Laguna di Marceddì: A Comprehensive Geographic Profile of a Sardinian Protected Coastal Wetland

The lagoon gained formal recognition at an international level from the 1970s onward, when its ecological importance led to its inclusion in the list of wetlands of international significance prepared under the Ramsar Convention. This early listing established the site as part of the broader framework of internationally protected wetlands at a time when the importance of coastal lagoons for migratory waterbirds was becoming widely acknowledged.

In the following decades, the European Union's Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) extended a further layer of protection by classifying the area as a Special Protection Area, recorded under the code ITB034004. This directive-level designation reinforced the lagoon's identification as key bird habitat and aligned it with the wider Natura-style network of sites of community relevance across the Mediterranean.

Throughout this period of growing conservation status, the lagoon has remained part of the regional public estate of Sardinia. The Region oversees professional fishing activity in the basin, with licensed exploitation of species such as sea bream, mullets, sea bass, eels, crabs, soles, and clams. The coexistence of long-running fisheries with successive conservation designations is a defining element of the lagoon's institutional history.

The lagoon occupies a low-lying stretch of the western Sardinian coast, where the terrain is dominated by shallow coastal flats, tidal channels, and gently shelving margins that meet the open sea. Its broad surface of roughly 9 square kilometers reflects the kind of flat, gently articulated morphology typical of Mediterranean coastal lagoons, with the waterbody gradually transitioning from the freshwater influence of its inflowing streams to the saline Mediterranean.

Two main watercourses shape the lagoon: the rio Mogoro and the rio Sitzerri. Their freshwater contributions mix with seawater to create a brackish environment, a defining landscape trait that controls the balance of habitats along the lagoon's edges. The result is a mosaic of slightly different salinities, water depths, and substrate conditions, producing the patchy mosaic of pools, channels, and exposed flats characteristic of the Sardinian coastal lagoons.

The surrounding territory is largely agricultural and rural, with the lagoon acting as a coastal pocket of open water amid cultivated plains and the gently rising hinterland. This setting gives Marceddì a strongly legible profile on the landscape: a broad sheet of shallow water set against the western horizon of Sardinia, fringed by low banks and bordered by coastal plain.

The lagoon's brackish waters and shallow basins support a distinctly Mediterranean coastal wetland ecosystem. Such lagoons are characterized by specialized plant and animal communities adapted to fluctuating salinity, partial tidal exchange, and shallow, productive substrates. The interface between the inflowing fresh water of the rio Mogoro and rio Sitzerri and the Mediterranean creates a gradient that supports diverse ecological niches within a relatively compact area.

The mixture of open water, channels, vegetated margins, and tidal flats provides habitat structure suited both to resident species and to populations that move through the broader western Mediterranean coastline. The ecological value recognized under the Ramsar Convention and the EU Birds Directive stems from this combination of habitat heterogeneity and position along a major migratory corridor.

As a managed coastal lagoon, the site also depends on the continued function of its hydrological inputs and on the traditional rhythms of lagoon fisheries, which interact with ecological processes rather than being separated from them. This entanglement of natural dynamics and human use is itself part of the lagoon's ecological character.

Laguna di Marceddì is primarily valued as waterbird habitat, with its combination of open water, shallows, and brackish margins supporting both resident and migratory bird populations. Its status as a Ramsar site and as an EU Special Protection Area reflects this central role in the regional network of sites used by waterbirds along the western Sardinian coast.

Beyond its ornithological importance, the lagoon's brackish environment supports a rich community of fish and invertebrate species that form the base of both the ecosystem and the regional fishery. Species traditionally associated with Mediterranean coastal lagoons, including sea bream, mullets, sea bass, eels, soles, crabs, and clams, are present and exploited under regional management. This shared ecological and economic role underscores how the lagoon's wildlife underpins both conservation designations and local livelihoods.

The conservation profile of Laguna di Marceddì rests on two overlapping, internationally significant frameworks. The first is the Ramsar Convention, under which the lagoon has been recognized as a wetland of international importance since the 1970s, placing it within the global network of protected wetlands maintained by the convention secretariat. The second is the European Union's Birds Directive, which classified the area as a Special Protection Area and assigned it the code ITB034004, providing legal protection at the European level for its bird populations and associated habitats.

These designations work in parallel, reinforcing the site's protected status while acknowledging its continued use as a regionally managed fishery. The lagoon belongs to the demesne of the Region of Sardinia, which oversees traditional fishing through licensed activity. This unusual configuration, in which formal conservation instruments and artisanal fishery share the same waterbody, gives Marceddì a distinctive position among Mediterranean lagoon sites and shapes its long-term conservation management.

The lagoon is closely tied to the identity of the surrounding villages of Marceddì and to the broader culture of Sardinian coastal lagoons, where fishing in shallow brackish waters has long been part of the local economy and way of life. Licenses for fishing species such as sea bream, mullet, sea bass, eel, crab, sole, and clams sustain small-scale professional activity rooted in regional traditions.

The lagoon's location between the municipalities of Arbus, Arborea, Guspini, and Terralba places it at a meeting point of different Sardinian inland and coastal communities, with the shared waterbody acting as both a working landscape and a focal point of regional identity. The persistence of licensed traditional fisheries alongside international conservation designations reflects a cultural negotiation in which local fishing knowledge continues to coexist with modern environmental protection frameworks.

Laguna di Marceddì combines Ramsar recognition, EU Special Protection Area status, and an active traditional fishery within a single coastal wetland. Its roughly 9 square kilometers of brackish water, fed by the rio Mogoro and rio Sitzerri, support a diverse community of waterbirds, fish, and invertebrates while remaining embedded in the working landscape of western Sardinia.

As a protected coastal lagoon, Marceddì's character shifts throughout the year in line with Mediterranean seasonality. Cooler months typically bring the most active waterbird presence, including migratory species that use the lagoon along broader flyway routes, while warmer months emphasize the productive marine and brackish habitats and the ongoing rhythms of the traditional fishery. The surrounding agricultural landscape and the open western horizon make the lagoon visually distinctive across seasons, with mild coastal conditions characteristic of this part of Sardinia.