BIOINDICATION
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- CRISTINA MUNARI
- Credits
- 6
- Curriculum
- Biotecnologie per l'ambiente
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/07
Training objectives
- Understanding the effect of anthropogenic impacts on biological communities. Knowledge the main bioindicator organisms used for air, soil and water pollution evaluation. Achieve the knowledge for the assessment of environmental quality status mainly through invertebrates communities.
It will be thoroughly described structure and functioning of marine and transitional aquatic ecosystems and the effects of pollution and anthropogenic impacts on benthic communities
The experimental activities are aimed at understanding how to perform an environmental monitoring program, from the choice of sampling stations to the understanding of biotic index results
Knowledge and understanding
The student:
- knows the proper terminology of bioindication
-knows the response processes of biological communities to the anthropogenic disturbance
-knows the main indices for the assessment of the environmental disturbance in aquatic and terrestrial communities
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
The student is able to:
- use the proper terminology
-detect structural changes of communities
-perform the main biotic indices for the assessment of environmental disturbance Prerequisites
- No formal propedeuticity is required, however, basic knowledge of Ecology, and proper ecological terminology are necessary
Course programme
- First part (30 hours). Bioindication in aquatic environment. Environmental factors determining structure and composition of benthic communities. Concept of Bioindication and relevance of environmental monitoring. Characteristics of a good bioindicator and the development of indices for the environmental quality assessment. The European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) and the Italian DL 260/10. The peculiarity of transitional water ecosystems and quality status indices provided for such environments by the DL 260/10 will be thoroughly described. The biological quality elements macroinvetebrates, macroalgae, aquatic phanerogams and phytoplanckton and their used for QS assessment of transitional waters will be thoroughly discussed.
Second part (10 hours) Soil and air bioindication. Short account of soil and air pollution. Assessment of air pollution through epiphytic lichens. Lichens biodiversity index. Characteristic of soil fauna and its response to several disturbance factors. Morphological shapes and adaptations to hypogeum. Sampling methods of edaphic fauna for the environmental monitoring. Biological quality assessment through microarthopods (QBS-index), Maturiy index through nematods, use of the beetles Carabidae as bioindicators
Laboratory activities (12 hours). Didactic methods
- The course consists of lectures and practical lessons for a total of 52 hours of teaching (6 credits), 12 out of which are exercises. Lectures are held weekly in the classroom and the exposure is done through the use of power-point slides. Exercises are held in the laboratory (from6 to 8 students per group)
Learning assessment procedures
- The goal of the oral final test is to verify the level of knowledge of the student. The evaluation is expressed as usual (/30), the minimum grade is 18. The evaluation is normally based on six questions: four questions are related to the topics of the first part (i.e. biological quality elements e their quality indices in different aquatic systems, etc), and two to those of the second part (i.e. biological quality elements e their quality indices for the evaluation of air and soil quality, etc). The answers are evaluated on the basis of the appropriateness of contents and language. To pass the final test at least 3 complete and 1 partial answers are needed. The final test lasts about 30 minutes.
Reference texts
- Lecture notes and specialized papers provided by the lecturer
