Preface
The papers published in this volume reflect the present knowledge of the
Mediterranean gained by the Italian scientific community. These contributions,
even though quite representative, do not completely exhaust the range of activities conducted in the framework of Italian marine research. However, they show
an extremely broad range of these activities, which practically encompasses all
fields of present interest of the marine sciences. In addition, these works show
how these different aspects find their synthesis in research characterized by
strong multidisciplinarity.
These papers were selected from the communications presented at the First
National Congress of Marine Sciences, held on the Island of Ischia, off Naples, 1114 November 1998, organized by CoNISMa in cooperation with the Associazione
Italiana di Oceanografia e Limnologia (AIOL), the Societa. Italiana di Biologia
Marina (SIBM) and the Societa. Italiana di Ecologia (SItE). The Italian National
Marine Science Consortium (CoNISMa), which groups together 24 Italian universities, was founded in 1994 to promote and coordinate research activities in
the various disciplines of marine science. The sea, if understood as an element of
the national territory, obviously calls for choices in terms of management and
government, which need to be supported by constantly updated scientific knowledge.
One of the tasks of CoNISMa, according to its statute, is to hold a National
Congress every 2 years aimed at providing the scientific community with an
opportunity to spread and update its knowledge in the marine sciences. The
works collected in this volume, after being refereed by senior scientists from various fields of marine science, have been grouped together according to cultural
areas.
We decided to follow this criterion. rather than a geographical one, or one
which favoured the environmental characterization of the studied areas, to be
consistent with the title of the volume, thus reflecting the approach that we
believe most effective as a guide for the reader.
However, it is worth emphasizing that the multidisciplinary character and
content of these papers leads to different "transversal" reading and clustering
possibilities, which the informed reader will be free to design and undertake
autonomously.
The editors and CoNISMa hope that this volume will be useful to the marine
research community, and that its circulation will increase and strengthen the
interest for the scientific, technical and cultural activities aimed at a better
understanding of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Editors
The papers published in this volume reflect the present knowledge of the
Mediterranean gained by the Italian scientific community. These contributions,
even though quite representative, do not completely exhaust the range of activities conducted in the framework of Italian marine research. However, they show
an extremely broad range of these activities, which practically encompasses all
fields of present interest of the marine sciences. In addition, these works show
how these different aspects find their synthesis in research characterized by
strong multidisciplinarity.
These papers were selected from the communications presented at the First
National Congress of Marine Sciences, held on the Island of Ischia, off Naples, 1114 November 1998, organized by CoNISMa in cooperation with the Associazione
Italiana di Oceanografia e Limnologia (AIOL), the Societa. Italiana di Biologia
Marina (SIBM) and the Societa. Italiana di Ecologia (SItE). The Italian National
Marine Science Consortium (CoNISMa), which groups together 24 Italian universities, was founded in 1994 to promote and coordinate research activities in
the various disciplines of marine science. The sea, if understood as an element of
the national territory, obviously calls for choices in terms of management and
government, which need to be supported by constantly updated scientific knowledge.
One of the tasks of CoNISMa, according to its statute, is to hold a National
Congress every 2 years aimed at providing the scientific community with an
opportunity to spread and update its knowledge in the marine sciences. The
works collected in this volume, after being refereed by senior scientists from various fields of marine science, have been grouped together according to cultural
areas.
We decided to follow this criterion. rather than a geographical one, or one
which favoured the environmental characterization of the studied areas, to be
consistent with the title of the volume, thus reflecting the approach that we
believe most effective as a guide for the reader.
However, it is worth emphasizing that the multidisciplinary character and
content of these papers leads to different "transversal" reading and clustering
possibilities, which the informed reader will be free to design and undertake
autonomously.
The editors and CoNISMa hope that this volume will be useful to the marine
research community, and that its circulation will increase and strengthen the
interest for the scientific, technical and cultural activities aimed at a better
understanding of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Editors