Island of Pianosa

For the past few years, a CNR Research Base (Base Ricerca Pianosa – BRP) managed by the three institutes IGG, ISMAR and IBE has been present on Pianosa Island, a Tuscan archipelago (province of Livorno). The BRP-CNR was established in the “Former-Cabinieri Barracks” building built in the 1990s and used for a few years as barracks until the maximum security prison was finally closed.
The two-story structure contains both laboratory spaces, technical rooms, offices and warehouses and 11 bedrooms each equipped with a toilet (no. 8 single rooms and no. 3 double rooms). There is also a large hall with a work/conference area and a part used as a canteen, and a kitchen with all equipment to be able to stay by making meals in total autonomy. Finally, there is a laundry room and a service bathroom.

The BRP-CNR is equipped with rooms where laboratories of various types can be set up. Currently, there is a Hydrology, Chemistry and Solid Matrices laboratory, with an area used for the storage of samples collected during outdoor campaigns and portable instruments available to the base or introduced temporarily by the visiting groups for the conduct of field activities; a room equipped with a facility for the preparation of deionized water and an area for instrument calibration and sample cataloguing; a chemical laboratory for the preparation and analysis of liquid solutions; and a solid matrices laboratory, for the preparation, sieving, conditioning, etc, of samples of soil, rocks, fossils, biosphere, etc. A refrigeration system is also available for samples requiring this type of storage.

The Island of Pianosa is particularly interesting from a Biological-Ecological point of view becausé it preserves traits and characteristics that have now disappeared in much of the Italian coastal strip, and constitutes a reference for parameterizing the environmental status of our coasts. Having been the site of a maximum-security prison, with access to the island and surrounding marine area prohibited to tourism and fishing, has meant that the variety and abundance of animal and plant species is unique throughout the Mediterranean. The marine coastal strip of the island of Pianosa shows unique characteristics of the biocoenosis associated with it, including the “trottoirs” of bio-condretions, which reach 1 meter in thickness and deserve to be considered true “natural monuments,” and the Posidonia oceanica prairies, which by density of bundles, length of leaves and proximity to the coast confirm the peculiarity of the island and its unique marine environmental conditions. Although modest in size, the Island is also particularly interesting from the geo-morphological point of view of both the emerged part and the seabed.

For more details about the Island, active research projects and how to propose new projects, and the rules for applying for access and use of the base, see the web site.

The map and bathymetric map come from: F. Del Bianco, L. Gasperini “TECHNICAL REPORT ON THE BATIMETRIC SURVEYS OF THE COASTAL BUNDLE OF PIANOSA ISLAND DURING THE PIA09 CAMPAIGN.”