Spring evolution of water column features and planktonic communities in the Gulf of Milazzo (Sicily)

The present work is based on original data collected during spring 2003 in the frame of a national programme (MIUR Cluster10-SAM)dealing with the development of new technologies and approaches to coastal monitoring. Meteoceanographic forcings are crucial factorsin driving dynamics and physical features of coastal waters which in turn strongly in?uence planktonic communities. High-frequencyautomatic data improve the detail of the oceanographic context, framing on a longer time-scale the snapshots caught during fieldcampaigns. Joint interpretation helps in discriminating which process (stratification, mixing) mostly in?uenced planktonic compartmentin early May.