ONE FACILITY, ONE TRANSECT

The Sicily Channel as a natural laboratory

The Sicily Channel is the sole passage connecting the Eastern and Western Mediterranean basins. Every drop of water, every gram of carbon, every organism exchanged between the two halves of the Mediterranean Sea passes through this corridor.
The Sicily Channel Regional Facility integrates three long-established observing nodes along a single north–south transect at approximately 12.5°E — spanning coastal, offshore and deep-sea environments across a range of depths from 9 m to over 1300 m.
Rather than three separate sites operating in parallel, the Facility functions as a single integrated system: shared scientific questions, harmonised observing protocols, common data standards, and a unified team. The transect design enables the simultaneous observation of physical, biogeochemical, acoustic, and ecological processes at complementary spatial and temporal scales — a capability no single platform could achieve alone.
The Facility is operated by a joint effort of CNR and ENEA.

THE INTEGRATED TRANSECT

From coast to abyss: a continuous vertical section

The three nodes are not independently chosen sites: they are the coastal, offshore, and deep-ocean vertices of a single observational cross-section of the Sicily Channel, covering the full depth range of all water masses exchanged between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean.

Four integrated scientific domains

Physical oceanography: Water mass exchange, thermohaline circulation, currents, heat transport, air–sea fluxes. The Sicily Channel is the single chokepoint integrating the entire Eastern Mediterranean thermohaline signal — observable at P1 with 30+ years of continuity.

Carbon cycle & biogeochemistry: CO₂ partial pressure, pH, dissolved oxygen, optical properties, nutrient cycling. The Lampedusa Observatory is a founding member of ICOS (CO₂) and ACTRIS (aerosols), providing multi-decade atmospheric and oceanic carbon records at this climatically sensitive site.

Biodiversity & ocean sound: Passive acoustic monitoring, eDNA, video surveillance, plankton biodiversity. GRANSEA provides continuous real-time measurements of underwater soundscape, marine mammal occurrence, and benthic/pelagic ecosystem health from the coastal environment.

Climate change & anthropogenic pressures: The Channel is a Mediterranean climate change hotspot: water mass warming rates 10× the global ocean. It is simultaneously exposed to shipping traffic, fishing, coastal development, and planned offshore renewable energy expansion — all monitored in an integrated framework.

THREE NODES, ONE SYSTEM

Observing components of the Sicily Channel RF

GRANSEA Cabled Observatory

Capo Granitola, SW Sicily · 37.57°N 12.66°E · 9 m depth · CNR-ISMAR

A permanent cabled underwater observatory installed 4 km from the coast of Capo Granitola, connected to the shore station via a fibre-optic electro-optical cable. GRANSEA provides continuous real-time transmission of oceanographic, acoustic and video data, with a spatial coverage extending to the coastal zone of the Sicily Channel. Its permanent installation enables uninterrupted long-term monitoring without the logistical constraints of autonomous platforms.

The observatory hosts multi-parameter sensors for physical, acoustic and biological measurements. The acoustic component includes passive hydrophones for continuous soundscape characterisation and marine mammal detection. Video cameras monitor benthic and pelagic communities. The GRANSEA Ground Lab on shore hosts the data acquisition and management infrastructure. Data are available in near-real time via the GRANSEA ERDDAP server, federated with ITINERIS.

Key variables: Temperature • Salinity • Sea level • Ocean sound • Passive acoustics • Biodiversity (video) • eDNA • PAR

Pantelleria Deep-Water Mooring (P1)

Central Sicily Channel · 36.54°N 12.49°E · 1308 m depth · CNR-ISMAR

A submerged mooring in the deepest part of the Sicily Channel, instrumenting the full water column from 150 m to 1265 m depth. The site continues a 30+ year observational legacy from the SiCO moorings (1993–2023) operated in the central Channel — one of the longest continuous physical oceanography time series in the Mediterranean. The first deployment at this new location (Italian waters, near Pantelleria) took place in June 2026.

Five SBE37 MicroCAT CTD+O₂ sensors at depths of 154, 259, 361, 518 and 1265 m, four SBE56 temperature loggers at intermediate depths, and two RDI WorkHorse Long Ranger ADCPs (75 kHz) for current profiling. All CTD sensors are calibrated pre- and post-deployment at the ISC-LAB calibration facility in Venice. Data undergo delayed-mode QC following OceanSITES protocols and are archived on PANGAEA with persistent DOIs.

