Elena Manini is a researcher at CNR-IRBIM in Ancona. She holds a degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Environmental Sciences – Marine Ecology. For more than twenty years, she has been conducting research in the field of marine microbial ecology, with particular focus on the role of microorganisms in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and on their responses to environmental changes and anthropogenic pressures.
Her scientific activity integrates approaches from microbial ecology, environmental microbiology and molecular biology to investigate the biodiversity, structure and functioning of microbial communities in different marine and coastal matrices. Her research has addressed pelagic and benthic environments, as well as coastal and deep-sea systems, with particular emphasis on the relationships among microbial communities, environmental conditions, contamination and human-induced alterations.
In recent years, she has developed research lines focused on the microbiological quality of aquatic environments, fecal contamination and its sources, antibiotic resistance and virulence determinants in riverine and marine-coastal systems, as well as on the study of microbiomes associated with sediments, plastics and marine organisms. She is also involved in environmental monitoring activities related to offshore infrastructures and geological CO₂ storage, with particular interest in the use of microbial communities as sensitive indicators of environmental change.
She has extensive experience in the participation in and scientific coordination of national and international research projects and marine monitoring programmes, collaborating with Italian and international research groups. The results of her research are documented by numerous scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals in the fields of marine ecology, environmental microbiology, pollution and aquatic ecosystem management.
She is also actively involved in the training and scientific supervision of undergraduate and graduate students, PhD candidates and early-career researchers, and has developed substantial experience in the design and coordination of experimental activities, oceanographic cruises and multidisciplinary studies aimed at improving the understanding and monitoring of marine ecosystems.
Referent:
Pierluigi Penna
Monitoring the marine environment and geological formations overlying the ENI CCS area in Ravenna.
Referent:
Gian Marco Luna
The first National Centre for Research and Biodiversity
Referent:
Massimiliano Pinat
Capitalizing the results of the B-Blue project