Microbial community dynamics in the Venice lagoon

Alessandro Vezzi, Fabio De Pascale, Riccardo Schiavon

Starting from June 2013 our research group is part of the Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) Consortium, which aim is to analyse the marine microbial biodiversity and function of the world's ocean. In particular, every solstice we sample the surface water of 4 different sites, located inside and outside the Venice lagoon, together with the corresponding environmental data. The sampling sites have been chosen to study how the microbial biodiversity is shaped and is able to respond to natural and anthropogenic changes. On July 2014 our group has also begun a new research in collaboration with Prof. A. Sfriso of the University of Venice, whose team is involved in a LIFE project called "Habitat 1150* (coastal lagoon) recovery by sea grass restoration" (LIFE12 /NAT/IT/000331). Just after the transplantation of sea grass root stocks in targeted lagoon sites, we started a monthly water sampling in two of these sites. By means of metagenetics and metagenomics approaches we will decipher how the microbial communities could respond to the re-introduction of the sea grass.