Events

Commencement of preliminary field surveys within the vermetid trottoir coastal habitat
Alan Deidun - November 2018

The first stage of field investigations within vermetid trottoirs, a coastal habitat of high conservation importance, have commenced within the HARMONY project. Vermetid trottoirs are an example of bioconstructions, which can assume the form of crusts or even biogenic reefs formed through the fusion of external calcium carbonate tubes secreted by a number of marine gastropod species, including Dendropoma cristatum and Vermetus triqueter, by the encrusting algae Neogoniolithon brassica-florida. These preliminary surveys have the aim of identifying the relationship between human activities and the integrity of this sensitive coastal habitat which is restricted to the mediolittoral and uppermost infralittoral.