Benthic Ecology (Prof. Bevilacqua)

Research Strand:

Marine biology and ecology (Environmental Biology)

Prof. STANISLAO BEVILACQUA

SSD BIOS-05/A-Ecologia

Tel. (+39) 040 558 8833

E-mail: sbevilacqua@units.it

M Building, st. B/45

Department of Life Sciences

University of Trieste

Via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy

Short CV

Graduated in Biological Sciences in 2001. PhD in Fundamental Ecology at the University of Salento. The presentation of the results of his doctoral study at the Congress of the Italian Society of Ecology earned him the Marchetti Prize 2005. The publication of the research results in the Journal of Animal Ecology received a mention in F1000 Biology for the Marine and Freshwater Ecology section. From 2005 to 2018, he carried out research activities as a post-doc at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies of the University of Salento. From 2018 to 2021, he was a researcher (RTDb SC 05/C1-Ecology) at the Department of Life Sciences (DSV) of the University of Trieste, where he is currently an associate professor. Member of the Italian Society of Ecology and the Italian Society of Marine Biology, member of the Scientific Community of reference for the 'Anton Dohrn' Zoological Station Naples. Associate Editor of Frontiers in Marine Science and Discover Conservation. Associate Faculty Member of Faculty of 1000 Biology - Ecology - Global Change Ecology from 2009 to 2018. Member of the Trieste O.U. of the Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences (CONISMA), member of the Miramare Marine Protected Area Reserve Commission, Representative of the University of Trieste in the FVG Local Fishing Commission and in the Local Action Group for Fishing and Aquaculture FVG. During his activity, he participated in over 30 research projects (including PRIN, FIRB, Interreg, European Framework Programmes) concerning topics ranging from biocenotic cartography, to environmental monitoring, management of marine resources, biodiversity conservation in national and foreign Marine Protected Areas, in some of which he conducted multi-year research activities. He also provided scientific consultancy services for public and private bodies at national and international level. Founding member and Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the academic spin-off Antheus - University of Salento from 2007 to 2020. Author of over 150 publications (scientific papers, congress communications, technical-scientific reports), of which over 70 publications in international scientific journals with impact factor.

Info

Research

His main research area consists of the study of marine biodiversity, the conservation of marine environments with particular reference to the benthic compartment, and the evaluation and mitigation of the consequences of anthropogenic disturbance on the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems. Specifically, he has dealt with the evaluation of the effectiveness of conservation in Marine Protected Areas, the monitoring of the health status of priority habitats and species of community interest, the mapping of benthic habitats, the interactions between protection and recovery dynamics of disturbed populations, the study of spatial and temporal distribution patterns of marine organisms in relation to anthropogenic disturbance linked to wastewater treatment plants, offshore platforms for fossil fuel extraction, industrial poles, ports, offshore wind farms, as well as optimization procedures for monitoring based on taxonomic surrogates and ecological indicators. His studies have focused on subtidal macrobenthos on incoherent, rocky, and coralligenous substrates, but have also covered meiofauna, seagrasses, fish fauna, coastal lagoons and marshes, and rocky intertidal macrobenthic populations. His current research line focuses on the study of the relationships between the alpha, beta, and gamma components of diversity, on the correspondence between structure and functioning of marine systems and how these relationships and correspondences can be used in the evaluation of anthropogenic impact, in the study of climate change, in the definition of MPA networks and control of protection effectiveness, on the development of new approaches for environmental monitoring and on the understanding of emergent properties of ecosystems, and in particular their resilience potential.

