Search results for " steppe."
showing 10 items of 12 documents
Living on the edge: assessing the extinction risk of critically endangered Bonelli’s eagle in Italy
2012
Background: The population of Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata) has declined drastically throughout its European range due to habitat degradation and unnatural elevated mortality. There are less than 1500 breeding pairs accounted for in Europe, and the species is currently catalogued as Critically Endangered in Italy, where the 22 territories of Sicily, represent nearly 95% of the entire Italian population. However, despite national and European conservation concerns, the species currently lacks a specific conservation plan, and no previous attempts to estimate the risk of extinction have been made. Methodology/Principal Findings: We incorporated the most updated demographic information ava…
Scale-dependent plant diversity in Palaearctic grasslands: a comparative overview
2016
Here we present an extensive overview of plant diversity values in Palaearctic grasslands for seven standard grain sizes from 0.0001 to 100 m². The data originate from 20 studies, including the Field Workshops of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG), ranging geographically from Spain in the west to Siberia in the east, from Sicily in the south to Estonia in the north and from the sea coast up to 3100 m a.s.l. The majority of data is from dry grasslands (Festuco-Brometea, Koelerio-Corynephoretea, Cleistogenetea squarrosae), but there are also some mesic, wet, saline, acidic, alpine and Mediterranean grasslands included. Among others, we compiled data from 1795 1-m², 1109 10-m² and 338 100…
Habitat preferences of Bonelli's Eagles Aquila fasciata in Sicily
2012
Capsule For breeding, areas dominated by extensive agricultural and rugged Mediterranean landscapes are preferred; maintenance of habitat heterogeneity and extensive agriculture are key for the conservation of this eagle. Aims To model breeding habitat preferences of Bonelli’s Eagles Aquila fasciata in Sicily, where the last viable population still remains in Italy, in order to identify the most important habitats for conservation. Methods Pairs were monitored between 1990 and 2010. A case-control design through GLMs was used at two spatial scales: landscape and home-range. Variables included topographic, climatic, land-use, road and descriptors of habitat heterogeneity. Information-based c…
Early rehabilitation of cancer patients - a randomized controlled intervention study.
2013
Published version of an article in the journal: BMC Cancer. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-13-9 Open access Background: Faced with a life-threatening illness, such as cancer, many patients develop stress symptoms, i.e. avoidance behaviour, intrusive thoughts and worry. Stress management interventions have proven to be effective; however, they are mostly performed in group settings and it is commonly breast cancer patients who are studied. We hereby present the design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an individual stress-management intervention with a stepped-care approach in several cance…
Effects of Nest and Colony Features on Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) Reproductive Success
2012
The Lesser Kestrel is a facultative colonial raptor mostly breeding in man-made structures. During 2009-2011 we checked the fate of 545 nests found in 18 colonies located in south-eastern Sicily. We determined the reproductive success of breeding pairs by analysing the survival time of each egg to hatching ( n = 2,495) and each nestling to fledging ( n = 1,849) with the linear hazard model of survival times. We determined whether egg and nestling survival differed between years with a Gehan–Wilcoxon test. By Cox regressions, we related the survival times with nest and colony features. Egg and nestling survival times showed a strong annual effect. The two reproductive stages of the Lesser K…
The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean
2020
Steppe-pastoralist-related ancestry reached Central Europe by at least 2500 bc, whereas Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 bc. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean, where they have contributed to many populations that live today, remains poorly understood. Here, we generated genome-wide ancient-DNA data from the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from 5 to 66. The oldest individual from the Balearic Islands (~2400 bc) carried ancestry from steppe pastoralists that probably derived from west-to-east migration from Iberia, although two later Balearic individ…
Diurnal habitat suitability for a Mediterranean steppeland bird, identified by Ecological Niche Factor Analysis
2011
Context The negative effects of agricultural intensification and policies, use of pesticides, fertilisers and mechanised harvesting on several populations of pseudo-steppe birds have increasingly required more detailed and effective habitat suitability models. Distribution models of farmland species are prone to incur recordings of false absence data. Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) allows identification of environmental predictors of species distribution by using presence data only. Aims We quantified the diurnal habitat preferences and niche width of one steppe species, the stone curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus), with unfavourable conservations status in a Mediterranean area and recl…
Steppes of Southern Siberia - Experiences from the 6th EDGG Research Expedition to Khakassia, Russia (22 July – 1 August 2013)
2013
The 6th EDGG Research Expedition took place in summer 2013 in the Kuznetsky Alatau Mountains, part of the Altai-Sayanian mountain region (Republic of Khakassia, Russia). A group of 14 scientists from seven countries studied the variety of steppe vegetation in two regions of the "Khakassky" Reserve – Lake Itkul (Shira region) and Podzaploty (Ordzhenikidzevsky region). Standardised sampling procedures including nested-plot series and phytosociological relevés of 10-m2 plots were used to sample steppes of European-Siberian (Festuco-Brometea) and Central Asian (Cleistogenetea squarrosae) types. All terricolous plants present in the plots were sampled, including perennial and annual vascular pla…
Climate and land-use changes as determinants of lesser kestrel Falco naumanni abundance in Mediterranean cereal steppes (Sicily)
2010
Monitoring of lesser kestrels Falco naumanni is necessary to promote conservation of this vulnerable species. To this end, 35 colonies of this species located in the NNW and SE of Sicily were monitored from 2003 to 2009. Counts of the active colonies and resident pairs were modelled by loglinear Poisson regressions to assess population trends over the study period. Afterwards, a GLM with an analysis of covariance design and a backward removal stepwise regression was performed to relate the observed trend to local- or global-scale climatic variation and to local land-use changes. Colony counts provided a better fit to the loglinear models than pair counts. Loglinear models separated the incr…
The story of endurance:Biogeography and the evolutionary history of four Holarctic butterflies with different habitat requirements
2021
Aim: Biogeographical studies on the entire ranges of widely distributed species can change our perception of species’ range dynamics. We studied the effects of Pleistocene glacial cycles on current butterfly species distributions, aiming to uncover complex biogeographic patterns in the Holarctic, a region dramatically affected by Cenozoic climate change. Location: Eurasia and North America. Taxon: Boloria chariclea, Agriades optilete, Carterocephalus palaemon, Oeneis jutta. Methods: We reconstructed the biogeographic history of four butterfly species differing in habitat preferences (B. chariclea – tundra, A. optilete – bogs, C. palaemon – temperate grasslands, O. jutta – taiga), using one …