ASSESSING COVID-19 LOCKDOWN EFFECTS ON THE VULNERABLE AND SENSITIVE AREA OF TARANTO BASIN

The Taranto basin, a complex marine ecosystem with typical lagoon features, has been declared Site of National Interest (SIN) because of serious contamination of marine sediment. Since February 2014, The Coastal Engineering Laboratory (LIC) of DICATECh of the Polytechnic University of Bari (Italy) maintains a place-based research programme in the Mar Grande and Mar Piccolo of Taranto, providing records of hydrodynamic and water-quality measurements. Taranto, like the rest of Italy, had a lockdown since March 2020 which has reduced the industrial activity which is the main source of human stress on the ecosystem of the Mar Piccolo and Mar Grande. Here, the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on sea surface temperature SST is investigated using the satellite and in situ measurements. Rising sea surface temperatures related to global warming are increasingly affecting marine habitats and people who depend on them.