Lead institution:
Università degli Studi di Padova – Italy
DIAPHONIA will bring together scientists from diverse backgrounds, to assess the various impacts of underwater noise on marine organisms of the food web, including invertebrates and commercial species.
The project will develop a possible diagnostic fingerprinting composed of several tissue markers incorporating molecular, metabolomic and microscopic techniques to identify functional and morphological changes in the acoustic pathways of invertebrates, fishes and marine mammals.
In addition, the project will explore the relationship between behavioural and cellular, molecular, organ effects of both short and long-term noise exposure in fish from different European ocean basins. DIAPHONIA will also gain insight into the morpho-functionality of the peripheral hearing apparatus in marine mammals and its role in defining the animal’s acoustic sensitivity, by developing a standardised workflow for wave propagation in the associated tissues.
Lead contact: Sandro Mazzariol (sandro.mazzariol@unipd.it)