Venice Lagoon, fecal microorganisms under examination by the Cnr
A mosaic of microbial contaminants is present in the Venice lagoon. A study published in the international scientific journal Total environmental science by the Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnologies of Ancona (Irbim) in collaboration with the Institute of Geosciences and Georesources of Padua (Igg) of the National Research Council (Cnr) and the Michigan Technology University (USA), found in the Venice lagoon the presence of different types of microorganisms, especially of faecal nature, dangerous for humans.
“The city of Venice, with its lagoon, is today one of the main tourist destinations in the world, and represents a unique environment of its kind. Industrial activities and related to tourism, as well as some structural features of the historic center of the city, a progressive deterioration of the state of the lagoon“, explains Gian Marco Lunadirector of Cnr-Irbim. “Our innovative study, based on the analysis of the environmental DNA of the exploitation of this area“.
The Venetian lagoon system well represents the characteristics of many man-made coastal ecosystems and new technologies can help reduce the effects of human activities. “The results through our results in the framework that the impact of the fragile human ecosystem of environmental pollution Venice also passes the microbiological lagoon, but they suggest that in the new DNA analysis technologies represent that the new DNA analysis technologies represent today a powerful tool for re-type, identify possible sources and for effective risk reduction strategies“, he claims Grace Quero, researcher at Cnr-Irbim. The same technology can also be applied to the study of other ecosystems. “The study also opens up the possibility of applying the same approach based on the analysis of the degree of other microbiological possibilities also in other geographical areas, which uses the need for ever greater interaction with scientific disciplines, including modeling, to better understand the processes that guide the fate of pathogenic microorganisms in the environment and to identify the best mitigation actions of the phenomenon“to conclude Luca Zaggiaresearcher of the Cnr-Igg.