• sunscreens
• prodotti solari
• coastal dunes
• vegetation
• plants
• vegetazione dunale
• Carpobrotus
• Thinopyrum

Coastal dune habitats are ecologically and socio-economically important systems that are nowadays subjected to many threats including pollution and the presence of alien invasive plant species. Sunscreens and ultraviolet (UV) filters, which can be inorganic or organic, are considered contaminants of emerging concern in coastal systems and have been detected in beach sediments as well as in coastal seawaters in relevant concentrations. Sunscreens and UV filters can also reach embryonic dunes through storm surges where they can interact with vegetation as demonstrated by the internalization of UV filters in the tissues of some dune plants. Many studies tested the effects of UV filters on terrestrial crop plant species, but the impacts of these substances as well as of the whole sunscreen formulation on natural plant communities have never been investigated.
In this thesis, the effects of the dune habitat contamination by sunscreens or by titanium dioxide (TiO2) as inorganic UV filter on the development of a native species and on the potential advantage of an alien invasive species were examined by using two separate field experiments.
The first experiment was conducted to test the effects of a sunscreen containing TiO2 on the development of Thinopyrum junceum as a native species model, being an embryonic dune pioneer species involved in the early building and stabilization of embryonic dunes, and of Carpobrotus sp. pl. as an invasive genus model common along Italian coasts.
The second experiment was conducted to test the effects of two different sunscreens, one containing TiO2 while the other containing only organic UV filters, on the emergence and early development stages of T. junceum.
Results showed that sunscreen contamination could induce negative effects on T. junceum, both at the adult and seedling stages. On the other hand, no impact was detected on Carpobrotus.