Seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) monitoring in western Mediterranean: implications for management and conservation.

The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is extensively monitored in Mediterranean coastal waters and is an ideal candidate for an eco-regional assessment of the coastal ecosystem. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of P. oceanica as eco-regional indicator for its assessment at the scale of Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, regional and national P. oceanica monitoring programmes are identified, and their data and metadata are collected and compared in terms of objectives, strategies, sampling designs and sampling methods. The analysis identifies a number of issues concerning data quality, reliability and comparability. In particular, the adoption of different sampling designs and methods may introduce relevant errors when comparing data. The results of this study stress the necessity of carefully planning monitoring programmes. Moreover, it highlights that the adoption of a number of common tools would facilitate all Mediterranean monitoring activities and allows an optimisation of management efforts at an eco-regional scale.

Plasma Membrane Glycoproteins of Ciona intestinalis Spermatozoa that Interact with the Egg1 : (Ascidians/sperm-egg interaction/spermatozoa/sperm plasma membrane/Con A-binding proteins).

In the ascidian Ciona intestinalis the species-specific interaction between the spermatozoon and the egg occurs between the vitelline coat (VC) of the egg and the plasma membrane of the apical part of the head of the spermatozoa. Concanavalin A (Con A)-binding sites are present on this area of the sperm surface. We used Con A to identify and isolate the spermatozoon plasma membrane components that may be involved in the interaction with the VC. These glycoproteins have been identified on SDS-PAGE of a sperm membrane fraction (SMF) enriched with the extermal proteins, after incubation of the gel with 3 H-Con A. Affinity chromatography on Con A-agarose has been used for the purification of sperm plasma membrane proteins with and affinity for the lectin. The biological activity of the Con A-retained fraction was determined with binding and fertilization assays.

The Differentiation of the Vitelline Envelope of Xenopus Oocytes*: (xenopus/oocyte/vitelline envelope/differentiation/fucosyl glycoproteins).

We have studied the differentiation of the vitelline envelope (V.E.) of the oocyte of the anuran Xenopus laevis. The V.E. precursor material is synthesized by the oocyte concomitantly with the onset of vitellogenesis, and its extrusion reaches a maximum at late vitellogenesis. Oocytes at different stages of growth were incubated in L-[3 H]fucose and the progress of incorporation was followed by kinetic and histoautoradiographic analysis. We found that the highest overall rate of incorporation was exhibited by the vitellogenic oocytes. These oocytes showed clusters of grains in the perinuclear and in the cortical areas. The highest accumulation of grains in the V.E. was associated with the late vitellogenic stage, when the differentiation of the V.E. was almost complete. L-[3 H]Fucose labelled glycoproteins have been identified by electrophoretic analysis of V.E. prepared from late vitellogenic stages.

Needs of ecotoxicological methods in Italian and European Union legislations in the field of water policy.

Recent water policy at national and international level have been addressed toward environmental objectives aimed to protect water resources and develop their sustainable management. Water framework Directives, considering all surface waters and their specific ecosystems and interrelationships among the different components, were just approved in Italy in 1999 and in the European Union in 2000. A brief analysis on the chemical, physical and biological monitoring and ecotoxicological methods required is shown in this paper. The need of developing a series of adequate biological and ecotoxicological tests is underlined.

Assessing human-induced pressures on coastal areas with publicly available data.

The assessment of human-induced pressures on the coastal area is essential to target management plans effectively, and moreover is required by the EU Water Framework Directive. A simple and cost-effective assessment of human-induced pressures on the coastal zone is applied using two methodologies: a qualitative visual assessment which uses satellite images; and a quantitative assessment based on governmental census data. These methods are applied to defined areas (23 areas) of four Italian regions: Liguria, Tuscany, Latium and Sardinia. The results show a high agreement (83%) between these two methods, in which only four of the 23 areas are classified differently. These differences may mainly be ascribed to the qualitative or quantitative properties of the methods, and to the different geographical units adopted. These characteristics however provide complementary information, which suggests that the application of both proposed methods confirms reliability and allows fine-tuning of the assessment. The pressure assessment proposed is simple, time and cost-effective, and repeatable over time and space. It therefore can be applied in different contexts to respond to legislative requirements or to target management plans and remedial actions effectively.