Search results for " Forests"
showing 10 items of 91 documents
Wood-inhabiting fungi with tight associations with other species have declined as a response to forest management
2017
Research on mutualistic and antagonistic networks, such as plant-pollinator and host-parasite networks, has shown that species interactions can influence and be influenced by the responses of species to environmental perturbations. Here we examine whether results obtained for directly observable networks generalize to more complex networks in which species interactions cannot be observed directly. As a case study, we consider data on the occurrences of 98 wood-inhabiting fungal species in managed and natural forests. We specifically ask if and how much the positions of wood-inhabiting fungal species within the interaction networks influence their responses to forest management. For this, we…
A Methodology to Derive Global Maps of Leaf Traits Using Remote Sensing and Climate Data
2018
This paper introduces a modular processing chain to derive global high-resolution maps of leaf traits. In particular, we present global maps at 500 m resolution of specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen and phosphorus content per dry mass, and leaf nitrogen/phosphorus ratio. The processing chain exploits machine learning techniques along with optical remote sensing data (MODIS/Landsat) and climate data for gap filling and up-scaling of in-situ measured leaf traits. The chain first uses random forests regression with surrogates to fill gaps in the database (> 45% of missing entries) and maximizes the global representativeness of the trait dataset. Plant species are then a…
Aphyllophoraceous wood-inhabiting fungi on Fagus sylvatica in Italy
2007
166 species representing 84 genera of aphyllophoraceous fungi growing on Fagus sylvatica in Italy are listed. Steccherinum robustius is reported as new to Italy, while many species are considered rare in Italy, e.g. Antrodiella ichnusana, Crustomyces subabruptus and Dentipellis fragilis.
Contrasting Effects of Chronic Anthropogenic Disturbance on Activity and Species Richness of Insectivorous Bats in Neotropical Dry Forest
2022
For prioritizing conservation actions, it is vital to understand how ecologically diverse species respond to environmental change caused by human activity. This is particularly necessary considering that chronic human disturbance is a threat to biodiversity worldwide. Depending on how species tolerate and adapt to such disturbance, ecological integrity and ecosystem services will be more or less affected. Bats are a species-rich and functionally diverse group, with important roles in ecosystems, and are therefore recognized as a good model group for assessing the impact of environmental change. Their populations have decreased in several regions, especially in the tropics, and are threatene…
A preliminary check list of macromycetes in northern Tunisia
2016
AbstractWithin the last decade, checklists of fungi of several countries have been published or updated. Nevertheless, no checklists of macromycetes have hitherto been published for Tunisia (North Africa) apart from a mycocoenological study reporting 34 listed species. This work presents a list of macromycetes collected from January 2014 to March 2015 in six governorates of northern Tunisia. One hundred and twenty-three species (117 basidiomycetes and six ascomycetes) belonging to 78 genera and 46 families were recorded.
INVESTIGATION ON OLD-GROWTH FORESTS OF SICILY: PRELIMINARY RESULTS
2014
Old-growth forests are natural forests that have developed over a long period of time, without experiencing severe, stand-replacing disturbance a fire, windstorm, or logging. According to UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA definition, an old-growth forest is a primary or a secondary forest which has achieved an age at which structure and species normally associated with old primary forests of that type have sufficiently accumulated to act as a forest ecosystem distinct from any younger age class. In a thematic contribution to the National Biodiversity Strategy, the authors report the following definition of Italian old-growth forests: Forest in which human disturbance is absent or negligible, and in which nat…
ANDREA GIACOBBE, UN SELVICOLTORE CHE MERITA DI USCIRE DALL'OBLIO
2021
Andrea Giacobbe, a forester who deserves to get out from oblivion. The scientific production of Andrea Giacobbe, a Sicilian forester who worked in central and northern Italy in the last century, has been revisited. The aim is to highlights how his contribution to botany, forest ecology and forestry has been largely overlooked. He was the protagonist of a lively debate with the greatest for est scientists of his time, he produced 64 papers and books, but above all he proposed many inno vative reforestation techniques that today should be rediscovered and applied.
The Root Mycobiota of Betula aetnensis Raf., an Endemic Tree Species Colonizing the Lavas of Mt. Etna (Italy)
2021
Betula aetnensis is an endemic tree of high conservation value, which thrives on the nutrient-poor volcanic soils of Mount Etna. Since plant–microbe interactions could play a crucial role in plant growth, resource uptake, and resistance to abiotic stresses, we aimed to characterize the root and rhizosphere microbial communities. Individuals from natural habitat (NAT) and forest nursery (NURS) were surveyed through microscopy observations and molecular tools: bacterial and fungal automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), fungal denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). B. aetnensis was found to be simultaneously colonized by arbuscular (AM), ectomycorrhizal (ECM), ericoid…
Light availability and land‐use history drive biodiversity and functional changes in forest herb layer communities
2020
International audience; A central challenge of today's ecological research is predicting how ecosystems will develop under future global change. Accurate predictions are complicated by (a) simultaneous effects of different drivers, such as climate change, nitrogen deposition and management changes; and (b) legacy effects from previous land use. We tested whether herb layer biodiversity (i.e. richness, Shannon diversity and evenness) and functional (i.e. herb cover, specific leaf area [SLA] and plant height) responses to environmental change drivers depended on land-use history. We used resurvey data from 192 plots across nineteen European temperate forest regions, with large spatial variabi…
Application of selected methods of black box for modelling the settleability process in wastewater treatment plant
2017
The paper described how the results of measurement s of inflow wastewater temperature in the chamber, a degree of external and internal recirculation in the biological-mechanical wastewater treatment plan t (WWTP) in Cedzyna near Kielce, Poland, were used to make predictions of settleability of activated sludge. Three methods,namely: multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), random forests (RF) and modified random forests (RF+ SOM) were employed to compute activated sludge settleability. The results of analysis indicate that modified random forests demonstrate the best predictive abilities.