Embracing that eco-engineering helps little for ecol. restoration, but still increases biodiversity, lets us think differently and actually design beautiful marine urban green spaces with humans in mind. We could make these areas attractive for recreational activities and increase human wellbeing.

#Ecoengineering increases species diversity by increasing habitat patchiness and complexity, this is well documented. Unfortunately this is linked to increasing #invasivespecies diversity in several
Eco-engoneered systems. 1/3

Awesome presentation by Giada Riva on the absence of biotic homogenization at regional scale at the #ITRS #ITRS2025 This was one of the unexpected outcomes of the HERMES campaign and shows that we still have a lot to learn about marine urban #ecosystems

Another #ITRS #ITRS2025 presentation from the HERMES campaign will be given by the amazing Giada Riva Tuesday 1 July from 16:45 to 17:00! Don't miss it, the results may surprise you!

My favorite substrate so far was this abandoned fin with over 20 different Bryozoa species 🌈

Participating to the #ATLASea #DIVE-Sea project aiming to identify and sequence as many marine species as possible. It’s fun being surrounded by other taxonomists in all domains! For the moment one of my favorite substrates was this discarded hat full with bryos!

The HERMES campaign will feature in two presentations at the International Temperate Reefs Symposium #conference
I will present how some urban artificial habitats may have insular properties. The implications of this insight on understanding urban community assembly are huge! #ITRS #ITRS2025

For the HERMES 2023 #fieldwork we spent hundreds of hours under water to measure ecosystem functions like photosynthesis, but also months in the laboratory to generate our #taxonomic dataset of 500 (!) species. This helped investigate biotic homogenization and island biogeography in urban habitats.

In 2023 we conducted the Homogenization and Ecogeography on Regional scale in Manmade EcoSystems (HERMES) campaign which aimed to study biogeographic processes on regional scale along the whole Italian coast. We drove camper to sample urban and natural habitats on 33 sites in 2 months

Even more striking, is that local adaptation of some Bryozoa to local pollution is present on such a tiny scale (<100m). This is shown by higher pollution accumulation of Entrance-->Inner transplants compared to inner control (red boxes), and lower LysoPE content (fitness marker, white arrow).

The difference in community structure between areas of the same marina can be actually quite striking as demonstrated by our settlement plates. We were able to causally link community and pollution via a transplant experiment.

One of the main focuses of my research lays on how disturbance gradients (mostly pollution) results in different communities along these gradients in marine urban habitats and how invasive species capitalize on them.
doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...

We’re currently doing some field sampling in harbors and natural environments to test whether biotic homogenization happens on a temporal scale too! #fieldwork

In a new paper, we simulated a strong heatwave in a harbor, which did ... nothing! The community was unchanged, as was the metabolome of a Bryozoan. The harbor community showed high resistance which is consistent with observations from other disturbances
doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106813

In marine urban habitats #pollution leads to strong variation in envir. conditions , thus, to differences in community structure. However this can be masked by high intensity marine #HeatWaves favouring resistant species leading to small scale biotic homogenization.
doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

Within the species that suffered from climate change, one introduced #Bryozoa had significant changes in its metabolism as shown by #metabolomics analyses. Some typical molecules associated to membrane fluidity changed, but also a molecule named Caelestine A linking this molecule with heat stress.

The system worked simulating a future #ClimateChange scenario in an Atlantic and Mediterranean Marina. In both cases the local communities differed between the heated and the control. Yet, the response of #IntroducedSpecies #NIS #InvasiveSpecies was opposite profiting in one but not the other marina