Discovery of a forgotten historical algarium for the Venice Lagoon: the Vatova collection

The first studies on the flora and algal associations in the Venice Lagoon date back to the XVIII century (Olivi, 1749). They were followed in the XIX-XX centuries by the classic works of Naccari (1828), Zanardini (1847), De Toni & Levi (1885-1888), De Toni (1889-1924), Vatova & Schiffner (1937), Sighel (1938), Vatova (1940) and Pignatti (1962). The Natural History Museum in Venice, hosts the Algarium Zanardini, which is undoubtedly the most valuable collection of species, mostly from the Adriatic Sea. It includes also the algal collections of Schiffner & Vatova made during the '30s, which have been described in the fundamental "Monografia della laguna di Venezia (1937)". Recently, a forgotten collection of Vatova was found in the library of the Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR) in Venice. The collection is entitled "Distribuzione e polimorfismo di Gracilaria confervoides nella laguna di Venezia" (Distribution and polymorphism of Gracilaria confervoides in the Venice Lagoon). This historical algarium includes more than a thousand of Gracilaria samples collected in 107 sampling sites in the Venice Lagoon between 1942 and 1950. A miscellanea section is also included, containing samples of different taxa. The results of this collection have never been published. This project aims: a) to catalogue and to register the algarium; b) to georeference the sampling stations; c) to review the newly found collection by an integrated approach of both classic taxonomic methods and DNA barcoding techniques, using protocols designed for ancient DNA. The information recorded on the historical algarium will allow evaluating changes that have occurred over time in the sampling areas, but also a taxonomic revision of the identified species and, last but not least, the revaluation of museum records in the framework of the molecular age.