The Mar Piccolo of Taranto

The Mar Piccolo of Taranto is a coastal semienclosed basin with lagoon features well studied from different points of view. The first observations on the phytobenthos date back to the beginning of the '20s. From the second half of '80s up to now, also within the framework of several research projects, the phytobenthic associations of the basin were periodically studied. As a result, 134 seaweeds (88 Rhodophyta, 18 Ochrophyta, 28 Chlorophyta) and 2 spermatophyta (Cymodocea nodosa and Ruppia cirrhosa) were recorded. Since the basin is subject to high human pressure, mostly due to mussel farming, in the last years, the monitoring of the already present non-indigenous species (9) and the research of possible new introductions are continuously performed. In spite of this, researches on the productivity of both seaweeds and phanerogams and on the distribution of phanerogam "meadows" are lacking.