First records of zooplankton occurrences in the Cabras Lagoon (Sardinia, Italy): FUTURE Project dataset

The Mediterranean region is considered as one of the most sensitive areas regarding global warming. Mediterranean artificial lakes and coastal lagoons are considered particularly vulnerable environments that deserve attention as they provide fundamental goods and ecosystem services. The main objective of the Project is to investigate the effects of the forecasted heat waves on Mediterranean natural plankton communities including several trophic levels, from bacteria to mesozooplankton. The effects of rising temperature on diversity and size-structure of plankton community and on the abundance and composition of pathogenic bacteria and related antibiotic resistance were evaluated. Coordinator of the Project is University of Sassari; partners CNR-IRET and CNR-IRSA.

Two natural plankton communities from two diverse Mediterranean ecosystems considered particularly vulnerable to warming were considered: the artificial lake Bidighinzu and the coastal lagoon Cabras in Sardinia (West Mediterranean). The main use of Bidighinzu Lake is to store drinking water, whereas Cabras Lagoon has a high economic rating due to extensive fisheries. These sites are both sites of the Italian Network for the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER-Italy; http://www.lteritalia.it/). Details on these two ecosystems are available at https://deims.org/3707cf71-7e04-41e3-8afc-518b293f6c07 and at https://deims.org/d5071d21-9c8f-47cc-b534-1b1162a5e09c.

For each plankton community, several trophic level of the planktonic food web will be considered: autotrophic and heterotrophic picoplankton (cell size < 2 µm; heterotrophic picoplankton= bacteria), autotrophic and heterotrophic nanoflagellates (2 µm < cell size < 20 µm), phytoplankton and ciliates (2 µm < cell size < 200 µm) and mesozooplankton (200 µm < organism size < 2 mm). The project is addressing the goals by running laboratory experiments and field monitoring activities. The laboratory experiment allows to investigate directly the plankton community responses to heating under controlled conditions, while the field activity allowed to investigate the entire plankton community dynamics over the natural seasonal variations of the temperature.

Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Missione 4 “Istruzione e Ricerca” - Componente C2Investimento 1.1, “Fondo per il Programma Nazionale di Ricerca e Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN)”. Decreto Direttoriale n. 104 del 2 febbraio 2022. Macrosettore LS – Settore LS8- 202252YWFC-“A warmer Future world: effects on plankton commUnities and paThogens in mediterranean vUlneRable Ecosystems (FUTURE)”- CUP B53D23011750006; National Biodiversity Future Centre (NBFC), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, PNRR, Missione 4 Componente 2, “Dalla ricerca all’impresa”, Investimento 1.4, Project CN00000033.