ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Increase in the number of Italian forests and lakes monitored and develop 18 new environmental indicators to assess the effects of air pollution on biodiversity. These are, in summary, the results of the LIFE MODERn project (NEC), coordinated by the Carabinieri Corps – Command Units Forest, Environmental and Food (CUFAA) and to which ENEA participated. Four years of work conducted on the field and then subjected to advanced scientific evaluations such as environmental DNA analysis (eDNA) in the laboratories of ENEA Research Centres and other Italian partners Cnr, CREA, University of Florence and Camerino, Legambiente and the spin-off of the University of Siena, TerraData environmetrics.
The activities were carried out to meet the obligations of the European Directive NEC (National Emission Ceilings) 2016/2284, which includes instruments for the reduction of pollutants also the results of monitoring the effects of pollution on ecosystems. The structure and operation of the NEC Italia Network were expanded: before the project were 6 forest sites and 4 freshwater monitored, while now 10 in each area, distributed in various Italian regions, from the Mediterranean forests to the alpine lakes. The 18 new environmental indicators have made it possible to better understand how ozone, nitrogen oxide and ammonia damage soil, animals, plants and biodiversity. Among these indicators, visibility monitoring stands out to assess the impact of air pollution, at the centre of another project, “Visibility”, always in ENEA participation and with CUFAA coordination.
“Some of these indicators use cutting-edge techniques such as eDNA analysis, which allows to detect unseen species or leave genetic traces in the environment without necessarily being observed. This allows you to have an integrated level of biological information, which can help you understand the state of biodiversity and changes in response to air pollution”, explains the project manager LIFE MODERn (NEC) for ENEA, Alessandra De Marco, responsible for the ENEA Laboratory Impacts on the territory and in developing countries at the Department of Sustainability, Circularity and Adaptation to Climate Change of productive and territorial systems. Other innovative methods developed in the project are bioacoustics, that is the monitoring of fauna through environmental sounds, and the chemistry of the leaves, which provides information on the nutritional, physiological and environmental status of plants and the impact of atmospheric pollutants or climate change.
“In forest monitoring it is essential to measure the biological communities present in the soil, such as bacteria, fungi and fauna, which are more quickly influenced by external alterations than parameters such as the amount of carbon stored,” adds De Marco. Criticism and improvements have emerged from monitoring. For example, the nitrogen concentration in the Padan Plain remains high, as well as are evident in many sites ozone damage. On the other hand, a significant reduction in sulphur deposits and an excellent biological quality of forest soils has been recorded, which involves increased forests and increased mitigation of climate change. In order for the results of the project to be used to improve Italian and European environmental policies, a permanent technical group has been established, involving the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security and the research bodies concerned.
In addition, LIFEMODERn (NEC) focused on the formation of public operators, in particular forest Carabinieri, and dissemination. To raise awareness of the schools on the subject of air quality, the competition “Diamo delle Arie” was organized for the primary and secondary of the first degree. “At a stage in which Italy is still far from European air quality objectives and many ecosystems suffer because of climate change, this project represents a concrete and innovative response that has created a living network to help protect the environment and health of all,” concludes De Marco.
– Enea press office photos –
(ITALPRESS).
