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie, MIO, Marseille (France)
  6. Repeta Daniel, Dissolved organic matter chemical characterization and DOM microbes interactions, Department of Marine Chemistry and geochemistry, Woods hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, US.

Projects in progress
SENSOR – Nuovi sensori real time per la determinazione di contaminazioni chimiche e microbiologiche in matrici ambientali e biomedicali

Decoupling of Phosphonate Synthesis from Degradation in Microbial Communities Leads to the Accumulation of Organic Nutrients in Oligotrophic Gyres” (WHOI), funded by the Moore Foundation,

CISAS Centro Internazionale di Studi Avanzati su Ambiente, Ecosistema e Salute Umana http://www.cisas.cnr.it/

 

Research Line Poster
 

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