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ISPRA, Milan Bicocca and Corsica Sardinia Ferries: together for the biodiversity preservation of the Mediterranean Sea

From the "DNA of the sea", new information will be obtained on the species that inhabit it

Also this year the University of Milan Bicocca renews its commitment with ISPRA and Corsica Sardinia Ferries in the project to safeguard the Cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea.

"The cooperation  of Corsica Sardinia Ferries with ISPRA and the monitoring network of cetaceans and sea turtles, active since 2007, has already produced many important results useful for the knowledge and protection of these species; the integration of visual monitoring with environmental DNA analysis carried out by the University of Milan Bicocca provides an extremely interesting opportunity to increase our knowledge and understanding of the marine ecosystem ", said an ISPRA researcher and Project Coordinator FLT Mediterranean monitoring Network.

The project aims at the innovative study of Mediterranean biodiversity, through the analysis of DNA micro-traces that each living organism releases in the environment in which it lives (eDNA). This new technique, made possible by the development of sophisticated molecular analysis technologies, makes it possible to identify the presence and abundance of marine organisms which, because of the nature of the habitat in which they live, are not very accessible and therefore difficult to study.

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