NEREA, the Naples Ecological REsearch for Augmented observatories: Towards an end-to-end transdisciplinary approach for the study of marine ecosystems

Abstract

Here we present the concept of NEREA, the Naples Ecological REsearch for Augmented observatories, an integrated observatory with a modular, adaptive structure, characterised by two main modules, NEREA-mob and NEREA-fix. NEREA-mob is conceived as monthly sampling at a coastal station in the Gulf of Naples where the whole water column is sampled for end-to-end (from microbes to fish) biological parameters coupling traditional with “omic” approaches (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metabolomics). NEREA-fix will be deployed in 2020 in the Dohrn canyon at ca. 600 m, and will integrate a seabed platform and a mooring line equipped with a set of different chemicalphysical and bio-ecological sensors. Ecological information from the two modules will be integrated by ad-hoc additional samplings in key moments and experimental activities aimed at contextualizing the sites at a larger scale. NEREA therefore aims at representing a first step towards the establishment of a network of augment observatories, end-to-end approaches under the multidisciplinary framework required for ocean health assessment