What's a 'Smart Bay?': A way to fight climate change

The Santa Teresa Smart Bay, situated on the coast at Lerici, is Italy's first and is an underwater 'living' laboratory, in an area noted for tourism and diving.

 The small bay was chosen by researchers from ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) and CNR (Italy's National Research Council) as a perfect location to closely monitor the seawater, using bryozoans (aquatic invertebrate animals) and other sessile organisms (organisms that are anchored to something) as 'living sensors'.

Of particular interest is the PH of the Mediterranean Sea, the amount of acidity and the level of oxygen in the water. Biologists are concerned the Med is becoming hotter and more acidic which would not only change the habitat of many native species but also lead to more violent changes in weather systems such as an increased frequency in Mediterranean tornadoes.

Marine biologist and ENEA researcher Chiara Lombardi has created an underwater 'farm' of bryozoans living in sedentary colonies and marine polychaete worms. These little animals use the carbonates in the water to grow their shells and due to a rise of the acidity in the Mediterranean waters, linked to pollution and to high temperatures, Lombardi can easily assess how the growth of the animals has slowed down.

Using an underwater probe, called 'Tinetto', Lombardi can also assess the PH and the levels of oxygen of the water, two vital parameters for the health of the Mediterranean and its marine population.

"What we are doing is monitoring the carbonate chemistry of the water as well as physical properties and what we have been observing is that climate change is occurring in the Mediterranean sea", Lombardi said.

"We are monitoring PH which is also related to ocean acidification and the oxygen level which is related to hypoxia which is causing a lot of damage around the Mediterranean ecosystem including also the aquaculture," she said.

The name Mediterranean Sea, derives from the Latin name meaning 'in the middle of land'. It represents 0.7% of the global ocean surface and is a semi-enclosed basin with its only connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar, which gives it's waters unique characteristics. There is very little swell and its waters have only a small amount of nutrients due to the low flow of rivers that reach it. There has also been a high amount of over fishing and pollution.

As well as data collection Lombardi hopes to develop the Smart Bay to work alongside local businesses particularly involving local fisherman and the tourist industry to make their work more eco-friendly in future.

Lombardi's goal is to create a completely sustainable and carbon-neutral bay, which can combine the sustainable use and management of resources and the technological development of scientific research in a natural setting.