Hydrological continuum and ecosystem diversity offshore-onshore: focus on marine and continental water exchanges and their influence on marine habitats sensitive to global change.
Marine-coastal zones represent hydrologically complex environments, characterized by a constant exchange between marine and continental water flows, both surface and groundwater. This water exchange process emerges as one of the main factors influencing the habitats and benthic communities of these environments, contributing, for example, to salinity variations and the nutrient supply that sustains the benthos.
The project's objective is to analyze the impact of water exchanges between the sea and the mainland on the shallow marine areas of the Valdés Peninsula and the Venetian coastal system in the Adriatic Sea. An innovative approach is proposed that considers an offshore-onshore hydrological continuum, sensitive to global changes and resulting hydrogeological modifications, such as sea level variations or inland water discharges into the sea.
The study focuses on analyzing these influences, assessing groundwater flows from coastal aquifers to the intertidal and shallow marine environment. Groundwater discharge into the sea and the associated salt and nutrient exchanges are examined. The research uses an integrated approach that considers the various physical, chemical, and biological processes resulting from exchanges between marine and continental waters, within a multidisciplinary framework.