Key variables: Temperature (5 depths) • Salinity • Dissolved O₂ • Currents (ADCP) • Acoustic backscatter

Lampedusa Oceanographic Observatory

Southern Sicily Channel · 35.49°N 12.47°E · 74 m depth · ENEA + CNR-ISMAR

A multidisciplinary offshore platform combining a moored oceanographic buoy with the ENEA Lampedusa Station — a reference site for atmospheric, radiometric and air-sea interaction measurements operational since the 1980s. The observatory is a founding member of the ICOS carbon observation network and the ACTRIS aerosol research infrastructure, and contributes to satellite ocean-colour validation programmes. Sea-level records extend back to 1983.

The buoy, operated since 2015 by CNR-ISMAR, hosts sensors for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, sea surface currents, chlorophyll, CDOM, backscattering, and PAR at multiple depths (1–18 m). Atmospheric sensors include a sonic anemometer, 7-band radiometers (surface and underwater), and precipitation gauges. Near-real-time transmission via GSM. Operated jointly by ENEA and CNR-ISMAR; co-maintained with the Lampedusa Radiation Calibration Laboratory (ENEA).

Key variables: T · S · O₂ • pCO₂ · pH • Ocean colour • Radiation • Sea level (1983–) • Nutrients • Plankton • Ocean sound

ESSENTIAL OCEAN VARIABLES

What the Facility measures across all nodes

The three nodes together cover more than 20 Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), spanning physical, biogeochemical, biological, and acoustic domains. The table below summarises coverage across the transect.

Data services and access

FAIR data access

All data follow OceanSITES standards. Real-time and delayed-mode data are accessible via the GRANSEA ERDDAP server and PANGAEA with persistent DOIs (CC-BY-4.0).

Sensor calibration — ISC-LAB

All CTD sensors deployed on P1 are calibrated before and after each deployment at the ISC-LAB (CNR-ISMAR Venice) — the only CTD calibration laboratory directly associated with the Facility. Calibration certificates are traceable to international metrology standards and archived alongside data submissions.

Research infrastructure access

The Facility offers physical access (instrument deployment, co-location opportunities), virtual access (harmonised datasets, API endpoints), and technology testing and validation services to the broader scientific communities.

THE TEAM

A single Facility, multiple institutions and disciplines

The Sicily Channel Regional Facility is operated by a multi-institutional team whose members share scientific questions, field campaigns, and data management responsibilities across all three nodes. The Facility’s coordination is structured at the level of the CNR Department of Earth System Science and Environmental Technologies (DTA).

CNR-ISMAR — Venezia / La Spezia / Roma / Trieste

Scientific coordination · Pantelleria mooring · ISC-LAB · Lampedusa buoy · Data management

1. Schroeder · J. Chiggiato · M. Bastianini · M. Borghini · F. Kokoszka · F.M. Falcieri · S. Colella · E. Papale · M. Ceraulo · S. Sparnocchia · G. Civitarese

CNR-ISMAR — Capo Granitola

GRANSEA cabled observatory · Bioacoustics · Biodiversity

1. Buscaino · E. Papale · M. Ceraulo · V. Coppolaro · C. De Vita

ENEA — Frascati / Lampedusa

Lampedusa Observatory · Atmospheric measurements · ICOS · ACTRIS · Radiation laboratory

1. di Sarra · D. Sferlazzo · D. Meloni · G. Righini · F. Monteleone

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Scientific basis of the Facility

• Schroeder, K., Chiggiato, J., Josey, S.A., Borghini, M., Aracri, S. & Sparnocchia, S. Rapid response to climate change in a marginal sea. Scientific Reports , 7, 4065 (2017). doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04455-5 — 30-year SiCO/P1 time series; 10× global warming rate in Mediterranean Intermediate Water.
• Schroeder, K. & Borghini, M. An example of a field service plan for oceanographic submerged moorings. Frontiers in Marine Science , 11, 1380914 (2024). doi:10.3389/fmars.2024.1380914 — Operational blueprint for the P1 mooring service cycles.
• Marullo, S., Pitarch, J., Bellacicco, M., di Sarra, A.G., Meloni, D., Monteleone, F., Sferlazzo, D., Artale, V. & Santoleri, R. Air-sea interaction in the central Mediterranean Sea: assessment of reanalysis and satellite observations. Remote Sensing , 13, 2188 (2021). doi:10.3390/rs13112188 — Lampedusa Observatory as validation reference for satellite products.
• Coppolaro, V.L.M., Papale, E., Ceraulo, M., De Vita, C. & Buscaino, G. The GranSea multisensor marine observatory: Towards a standardization of underwater acoustic data. In: Popper et al. (Eds.), The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life IV , Springer (2026). doi:10.1007/978-3-031-94229-7_174-1
• Schroeder, K. et al. Long-term monitoring programme of the hydrological variability in the Mediterranean Sea: a first overview of the HYDROCHANGES network. Ocean Science , 9, 301–324 (2013). doi:10.5194/os-9-301-2013