Zooplankton dynamics and conservation problems of a Mediterranean temporary pond

Sicilian Temporary Ponds: An Overview of the Composition and Affinities of their Crustacean Biota

Available data on Sicilian entomostracans allowed an initial characterization of the freshwater crustacean biota of the island and to formulate some hypotheses on its origin.The absence of supra-specific endemic taxa and the current regional distriburion of the investigated species suggest a late Pleistocene colonisation of the island by temperate taxa with a northern affinity, currently confined to the coolest areas of the island, followed by a Holocene arrival of thermophilous species coming from the Maghreb, which is still in progress. The importance of Sicily as a "crossroad" for the faunas of the circum-Mediterranean countries is thus confirmed.Unfortunately, and in spite of the EU dir…

SULLA FAUNA AD OSTRACODI (CRUSTACEA: STRACODA) NON-MARINI RECENTI DI ALCUNE ISOLE DEL MEDITERRANEO CENTRALE: SICILIA,ARCIPELAGHI CIRCUM-SICILIANI E MALTA

Le conoscenze relative alla fauna ad ostracodi delle acque interne dei paesi del Mediterraneo centro-meridionale risultano ad oggi piuttosto lacunose e frammentarie e per molte aree geografiche non sono disponibili studi organici né checklist aggiornate. Al fine di contribuire a colmare questo iato conoscitivo, nel periodo compreso tra il 2000 ed il 2008 sono stati realizzati una serie di campionamenti incentrati sugli ambienti acquatici ad idroperiodo temporaneo della Sicilia e di gran parte delle isole circum-siciliane; i risultati conseguiti con queste campagne di raccolta hanno consentito di ottenere un primo quadro d’insieme sulla attuale presenza e distribuzione dei Podocopida nell’ar…

Red sky at night cyanobacteria delight: the role of climate in structuring phytoplankton assemblage in a shallow, Mediterranean lake (Biviere di Gela, southeastern Sicily)

The hypothesis that climate changes may strongly interfere with the peculiar hydrological patterns in the Mediterranean basin and alter the structure of the aquatic biota was tested in a shallow Sicilian lake. A phytoplankton survey, carried out monthly in the brackish and shallow Biviere di Gela, in 2005–2007, revealed a transformation in the structure of its phytoplankton assemblage as compared with similar data collected in 1987–1988. An analysis of the trends followed by precipitation and temperature over the last 40 years, showed reduced water inflows, due to increased air temperature and evapotranspiration rather than to a decrease in the amount of precipitation. A consequent reductio…

Conferma della presenza di Najas marina L. (Najadaceae, Alismatales) in Sicilia

Prima segnalazione in Italia di una cloraracniofita (Chlorarachniophyta): Chlorarachnion reptans Geitler

Analisi dei gruppi morfo-funzionali del fitoplancton per la determinazione dello stato ecologico degli ecosistemi acquatici continentali.

An invasive population of Xenopus laevis (Daudin, 1802) in Italy

Ecology and distribution of Calanoid Copepods in Sicilian inland waters (Italy)

(2006). Ecology and distribution of calanoid copepods in Sicilian inland waters (Italy) SIL Proceedings, 1922-2010: Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 2150-2156.

Crustacean dynamics in two argillotrophic, temporary ponds (North-Western Sicily, Italy)

How do phytoplankton biomass and functional groups react to environmental constraints? A comparison in two different Mediterranean ponds

Grouping organisms into functional grouping represents a way to better understand how the environmental constrains act on these organisms through the analysis of peculiar features, usually morphological, shared by the set of species. Since groups (Coda) react to environmental constrains with an analogous response, this approach was adopted to compare the structure and the biomass of phytoplankton assemblages in two different Mediterranean ponds, one temporary and the other permanent. A phytoplankton survey, carried out monthly in the brackish and shallow Biviere di Gela in 2005-2007, revealed a deep transformation in the structure of its phytoplankton assemblage as compared with similar dat…