The Vatova-Schiffner algarium

The Venice Lagoon, which extends from the Piave to the Brenta over an area of about 550 km², constitutes a very special environment, offering the phycologist a vast field for fruitful studies, also because it harbors many endemic and rare species and is the locus classicus of many critical species.
(Aristocle Vatova, 1938)

In the 1930s, Aristocle Vatova was tasked with conducting a study on the algal population of the Venice Lagoon by the International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean. To describe the distribution of lagoon algae, he selected 75 sampling stations distributed fairly evenly across the entire lagoon surface. He collected samples at 70 sites, while data for five sites were obtained from the literature. He also carried out collections in five fishing valleys located in the Po Delta, chosen as comparison sites. With the material collected, he assembled an algal herbarium, which, once the study was completed, he donated to the Natural History Museum of Venice.

• Sampling sites
• 1930-1932
• One century after