Search results for " Mediterranean."

Soil carbon accumulation after agricultural abandonment. A Mediterranean case study.

2011

In the last decades, in Europe large agricultural areas have been abandoned. In absence of disturbance factors, renaturation of these areas is rapid due to secondary succession of vegetation communities. In the Mediterranean region, in the last years have been conducted studies on soil carbon accumulation after agricultural abandonment. Soil has to be regarded as the most considerable carbon (C) sink on a global level. CO2 emission compensation is guaranteed also by C uptake by plants and by organic matter accumulation in soils. The present study analyzes organic carbon stock in some soils of Southern Italy, in the Madonie Mountains in Sicily, where large areas are subject to secondary succ…

Effects of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (ω-3) Supplementation on Some Cardiovascular Risk Factors with a Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet

2015

Background: the ketogenic diet (KD) has become a widely used nutritional approach for weight loss. Some of the KD’s positive effects on metabolism and cardiovascular risk factors are similar to those seen after n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3) supplementation. We hypothesized that a ketogenic Mediterranean diet with phytoextracts combined with ω-3 supplementation may have increased positive effects on cardiovascular risk factors and inflammation. Methods: We analyzed 34 male overweight subjects

(Un)exhausted Cartographies. Re-living the visuality, aesthetics and politics in contemporary mapping theories and practices

This thesis is concerned with examining the life and deadliness of the map trope in contemporary Human Geography and the various ways maps and mapping have been re-theorized over the past twenty five years. Arguing that there is presently a feeling of exhaustion and disinterest amongst many human geographers in the use of maps given a shift to postmodern and poststructural approaches that decentre maps and mistrust their supposed objectivity, their representational qualities, and use by institutions to justify certain political actions, it tries to relive the attention in the ubiquity and flourishing of contemporary mapping practices by promoting a re-worked post-representational perspectiv…

Use of stable isotopes to investigate dispersal of waste from fish farm as a function of hydrodynamics.

2006

Stable isotopes were used to examine differential effects of fish farm waste on the water column and sediments. To achieve this objective, we chose 3 marine fish farms located along the coast of Sicily (Mediterranean Sea) as point-source disturbances, and a control area. The hypothesis that carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of particulate (POM) and sedimentary (SOM) organic matter varied with increasing distance (from cages to 1000 m) was tested at 3 levels of hydrodynam- ics: low (mean velocity of current (MVC) ~12 cm s -1 ), intermediate (MVC ~22 cm s -1 ), and high (MVC ~40 cm s -1 ). Different isotopic signals from allochthonous (fish waste) over natural (phytoplankton, terrigenou…

Reversing agriculture from intensive to sustainable improves soil quality in a semiarid South Italian soil

2010

Intensive agriculture (IA) is widespread in South Italy, although it requires frequent tillage, large amounts of fertilizers and irrigation water. We have assessed the efficacy of reversing IA to sustainable agriculture (SA) in recovering quality of a typical South Italy soil (Lithic Haploxeralf). This reversion, lasting from 2000 to 2007, replaced 75% of nutrients formerly supplied inorganically by farmyard manuring and reduced the tillage frequency. Several chemical and biochemical properties, functionally related to C and N mineralisation–immobilisation processes and to P and S nutrient cycles, were monitored annually from 2005 to 2007 in the spring. Reversing IA to SA decreased soil bul…

Trophic habits of Muscardinus avellanarius (Mammalia Gliridae) as revealed by multiple stable isotope analysis

2007

Multiple stable isotope analysis was used to investigate the diet of the common dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius in a mixed Mediterranean forest. δ13C and δ15N values of dormouse tissues compared to those of the vegetal and animal sources available in the area showed that the isotopic composition of both adult and juvenile M. avellanarius could be explained by a mixture of vegetal and animal organic matter. The isotopic composition of the assimilated nitrogen was mostly explained by the organic matter from flora. Among the vegetal components, flowers of Fagus silvatica, Quercus robur, and the rarer Crataegus oxyacantha, berries of Ilex aquifolium and acorns of Q. robur were found in the ad…

The Black Mediterranean: A View from Sicily

2021

While Italy has recently experienced nationalist drives, Sicily and in particular the City of Palermo, one of the major ports of refuge for countless migrants arriving in Europe from the African shores, has distinguished itself as an experimental site where to rethink and challenge notions of residence, mobility, citizenship and belonging. Through a series of cultural initiatives, Palermo has become a hub for frontline artists, writers, intellectuals, and activists who have gathered to explore the historically and contemporary ways in which black voices have been silenced and black bodies have been ambiguously imagined in Western-dominated global culture. Investigating these questions is fu…

Mediterranean coccolith ecobiostratigraphy since the penultimate Glacial (the last 145,000years) and ecobioevent traceability

2015

The Mediterranean Sea is a miniature ocean ideal to test the response of marine ecosystems to amplified orbital and suborbital climate changes. Here we present coccolith data from a Sardinia Channel gravity core (Arcose C_33) analysed over the last 145,000 years, with a mean resolution of about 900 years. The study highlights that regional phytoplankton assemblages underwent significant modifications between the penultimate glacial and the last interglacial, as well as between the last glacial and the Holocene. The N ratio palaeoproductivity index suggests reduced productivity levels and the development of a deep nutricline during the last interglacial and the Holocene. Within the last glac…

Green coffee, bioactive compounds’ analysis of experimental cultivation in Sicily: a new frontier in the Sicilian food sector

2023

Recently, climate change represents a new possibility for tropical cultivars fruit in Mediterranean areas. The focus of this work is the evaluation of the real possibility of coffee cultivation in Sicily, like coffee plants grown in tropical and subtropical regions. The objective was to evaluate plant adaptation to our climate and to study the chemical qualities of green coffee pulps and seeds: total phenolic content, antiradical capacity, fatty acids, amino acids, alkaloids, vitamins, proximate composition, polyphenolic profile and other bioactive compounds of cosmetic, pharmaceutical and agrary interest. Temperature, light and vegetative growth of Coffea arabica L. cv. “Caturra” plants we…

The marine crustacea decapoda of Sicily: a cecklist with remarks on their distribution.

2003

A checklist of the Crustacea Decapocla of Sicily, based on previously published records and on original data, is presented. The Sicilian waters were divided into three sectors to account for the different habitats present along the northern and western (sector A), eastern (B) and southern (C) coasts, for the sake of a better interpretation of the species distribution. A total of 186 species, vas recorded between 0 and 800 in depth, 31 of which are reported here for the first time. Sector A hosted 153 species, B 105 species. and C 117 species. The dissimilarities among the habitats present in the shallow waters of the three sectors accounted for the low co-occurrence of species: 30 species w…