Search results for " CONSERVATION"

The last meal: large insects predominate the diet of the European Roller Coracias garrulus prior to population extinction

2019

Capsule: The diet of a European Roller Coracias garrulus population, approximately 10 years before its extinction, comprised of large-bodied orthopterans and coleopterans. Aims: To explore the diet composition of declining population of the European Roller. Methods: In 2005, 2006 and 2009, we monitored 18 nesting sites of the European Roller in southern Poland. Pellets and prey remain found in nest-holes were analysed. Results: In total, 1646 prey items were found. Orthoptera (60.4% of prey items) and Coleoptera (38.5%) predominated while vertebrates were caught rarely. Large-bodied species (orthopterans, bush-crickets, beetles Prionus coriarius and Cetonia aurata) including ground-dwellers…

Geoscience Teaching and Student Interest in Secondary Schools-Preliminary Results from an Interest Research in Greece, Spain and Italy.

2013

The results of a topic-interest study on geosciences among 14- to 17-year-old school students are reported. The research was organized in the framework of the European project Geoschools to investigate the interest of students in the context of teaching strategies for geosciences in secondary schools. A questionnaire was designed as the main data-collection tool, based on the results of a comparison on geosciences curricula among the five European countries (Austria, Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain) which are the partners in the GEOschools project. The present study focuses on results from Greece and Spain but also includes preliminary results from Italy, for comparison purposes. Questio…

Biodiversity conservation and protected areas in the Mediterranean region

2018

This chapter provides an overview of current biodiversity knowledge in Mediterranean forest ecosystems across all levels (genetic diversity, species diversity, landscape diversity) and endemism, ecological peculiarities that make Mediterranean forest ecosystems different. It also outlines the importance of biodiversity for functional forest ecosystems and illustrates some examples of conservation efforts in the region.

Aridity index, soil erosion and climate drive no-till ecosystem services trade-off in Mediterranean arable land

2021

Abstract Despite the relevant literature on the advantages of no-till (NT) management, the world area under NT is only 10% of the arable land, probably due to several limiting factors as climate, soil types, farming systems and yield. Soil conservation practices and particularly NT soil management are able to provide many ecosystem services (ESs). This paper suggests a framework to determine the area distribution of soil erosion control and food security ESs trade-offs furnished by NT, starting from the potential soil erosion and aridity index maps. The interaction between the potential soil erosion and the aridity index showed that different trade-offs and synergies of multiple ESs may occ…

Landscape Dynamics in Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Castelló de la Plana in the Last Hundred Years

2019

The littoral areas of the Mediterranean coastline have undergone a significant transformation due to their historical and intense human occupation. The result has been an evolution of different cultural landscape configurations, ranging from those with a marked agrarian character to artificial ones derived from the process of urbanisation and metropolitan growth. The objective of this paper is to define a model to characterise landscape types and units that explains the landscape dynamics (1910-2015) in Mediterranean coastal spaces at local scale, taking as study area the municipality and surroundings of Castelló de la Plana, in Spain. The aim is to identify the way in which society has app…

Is seed availability enough to ensure colonization success?

2006

Abstract We tested the hypothesis that seed availability is a limiting factor for plant colonization of road embankments under Mediterranean climate conditions. Experimental sowing on 10 road embankments was carried out to compare the colonization success of plants that successfully colonize the road embankment and species that appear only occasionally in the road embankments. After sowing, we measured plant establishment, biomass production, and reproductive capacity of the species. The species that appear only occasionally in the road embankments had lower emergence rates (l.l ± 0.3%) than species that were successful colonizers (18.8 ± 2.9%). None of the species of the former group survi…

Climate driven life histories: the case of the Mediterranean Storm petrel

2014

Seabirds are affected by changes in the marine ecosystem. The influence of climatic factors on marine food webs can be reflected in long-term seabird population changes. We modelled the survival and recruitment of the Mediterranean storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis) using a 21-year mark-recapture dataset involving almost 5000 birds. We demonstrated a strong influence of prebreeding climatic conditions on recruitment age and of rainfall and breeding period conditions on juvenile survival. The results suggest that the juvenile survival rate of the Mediterranean subspecies may not be negatively affected by the predicted features of climate change, i.e., warmer summers and lower rai…

Effects of Nautical Traffic and Noise on Foraging Patterns of Mediterranean Damselfish (Chromis chromes)

2012

Chromis chromis is a key species in the Mediterranean marine coastal ecosystems where, in summer, recreational boating and its associated noise overlap. Anthropogenic noise could induce behavioural modifications in marine organisms, thereby affecting population dynamics. In the case of an important species for the ecosystem like C. chromis, this could rebound on the community structure. Here, we measured nautical traffic during the summer of 2007 in a Southern Mediterranean Marine Protected Area (MPA) and simultaneously the feeding behaviour of C. chromis was video-recorded, within both the no-take A-zone and the B-zone where recreational use is allowed. Feeding frequencies, escape reaction…

Original vegetation recovery of two degraded areas in the Mediterranean island of Marettimo.

2009

Effects of human disturbance on cave-nesting seabirds: The case of the storm petrel

2015

We tested the effects of human disturbance in two sub-colonies of Mediterranean storm petrel. We conducted three experiments to measure the capacity of the storm petrels to respond to stress. The part of the colony exposed to human disturbance resulted to be habituated and did not show chronic stress related to anthropogenic disturbance.