People

Publications

Comprehensive lists of publications are available at:

ORCID
Google Scholar
Arts
Research gate

Ten representative publications from the last 5 years are reported bere below:

Motta, G., Olmo, V., Xamin, L., Terlizzi, A., Petruzzellis, F., Bacaro, G., Iudicone, D., Bevilacqua, S.; 2025. Idiosyncratic patterns of chlorophyll-a anomalies in response to marine heatwaves in the Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea) over the last two decades. Marine Environmental Research, 208, 107144.
Piccardo, M., Vellani, V., Anselmi, S., Grazioli, E., Renzi, M., Terlizzi, A., Pittura, L., D’Errico, G., Regoli, F., Bevilacqua, S.; 2024. The application of the Weight-Of-Evidence approach for an integrated ecological risk assessment of marine protected sites. Ecological Indicators, 159, 111676.
Bevilacqua, S., Boero, F., De Leo, F., Guarnieri, G., Mačic, V., Benedetti-Cecchi, L., Terlizzi, A., Fraschetti, S.; 2023. β-Diversity Reveals Ecological Connectivity Patterns Underlying Marine Community Recovery: Implications for Conservation. Ecological Applications, e2867.
Roselli, L., Bevilacqua, S., Terlizzi, A.; 2022. Using null models and species traits to optimize phytoplankton monitoring: An application across oceans and ecosystems. Ecological Indicators, 138, 108827.
Fraschetti, S., Fabbrizzi, E., Tamburello, L., Uyarra, M.C., Micheli, F., Sala, E., Pipitone, C., Badalamenti, F., Bevilacqua, S., Boada, J., Cebrian, E., Ceccherelli, G., Chiantore. M., D’Anna, G., Di Franco, A., Farina, S., Giakoumi, S., Gissi, E., Guala, I., Guidetti, P., Katsanevakis, S., Manea, E., Montefalcone, M., Sini, M., Asnaghi, V., Calò, A., Di Lorenzo, M., Garrabou, J., Musco, L., Oprandi, A., Rilov, G., Borja, A.; 2022. An integrated assessment of the Good Environmental Status of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas. Journal of Environmental Management, 305, 114370.
Bevilacqua, S., Airoldi, L., Ballesteros, E., Benedetti-Cecchi, L., Boero, F., Bulleri, F., Cebrian, E., Cerrano, C., Claudet, J., Colloca, F., Coppari, M., Di Franco, A., Fraschetti, S., Garrabou, J., Guarnieri, G., Guidetti, P., Guerranti, C., Halpern, B.J., Katsanevakis, S., Mangano, M.C., Micheli, F., Milazzo, M., Pusceddu, A., Renzi, M., Rilov, G., Sarà, G., Terlizzi, A.; 2021. Mediterranean rocky reefs in the Anthropocene: present status and future concerns. Invited Chapter on Advances in Marine Biology, 89, 1–51.
Bevilacqua, S., Anderson, M.J., Ugland, K.I., Somerfield, P.J., Terlizzi, A.; 2021. The use of taxonomic relationships among species in applied ecological research: Baseline, steps forward and future challenges. Austral Ecology, 46, 950–964. Invited article for the special issue in honor of Prof. Robert K. Clarke.
Gissi, E., Manca, E, Mazaris, A.D., Fraschetti, S., Almpanidou, V., Bevilacqua, S., Coll, M., Guarnieri, G., Lloret-Lloret, E., Pascual, M., Petza, D., Rilov, G., Schonwald, M., Stelzenmüller, V., Katsanevakis, S.; 2021. A review of the combined effects of climate change and other local human stressors on the marine environment. Science of the Total Environment, 755, 142564.
Bevilacqua, S., Terlizzi, A.; 2020. Nestedness and turnover unveil inverse spatial patterns of compositional and functional beta-diversity at varying depth in marine benthos. Diversity and Distributions, 26, 743–757.
Bevilacqua, S., Savonitto, G., Lipizer, M., Mancuso, P., Ciriaco, S., Srijemsi, M., Falace, A.; 2019. Climatic anomalies may create a long-lasting ecological phase shift by altering the reproduction of a foundation species. Ecology, 100, e02838.

Projects

Large international projects:

SAVEMAR

MITFISH-N2K

Other research projects:

https://dsv.units.it/it/dipartimento/persone/personale-docente?q=it/node/37725

Last update: 09-19-2025 - 23:30

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