The "Capo Rizzuto" Marine protected area is the continuation of the easternmost spurs in the waters of the Ionian Sea in the Calabria Region, which more specifically is an area known as Marchesato. The hinterland consists of gentle hills that extend from the slopes of the Sila to the sea with heights that rarely exceed 300 metres above sea level. There are relatively few rivers, and those present are characterised by narrow river basins, which are not part of the river systems that originate from the Sila, and which bound the Marchesato to the north and to the west with the Neto and Tacina rivers The costal area is characterised by alternating large and small headlands and bays. From the north: Capo Colonna, Capo Cimiti, Capo Rizzuto, and Le Castella are the sea digitations of the region, and outside of the area between Capo Cimiti and Capo Rizzuto, which has a mainly straight coastline, they enclose large inlets with mainly low and sandy beaches. Only the area between Capo Rizzuto and Le Castella has a relatively extensive coastal plain. The geology of the entire Marchesato area consists of sediments and Plio-Pleistocene rocks. In particular, these sediments include Plio-Pleistocene marine clays which were covered in sand and marine deposits solely in the Pleistocene Age. In the above described plain these deposits were covered by Holocene Age wind deposits. . The entire region is part of the Arco Calabro northern sector of Calabria, bounded on the northern side by the Sangineto-Basso Crati coastal strip (running ENE-WSW) and to the south by the Catanzaro coastal strip (running E-W). The latter seem to continue with a system of ominous faults in the Ionian Sea. Generally, it can be stated that the entire area was subjected to depression phenomena during the Pliocene Age and up to the Pleistocene Age, after which they were subjected to a gradual and relatively fast upheaval. The underwater morphology is characterised by the continuation in the sea of the land structures, which are therefore extremely diversified . Extended stretches of the continental shelf and areas that slope more in decidely narrow shelves. The shelf and fault scarps are located near Capo Colonna and Capo Rizzuto at the head of two underwater canyons that are part of a system of sinkings on the western margins of the Crotone and Capo Spartivento basins. After the shelf-break the morphology of the area is extremely diverified in terms of its depth and its features.
The bati-morfologia of the “Capo Rizzuto” Marine Protected area
The bati-morphological study of the reserve was carried out by interpreting the Side Scan Sonar profiles with a range between 300 and 600 metres and in a band between –10 and –and 100 metres isobath. The profiles, of which there were 77 perpendicular to the coastline and 3 parallel to the same, produced a corresponding series of analogical sonograms that were scanned using high resolution equipment and then processed using a software developed by a geo-information tecnology laboratory from the local CoNISMa research unit at the department of Geology and geo-technology Science of the Bicocca University of Milan The development programme, by interacting with navigation data (position, angle fracture etc), which was then entered into a data base, allowed the processing of images by redeveloping them in their original format. The profiles obtained in this way were then used for the development of a complex photo-mosaic of the area divided into 10 partly overlapping 1:5000 scale zones. The photo-mosaic of the individual areas were then improted and geo-referenced using an Autodesk Map 3 AutoCAD programme which was used to produce the graphics of the bati-morpholigical maps. during this interpretation phase the SSS data was integrated with the S.B.P. profiles developed concomitantly in the same quantities as the SSS profiles using a 3.5 KHz transducer connected to an analogical recorder. Lastly, 33 dives were carried out along profiles chosen on the basis of the first results of the SSS study, using a small R.O.V.. Along with 20 samples taken from 4 coastal transepts (10-100 metres in width) in particular areas of the reserve, this allowed a better definition of the morphological features of the seabeds identified by the geo-physical survey. The morphology of the seabed was then graphically represented using partly modified Meinesz et al.(1983) techniques. In particular, the rocky substrates and the mobile substrates were higlighted and described. The infralittoral plan shows rocky substrates which were divided depending on the plants they were covered with (fotofile algae and seagrass); in the Circalittoral plan they were indicated simply as rocky substrates. As far as the mobile substrates are concerned, their main structural features were highlighted, and where these substrates were present the plants covering them were identified as manatee grass or seagrass. In respect of the latter and its biotopes the following were distinguished: Seagrass on mattes, seagrass mosaics and dead mattes (degraded Posidonia), dead mattes, seagrass on sand and, as previously described, on rocks. Also, the biocenoses present in the different biotpes were shown in brackets.
