Search results for " BIODIVERSITY"

IL RUOLO DELL’OLEASTRO INVEGES DI SCIACCA NELLA DEFINIZIONE DEL PAESAGGIO FORESTALE STORICO DELLA SICILIA

2016

L’oleastro, Olea europaea var. sylvestris (Mill.) Lehr, è uno delle componenti rappresentative della vegetazione mediterranea. Specie considerata caratteristica della macchia (Oleo-Ceratonion siliquae Br.-Bl. ex Guinoch. e Drouin. 1944) si accompagna con altre sclerofille e specie caducifoglie estive con le quali forma aspetti di vegetazione alto arbustiva o arborescente. Ma l’oleastro in Sicilia è anche un elemento di boschi termofili, di territori che presentano una certa xericità ambientale, potenzialmente diffusi in un’ampia fascia altimetrica che si estende dalla costa fino a 800-1000 m di quota. In tale contesto, l’oleastro si accompagna con querce caducifoglie termofile, quali Quercu…

The analysis of the diet composition of the barn owl Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769) from the region of Brzeg, Opolskie Voivodeship (Poland)

2022

Research on the diet composition of the barn owl Tyto alba was conducted near the town of Przecza in the area of Lewin Brzeski (Opolskie Voivodeship. On the basis of 1158 bone elements, 14 species of small mammals were found, including 4 insectivorous species (Sorex araneus, Sorex minutus, Neomys fodiens, Cocidura suaveolens), 5 vole species (Microtus arvalis, Microtus agrestis, Arvicola terrestris, Myodes glareolus, Microtus oeconomus) and 5 mouse species (Mus musculus, Apodemus agrarius, Apodemus flavicolis, Apodemus sylvaticus, Micromys minutus). The diet was dominated by 3 species: Microtus arvalis, Sorex araneus and the Apodemus agrarius. The conducted research clearly shows that the T…

Ecosystem services mapping and assessment for policy- and decision-making : Lessons learned from a comparative analysis of European case studies

2020

This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes throughout the European Union, across a wide range of themes, biomes and scales. The analysis is based on a framework that addresses the key steps of an ES mapping and assessment process, namely policy questions, stakeholder identification and involvement, application of mapping and assessment methods, dissemination and communication and implementation. T…

APPLICAZIONE DI TECNOLOGIE BIOMOLECOLARI E PROTEOMICHE NELLO STUDIO DELLA BIODIVERSITA’ DI RAZZE ZOOTECNICHE SICILIANE AUTOCTONE

Effects of habitat restoration on peatland bird communities

2020

Restoration of damaged ecosystems has become an important tool to slow down the biodiversity loss and to maintain ecosystem services. Peatland bird populations have shown a substantial decline during the recent decades in Northern Europe as a consequence of peatland drainage. We studied whether restoration of peatlands drained for forestry affects bird communities. We conducted bird surveys at 11 peatlands in Western Finland, where each of the restored and their pristine counterparts were surveyed before restoration and yearly after restoration during 2010–2018. We used linear mixed effect models to analyze whether restoration affected the number of species and territories of peatland speci…

ECOLOGICAL LIMITS ON DIVERSIFICATION OF THE HIMALAYAN CORE CORVOIDEA

2012

Within regions, differences in the number of species among clades must be explained by clade age, net diversification rate, or immigration. We examine these alternatives by assessing historical causes of the low diversity of a bird parvorder in the Himalayas (the core Corvoidea, 57 species present), relative to its more species rich sister clade (the Passerida, ∼400 species present), which together comprise the oscine passerines within this region. The core Corvoidea contain ecologically diverse species spanning a large range of body sizes and elevations. Despite this diversity, on the basis of ecological, morphological, and phylogenetic information, we infer that the best explanation for t…

PHYTOSEIIDAE (ACARI: PARASITIFORMES) OF SICILY (ITALY): SPECIES DIVERSITY AFTER HALF A CENTURY OF SURVEYS

2020

Gli acari fitoseiidi sono divenuti interesse di studio in Sicilia a partire dai primi anni '70. Ricerche costanti nel tempo hanno arricchito le conoscenze sulla fauna siciliana con la segnalazione di 48 specie valide, cinque delle quali nuove per la Scienza. Nel presente lavoro riassumiamo i dati raccolti in circa cinquant'anni, con l’aggiunta di 12 nuove segnalazioni per la fauna isolana. Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) cryptus Athias-Henriot   stata confermata la specie pi  frequente (39,4%), seguita da Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) exhilaratus Ragusa (32,6%), Kampimodromus aberrans (Oudemans) (22,9%), Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) rhenanoides Athias-Henriot (19,4%) (18,9%). Alcune specie hanno mostr…

The Braun-Blanquet project: evaluating and characterizing European vegetation alliances

2014

European tradition on vegetation classification provides an extraordinary legacy for understanding biodiversity. However, this classification lacks explicit data on vegetation attributes, especially if we extend national or regional concepts to a continental perspective. An additional effort for evaluating and characterizing European vegetation types is therefore needed, and the data contained in vegeta­ tion databases are probably the main tool for these purposes. The Braun­Blanquet project is an initiative of the European Vegetation Survey for characterizing veg­ etation alliances across Europe. By analyzing more than 500,000 vegetation plots from 22 European countries, we developed a fra…

Biodiversity and oenological attitude of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated in the Montalcino district: biodiversity of S. cerevisiae strains …

2020

ABSTRACT The biodiversity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied in the Montalcino area (Italy). Two wineries were involved in the study, which compared the genotypic and oenological characteristics of the S. cerevisiae strains isolated in spontaneous fermentations. After isolation yeasts were identified by 26S rRNA gene sequence analysis, and S. cerevisiae strains were characterized through interdelta sequence analysis (ISA). Oenological tests were performed in synthetic grape must by varying the magnitude of the main wine-imiting factors. The evolution of alcoholic fermentation was monitored by measuring sugar consumption and flow cytometry. The results revealed the prevalence of S. cere…

Preliminary insights into the molecular barcoding data of Turraea socotrana (Meliaceae) from Socotra (Yemen)

2020

The relationship of two geographically and ecologically separated populations of Turraea socotrana Styles and F. White (Meliaceae), a vulnerable and scattered shrub from the island of Socotra (Yemen), was explored using preliminary molecular data. The nuclear ribosomal ITS region was used to screen the level of genetic divergence of T. socotrana from ecologically distant localities in comparison to a few other species of Turraea and closely related genera. The individuals from the inland (Diksam) differed from the western coastal ones (Ma’alah) by vegetative characters and by the rbcL gene. This may be due to the fact that the population from Ma’alah grows on lithosoil slopes directly expos…