Research Fellowship
Integrative Marine Ecology Department
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Villa Comunale
80121 Naples - Italy
Tel.: +39 081 5833266
Fax: +39 081 7641355
E-mail: Valerio.mazzella(at)szn.it - valenthill(at)libero.it Skype: Valerio Mazzella
Research Interests
A massive influx of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to the anthropogenic activities is causing the Ocean Acidification (OA) phenomenon. The carbonate system of the world oceans is rapidly changing and the pH of the seawater is fastly lowering. This changes will have significant consequences on marine taxa, expecially those “calcifiers”, who build shells, skeletons and carbonate structures. Thousands of experiments on OA have been done reproducing high CO2 conditions in the laboratories, but Volcanic CO2 seeps provide a unique opportunity to investigate the in situ response of marine organisms to OA. Marine Sponges are among the oldest of Metazoans, considered an important component of benthic fauna all over the world and are predicted to become “winners” in a future seawater-acidified scenario, although there is still a poor amount of consistent studies on this topic.
My project is aimed to understand how Marine Sponges could respond and/or adapt to ocean acidification considering microbial changes, metabolic profiles and isotopic analyses and is focused on the CO2 vents System on the Island of Ischia, in the gulf of Naples. Furthermore, my scientific interests are extended to the terrestrial fungi world, and this could be an interesting springboard to focus my attention also on marine fungi, a field still undiscovered.
Selected Publications
M. Mutalipassi, M. Di Natale, V. Mazzella, V. Zupo, (2018). Automated culture of aquatic model organisms: shrimp larvae husbandry for the needs of research and aquaculture. Animal. 1-9. 10.1017/S1751731117000908.
C.M. Motta, R. Cerciello, S. De Bonis, V. Mazzella, P. Cirino, R. Panzuto, M. Ciaravolo, P. Simoniello, M. Toscanesi, M. Trifuoggi, B. Avallone, (2016). Potential toxicity of improperly discarded exhausted photovoltaic cells. Environmental Pollution. Volume 216, Pages 786–792.
