Daniela Casu
University of Sassari
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Publication
Featured researches published by Daniela Casu.
Aquatic Ecology | 2009
Daniela Casu; Giulia Ceccherelli; Nicola Sechi; P. Rumolo; Gianluca Sarà
Caulerpa racemosa var. cylindracea has been invading various types of substrates in wide areas throughout the Mediterranean Sea. However, the effects of the distribution of this alga on zoobenthos are scanty. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of C. racemosa invasion on the feeding habits of some zoobenthic taxa inhabiting the upper infralittoral rocky shores. This was done by identifying the isotopic N and C ratios of several potential food sources and testing differences in isotope composition among the taxa collected from areas invaded and not-invaded areas by C. racemosa. Results suggest that C. racemosa detritus was a significant food source for the polychaete Syllis prolifera, the gammarid Corophium sextonae and the gastropods Cerithium rupestre and Pisinna glabrata. They would also suggest that stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios deserve further attention as a possible valuable approach to understand the overall effect of C. racemosa spread on the trophic interactions among the species.
Chemistry and Ecology | 2004
Paolo Magni; S. Micheletti; Daniela Casu; Antonello Floris; G. De Falco; Alberto Castelli
Macrofaunal communities and specific bulk properties of organically enriched sediments were investigated in the coastal lagoon of Cabras (Sardinia, western Mediterranean) on a grid of twenty-nine sampling stations, in spring 2001. Species composition and community structure indicated poor and heterogeneous macrofaunal communities, characterized by few predominant taxa typical of degraded environments, such as Polydora ciliata, Tubificidae nc and Neanthes succinea, distributed differently in some areas of the lagoon. Sediments were homogeneously muddy, with a mean silt + clay content of 93%. The analysis of specific grain size intervals within the mud fraction, however, highlighted a marked spatial variability of sediment particle distribution. Simple associations included a positive relationship of both Ficopomatus enigmaticus and Corophium sextonae, patchily distributed along the shores, with sediment sorting (σ), an index of sediment selection due to hydrodynamic energy. By contrast, inner areas, characterized by a major accumulation of finer particles (and organic matter), with a sediment mean size (Φ) up to 8.2 phi, were least populated. The results suggest the existence of an early stage of faunal succession which might be related to an excessive organic content of sediments and the tendency to dystrophic events in the Cabras lagoon.
Italian Journal of Zoology | 2002
Marco Casu; Ferruccio Maltagliati; Marilena Meloni; Daniela Casu; Piero Cossu; Giorgio Binelli; Marco Curini-Galletti; Alberto Castelli
Abstract An investigation of the genetic variability of Octopus vulgaris, an intensively harvested species, was carried out using a mi crosatellite locus as genetic marker. Samples from one eastern At lantic and nine Mediterranean locations were analysed. In each population, the number of alleles at locus Ov06 varied from four to seven and was 21 overall. Observed and expected heterozy‐gosity values ranged from 0.310 to 0.655 and 0.506 to 0.841, re spectively. Permutation tests and the positive average value of FIS showed significant departures from the Hardy‐Weinberg equilibri um, due to a deficit of heterozygotes. FST showed high levels of genetic divergence among the populations. Genetic distance val ues ranged from 0.0004 to 7.1520. Isolation‐by‐distance was not evident either by the Mantel test or multidimensional scaling. Mi crosatellite results are consistent with a previous allozyme study, and suggest that the common octopus does not form a single panmictic unit in the Mediterranean. From a fishery perspective, this information leads to the conclusion that the management of O. vulgaris should be planned on a local level.
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom | 2005
Ferruccio Maltagliati; Marco Casu; Tiziana Lai; Daniela Iraci Sareri; Daniela Casu; Marco Curini Galletti; Grazia Cantone; Alberto Castelli
Ophelia bicornis sensu lato is a polychaete living in intertidal sandy habitats of Mediterranean and European Atlantic coasts, whose systematics have been strongly debated in the past few decades. In the present work the count of nephridiopores was coupled with genetic analysis carried out with DNA markers (inter simple sequence repeats) for a total of 30 individuals collected at six Italian beaches. Exact test, analysis of molecular variance, non-metric multidimensional scaling and assignment tests clearly separated individuals with five nephridiopore pairs from those with six pairs. This finding validated results of a recent allozyme study in which O. bicornis sensu lato was split into O. bicornis sensu stricto (six nephridiopore pairs) and O. barquii (five nephridiopore pairs). This paper represents a further contribution to the estimation of biodiversity within marine invertebrates.
Marine Pollution Bulletin | 2008
P. Magni; G. De Falco; S. Como; Daniela Casu; Antonello Floris; A.N. Petrov; Alberto Castelli; A. Perilli
Marine Pollution Bulletin | 2007
S. Como; Paolo Magni; Daniela Casu; Antonello Floris; Gianmarco Giordani; S. Natale; Ga A. Fenzi; Geraldina Signa; G. De Falco
Hydrobiologia | 2005
Paolo Magni; Samuele Micheletti; Daniela Casu; Antonello Floris; Gianmarco Giordani; Alexei N. Petrov; Gianni De Falco; Alberto Castelli
Bulletin of Marine Science | 2002
Ferruccio Maltagliati; Paola Belcari; Daniela Casu; Marco Casu; Paolo Sartor; Giovanni Vargiu; Alberto Castelli
Marine Biology | 2008
S. Como; Paolo Magni; M. Baroli; Daniela Casu; G. De Falco; Antonello Floris
Scientia Marina | 2006
Daniela Casu; Giulia Ceccherelli; Marco Curini-Galletti; Alberto Castelli