How it can be enjoyed

The fact sheets dedicated to individual species and the habitat descriptions are conceived as flexible tools, suitable both for use in educational settings and for independent consultation. They can support teaching activities, workshops, and guided educational programs, offering reliable content that can be easily integrated into curricula. At the same time, they are designed for individual use, aimed at anyone who wishes to approach or explore in greater depth, in an informed way, topics related to the biodiversity of the Venice Lagoon, fostering a free, accessible, and personalized learning experience.

To whom it is addressed

The Atlas is aimed at a broad, cross-sectional audience, able to identify with different needs and outlooks. It is a valuable ally for students and teachers, who can explore the lagoon through clear, rigorous and highly visual materials designed to facilitate learning and stimulate curiosity. The Atlas, however, also becomes a working tool for educators, nature guides and extensionists, who find in it reliable, up-to-date and easily shareable content suitable for recounting the complexity of the lagoon without oversimplifying it. But the Atlas also speaks to those who do not have a professional role in education or research: curious citizens, visitors, enthusiasts. For all those who wish to better understand the environment surrounding Venice, the Atlas serves as a discreet and knowledgeable travel companion, capable of making visible and legible what often remains in the background.

Goals

1. Telling the story of the complexity of the Venice lagoon means traversing its environments and recognizing its subtle but decisive differences: from the lagoon margin to the salt marshes, from the shallow beds to the channels, from the emerged lands to the coastal barriers, and to the inlets. Each of these places contributes to defining a dynamic, ever-changing landscape where water, sediment and life intertwine.

2. The Atlas shows how environmental gradients and the different lagoon morphologies give rise to a dense network of micro-habitats, creating the conditions for high biodiversity. L’Atlante mostra come i gradienti ambientali e le diverse morfologie lagunari diano origine a una fitta trama di micro-habitat, creando le condizioni per un’elevata biodiversità.

3. Offering an accessible and scientifically reliable tool for recognizing species and learning to read their ecological role, distribution, and key characteristics. A support designed to navigate the complexity of the lagoon and understand how each organism contributes to the balance of the ecosystem.

What you will learn

The Atlas allows for an informed and in-depth approach to the Venice lagoon, offering different levels of reading. First of all, it allows to learn about the key habitats of the lagoon system and to understand their ecological functions: the filtering role of the lagoon margins, the ability of salt marshes to stabilize sediments, the extraordinary richness of life in the shallow beds. Through accurate illustrations, morphological descriptions and photographs taken in the field, it helps to recognize the most representative species and to distinguish shapes, colors and features that often escape a hasty glance. Each card thus becomes a small gateway to stories of adaptation and coexistence.

The Atlas also invites readers to discover curiosities, behaviors, and strategies of very different organisms—from algae to marine phanerogams, from birds to fish, and extending to mammals, crustaceans, mollusks, and insects—highlighting the richness and diversity of lagoon life. Finally, it provides the tools to understand how human activities and environmental changes affect these delicate ecosystems—from clam farming to channel dredging, elements that interact daily with the balance of the lagoon.

How to use it

The project is designed as a digital journey that takes the reader through seven major environments of the Venice lagoon. Each section is a stage in the journey, a change of scenery that allows the reader to grasp how forms, waters and organisms transform as they move from one habitat to another.

Explore lagoon habitats and their characteristic species

Together, these seven sections build a narrative map of the lagoon, helping to read an area in constant flux and understand its extraordinary richness.

Lagoon margin

Salt marshes

Shallow beds

Channels

Emerged lands

Coastal barriers

Port inlets

Bibliography consulted

Download the bibliography consulted

The authors

Editorial project coordination:Nicoletta Nesto, Fantina Madricardo, Michol Ghezzo (CNR-ISMAR)

Habitat texts:
Nicoletta Nesto, Marco Sigovini, Irene Guarneri, Simona Armeli Minicante (CNR-ISMAR), with contributions from Giacomo Cipolato, Luca Scapin, Federico Riccato e Riccardo Fiorin (Laguna Project)

Texts and graphic design of species sheets:
Federico Riccato, Riccardo Fiorin, Giacomo Cipolato, Luca Scapin, Samuele Natin (Laguna Project)

Photographs:
Federico Riccato, Riccardo Fiorin, Giacomo Cipolato, Luca Scapin (Laguna Project), with contributions to the collection by Marco Basso, Marco Fantin, Marco Picone, Diego Riccato, Jacopo Richard, Giada Riva, Marco Uliana, Paolo Paolucci © Museo di Storia Naturale Giancarlo Ligabue – Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Simona Armeli Minicante (CNR-ISMAR).

Illustrations:
Myriam El Assil

Text and illustration review and scientific consulting::
Simona Armeli Minicante, Elisa Camatti, Irene Guarneri, Nicoletta Nesto, Marco Sigovini (CNR-ISMAR), Diego Fontaneto (CNR-IRSA).

Habitat and species texts translated by
TRADUZIONE-IN Agency – Lipsie Group