MACROFAUNAL COMMUNITY AS INDICATOR OF SANDY BEACHES ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Ecosystems are under the pressure of complex mixtures of contaminants whose effects are not always simple to assess. Among these, sandy beaches environments are one of the most vulnerable and seriously endangered ecosystems in the world; in recent years have been variously disturbed and damaged by human interventions.Biomarkers, acting as early warning signals of the presence of potentially toxic xenobiotic, are useful tools for assessing effects of these compounds and provide information about their bioavailability. In this context, ecotoxicogenomics provides an attractive approach to study changes after exposure to an environmental stressor; variation in gene expression should be taken into consideration when determining xenobiotic mechanisms of action. Our research program foresees investigations at different levels to unravel the biotic effects associated with environmental perturbations. We hence focus on sandy beaches close to the mouth of rivers flowing on the Central Italian Mediterranean coast with the main goal of providing innovative indicators of environmental stressors. For this purpose, we carried out chemical analyses of sand; these results were coupled with the screening of the transcriptomes of the amphipod Talitrus saltator (Talitridae, Amphipoda), a key species of sandy beach communities. Finally, we are firstly applying a biomarker of genotoxicity in T. saltator to monitor the effects of pollution at a low level of biological organization.