How ecosystems adapt to face disruptive impact? The case of a commercial harbor benthic community

Commercial harbors are commonly considered as definitively lost environment sacrificed in the name of economic development, but, recently, a growing attention has been addressed to harbor ecology and harbor ecological state. The objective of this research is to identify the adaptation strategy carried out by the benthic community of Voltri harbor (NW Italy) by means of the application of a set of whole system metrics. Thermodynamic and network analysis revealed harbor benthic community characterized by an efficient and active network but also scarcely able to maintain complex structures and organisms. These results can be interpreted as evidences of adaptations carried out by the harbor benthic community that revealed itself healthy even if poorly resilient and thus not able to face further disturbances.

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