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The development and testing of innovative technologies and automated data analysis methodologies offer tools for investigations in numerous scenarios including the monitoring of complex marine ecosystems and the direct and indirect effects of climate change on natural heritage. In the underwater environment, the creation of products with accurate metric and colorimetric content is a scientific and technological challenge, that can offer tools for new investigations including the monitoring of ecosystems and the study of biodiversity. The research group developed a technological solution consisting of a remotely operating platform and a measuring system that includes RGB and fluorescence optical sensors for the 3D reconstruction of the underwater environment and the study of the health-state of investigated species. The proposed solution aspires to high-accuracy multiscale reconstruction of underwater animal forests with a special focus on metric content. Methodologies and technical solutions for the management and calibration of the system have been developed: the design of proper calibration frames and the fluorescence sensor, the choice of a proper illumination system, the implementation of the system on a customizable Remotely Operating Vehicle, the integration of the different sensors, the combination of metric and colorimetric results for monitoring the occurred deformations and the health status. The results of laboratory activities and preliminary tests on field tests are discussed.

Charge transport in conjugated polymers as well as in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells made of blends between conjugated polymers, as electron-donors (D), and fullerenes, as electron-acceptors (A), has been investigated. It is shown how charge carrier mobility of a series of anthracene-containing poly(p-phenylene-ethynylene)-alt-poly(p-phenylene-vinylene)s (AnE-PVs) is highly dependent on the lateral chain of the polymers, on a moderate variation of the macromolecular parameters (molecular weight and polydispersity), and on the processing conditions of the films. For the first time, the good ambipolar transport properties of this relevant class of conjugated polymers have been demonstrated, consistent with the high delocalization of both the frontier molecular orbitals. Charge transport is one of the key parameters in the operation of BHJ solar cells and depends both on charge carrier mobility in pristine materials and on the nanoscale morphology of the D/A blend, as proved by the results here reported. A straight correlation between hole mobility in pristine AnE-PVs and the fill factor of the related solar cells has been found. The great impact of charge transport for the performance of BHJ solar cells is clearly demonstrated by the results obtained on BHJ solar cells made of neat-C70, instead of the common soluble fullerene derivatives (PCBM or PC70BM). The investigation of neat-C70 solar cells was motivated by the extremely low cost of non-functionalized fullerenes, compared with that of their soluble derivatives (about one-tenth). For these cells, an improper morphology of the blend leads to a deterioration of charge carrier mobility, which, in turn, increases charge carrier recombination. Thanks to the appropriate choice of the donor component, solar cells made of neat-C70 exhibiting an efficiency of 4.22% have been realized, with an efficiency loss of just 12% with respect to the counterpart made with costly PC70BM.

9 pages, 2 figures.-- Data Availability Statement: All datasets generated for this study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s, Marine animal forests are benthic communities dominated by sessile suspension feeders (such as sponges, corals, and bivalves) able to generate three-dimensional (3D) frameworks with high structural complexity. The biodiversity and functioning of marine animal forests are strictly related to their 3D complexity. The present paper aims at providing new perspectives in underwater optical surveys. Starting from the current gaps in data collection and analysis that critically limit the study and conservation of marine animal forests, we discuss the main technological and methodological needs for the investigation of their 3D structural complexity at different spatial and temporal scales. Despite recent technological advances, it seems that several issues in data acquisition and processing need to be solved, to properly map the different benthic habitats in which marine animal forests are present, their health status and to measure structural complexity. Proper precision and accuracy should be chosen and assured in relation to the biological and ecological processes investigated. Besides, standardized methods and protocols are strictly necessary to meet the FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) data principles for the stewardship of habitat mapping and biodiversity, biomass, and growth data, This perspective manuscript is the result of the 3DSeaFor online workshop funded by EUROMARINE Call 2019 Foresight Workshops. This work was partially supported by an Italian Research Projects of National Interest (PRIN), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research: “Reef ReseArcH – Resistance and resilience of Adriatic mesophotic biogenic habitats to human and climate change threats” (Call 205; Prot. 2015J922E; 2017-2020) and by the TAO (Tecnologie per il monitorAggio cOstiero) project in the frame of the program POR-FESR (European Regional Development Fund, ERDF) 2014-2020 of the Emilia-Romagna Region. This work was partially supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE 16-37396 (and earlier awards) as well as a generous gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)