173VARSTVO NARAVE, Supl. 1 (2011)
THE COAST OF S. BARTOLO SCI (MARCHES, ITALY) AS A SITE IN 
THE ADRIATIC AREAS NETWORK OF CONSERVATION INTEREST
OBALA SAN BARTOLA (MARCHES, ITALIJA) KOT ENA IZMED 
LOKALITET V MREŽI NARAVOVARSTVENO POMEMBNIH 
JADRANSKIH OBMOČIJ 
Maria BALSAMO, Antonella PENNA, Federica SEMPRUCCI, Rodolfo COCCIONI, 
Fabrizio FRONTALINI, Dino SCARAVELLI, Anita MANTI, Stefano PAPA 
ABSTRACT
Monte San Bartolo Park (Pesaro, Italy) is located along the coast of Marches and includes the only 
rocky cliff along the whole northern Adriatic coastline. The Park was created in 1997 to protect a 
terrestrial area of great naturalistic importance, since it lies along a main bird migratory route, includes 
wintering habitats of many bird species, hosts rare plant species and constitutes an almost complete 
section of the Messinian stage in Italy. The coastal strip is still poorly known, even if it is characterized 
by important hot-spots of zoobenthic biodiversity and a great heterogeneity of habitats: soft and hard, 
natural and artificial substrates, and few seagrass meadows. However, human activities, outputs from 
local rivers and Po river plume, seasonal or special euthrophication events as well as recent climate 
change greatly affect this marine system, the structure and functions of which may be altered over 
time with consequent deterioration and loss of ecosystem services. For all these reasons, a monitoring 
project through an integrated approach has been started in the San Bartolo marine area, which is not a 
subject to conservation plans as yet. The double aim of the project is to improve the knowledge of the 
local marine biodiversity and to analyze the complex response of the biological marine communities 
to external factors, mainly human activities and global warming. Regular checks of the littoral system 
and biological assemblages are needed to acquire scientific knowledge suitable for planning effective 
conservation strategies. The distinctive features of this site strongly support the proposal of including 
it in a possible network of Adriatic areas worthy of conservation actions, and useful for checking the 
climate change effects over time.
IZVLEČEK
Park San Bartolo (Pesaro, Italija) leži vzdolž obrežja Marches in vključuje edini klif ob celotni severni 
jadranski obali. Ustanovili so ga leta 1997, da bi zaščitili tamkajšnjo kopensko območje izjemnega 
naravoslovnega pomena, saj leži vzdolž ene izmed glavnih ptičjih selitvenih poti, a je hkrati tudi dom 
redkih rastlinskih vrst in skoraj popoln odsek mesinske stopnje v Italiji. Ta obalni pas je še vedno slabo 
poznan, pa čeprav obsega pomembne “vroče točke” zoobentoške biotske pestrosti in velike raznovrstnosti 
habitatov: mehke in trde naravne in umetne substrate in nekaj travnikov morske trave. Vendar pa 
človekove dejavnosti, odplake lokalnih rek in reke Pad, sezonska ali izredna evtrofikacija in nedavne 
podnebne spremembe v veliki meri vplivajo na ta morski sistem, katerega struktura in funkcije se lahko 
sčasoma močno spremenijo zaradi slabšanja in izgube ekosistemskih storitev. Prav to so razlogi, da se 
je v morskem območju San Bartola, ki še ni predmet naravovarstvenih načrtov, že začel uresničevati 
projekt spremljanja stanja. Dvojni namen projekta je izboljšati znanje na področju morske biodiverzitete 
in analizirati zapletene odzive morskih združb na zunanje dejavnike, predvsem človekove dejavnosti in 
globalno segrevanje. Da bi pridobili ustrezno strokovno znanje, ki je nujno za načrtovanje učinkovitih 
174 Balsamo, Penna, Semprucci, Coccioni, Frontalini, Scaravelli, Manti, Papa: The Coast of ...
naravovarstvenih strategij, so potrebna redna preverjanja obrežnega sistema in bioloških asociacij v 
območju. Izjemne značilnosti te lokacije bi morale biti deležne močne podpore pri predlogu, da se 
vključi v mrežo jadranskih območij, vrednih naravovarstvenih akcij in koristnih pri preverjanju učinkov 
podnebnih sprememb skozi daljše obdobje.
Maria BALSAMO, Federica SEMPRUCCI, Rodolfo COCCIONI, Fabrizio FRONTALINI, 
Dino SCARAVELLI, Anita MANTI and Stefano PAPA 
Dep. Earth, Life and Environment Sciences (DiSTeVA),
University of Urbino, 
61029 Urbino (PU), Italy
maria.balsamo@uniurb.it
Antonella PENNA
Dep. Biomolecular Sciences, 
University of Urbino, 
61121 Pesaro (PU), Italy