NEREA MOBILE

The Gulf of Naples (GoN) extends between 40°50'N, 40°32'N, 13°52'E, 14°28'E in the Mid Tyrrhenian Sea, with an area of ca 870 km2 and an average depth of 170 m (Figure below). The GoN is subject to pressures from diverse human activities from the metropolitan area of Naples, with a population of about 4 Million people.

The Long Term Ecological Research site Marechiara (LTER-MC) located two nautical miles offshore in front of the city of Naples was established in 1984 and sampled fortnightly (until 1991) or weekly (from 1995 to date) for a number of biological, chemical and physical parameters.

Based on the conceptual and methodological framework developed by Tara Oceans, and building upon the scientific legacy of the LTER-MC site, the NEREA project was set up as an augmented observatory coupling traditional physical, chemical, and biological measurements with ‘omics’ approaches (i.e. metabarcoding, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics, e-DNA), trace metals analysis, conventional flow cytometry, microplastics.

The NEREA mobile unit benefits from the exceptional variety of environmental gradients existing in the Gulf of Naples, and includes monthly sampling at LTER-MC; an area influenced alternatively by the eutrophic coastal waters or the oligotrophic Mid Tyrrhenian Sea waters, the mouth of the Sarno River, one of the most polluted river in Europe after years of continuous supply of untreated effluent of domestic, agricultural and industrial origin, the oligotrophic waters above the mesopelagic Dohrn canyon (down to 700 m) and a shallow coastal site along the coast of the Island of Ischia characterised by natural CO2 seeps.