Search results for " VEGETATION"

Holocene interactions between climate, vegetation, land-use and the fire regime in coastal Southern Sicily: evidences from new sedimentary records

2008

We used a new sedimentary record to reconstruct the Holocene vegetation and fire history of Gorgo Basso, a coastal lake in south-western Sicily (Italy). Pollen and charcoal data suggest a fire-prone open grassland near the site until ca 10,000 cal yr BP (8050 cal BC), when Pistacia shrubland expanded and fire activity declined, probably in response to increased moisture availability. Evergreen Olea europaea woods expanded ca 8400 to decline abruptly at 8200 cal yr BP, when climatic conditions became drier at other sites in the Mediterranean region. Around 7000 cal yr BP evergreen broadleaved forests (Quercus ilex, Quercus suber and O. europaea) expanded at the cost of open communities. The …

1200-yr high-resolution terrestrial climate archive from the middle of the Mediterranean: The sedimentary record from Lake “Specchio di Venere” on Pa…

2011

The special location of Lake "Specchio di Venere" on Pantelleria Island in the Sicily Channel (Mediterranean Sea) between Tunisia and Sicily offers a unique terrestrial archive recording atmospheric changes, which are otherwise difficult to decipher in the marine records from this area. The lake is an endorheic saline basin with a maximum depth of 12.5 m. As the water input depends on rainfall, precipitation variations influence changes of the lake's water chemistry. In summer 2008, Lake Venere was cored with a modified Livingstone corer revealing a composite sedimentary sequence of 10.29 m length. Two radiocarbon dates form a preliminary age model indicating a very high sedimentation rate …

I pantani di Anguillara (Calatafimi Segesta, Trapani): dati preliminari sulla biodiversità a supporto della tutela del biotopo

2016

Vengono presentati i risultati preliminari di una indagine multidisciplinare condotta in una zona umida nel territorio di Calatafimi Segesta in provincia di Trapani. L'area è di grande interesse per la presenza di rare specie animali e vegetali, di habitat minacciati tutelati da normative nazionali ed internazionali, ma anche perché è una delle ultime zone umide superstiti dell'entroterra trapanese. L'area ha subito in tempi recenti un pesante disturbo antropico che rischia di portare alla distruzione questo ambiente e il suo biota di pregio. Con questo contributo gli autori intendono supportare la richiesta di adeguata e urgente tutela del sito. Anguillara Ponds (Calatafimi Segesta, Trapan…

Notes on the status and the current spread of Viburnum tinus L. (Viburnaceae) in Sicily (Italy)

2021

The authors carried out a multi-disciplinary research in order to clarify the native status of Viburnum tinus in Sicily and update the knowledge about its current regional distribution. With this purpose, a large amount of scientific papers on forestry, botany and palaeo- and archaeobotany was consulted; more useful data issued from papers focused on local historical gardens, from archives and from herbarium specimens. The available data suggest that most of the extant nuclei may issue from the recent colonization of plants introduced just few centuries ago. Although the status of the stands found in some warm and humid sites in the surroundings of the city of Palermo and on the Sicani Moun…

The role of Characeae in the communities of the vegetation class Potametea

2018

The stonewort vegetation is commonly classified into the phytosociological class Charetea fragilis F. Fukarek ex Krausch 1964; however, the Characeae are not exclusively found in vegetation stands ascribed to this class but also in other habitat types. In our preliminary investigations, we draw the attention to the relationship between the classes Charetea fragilis and Potametea pectinati Klika in Klika & Novák 1941 in some Sicilian biotopes. In some cases, the Charetea vegetation is ecologically and spatially distinct, although close, from that referable to the Potametea. In some other cases, one or more species of Characeae are structurally intrinsic to the vegetation of Potametea: on…

Assessment of the environmental quality of the Sicilian coast through a phytoecological and biogeographic analysis

2017

Large-scale habitat measurements have been aided greatly by advances in remote sensing and GIS software. However, the degree of resolution of this technique is still inadequate for many purposes, such as detail monitoring of many habitats that occur on the coast (e.g. temporary Mediterranean pools or ephemeral therophytic grasslands). Lists and distribution mapping of taxa are probably the most commonly used surrogate for overall biodiversity at both local and broader scales. For the Sicilian coasts a complete study, dating back more than 25 years ago and based on a multidisciplinary approach of flora, vegetation and fauna, exists (Raimondo & al. 1990. Quad. Bot. Amb. Appl. 1: 131-182).…

Evolution of the forest landscape in the Punic Eparchy area (West Sicily): the importance of cork oak in natural residual vegetation for the purposes…

2018

The natural forest vegetation in the territory of the western provinces of Sicily (Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento) has almost completely disappeared. This area coincides with the ancient administrative ter- ritorial unit that precedes the division into three "valleys" of the most inhabited island of the Mediterranean: it is the Val di Mazara, remembered by archaeologists as "Punic Eparchy". As a seat of important Greek cities (Himera, Solunto, Entella, Agrigento, Gela, Eraclea Minoa, Segesta, Selinunte, Erice, Lilibeo, Mozia, etc.), it was a Punic domain before being abandoned. Due to the lack of a marked relief and the benefit of climate, agriculture was practiced for three millennia. In t…

The Olea europaea L. var. sylvestris (Mill.) Lehr. forests in the Mediterranean area

2019

This paper examines the forest communities dominated by Olea europaea L. var. sylvestris (Mill.) Lehr. that have been described up until now in the Mediterranean Region (including other isolated extrazonal areas in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula and in Northern Turkey) as more or less evolved aspects of woods, microwoods and high maquis that principally tend to make up climacic and edapho-climacic “series heads”. These forma- tions maintain a significant large-scale distributive potential within the infra- and thermomediterranean bioclimate belts (with a few penetrations into the mesomediterranean) with a dry-subhumid (and sometimes humid) ombrotype; however, they are currently quite ra…

The plant landscape of an interesting stretch of coastline in southern Sicily: the area between Punta Grande and Capo Rossello (Realmonte, Agrigento)…

2013

Aspetti distributivi e fitosociologici di Brassica incana (Brassicaceae, Magnoliophyta) in Sicilia

2009

The authors report two new stations of Brassica incana in Sicily and analyze the relevant synecological issues. This species, subendemic in ex Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy, characterizes a new subassociation in Euphorbietum dendroidis, phytocoenosis belonging to the alliance Oleo sylvestris-Ceratonion siliquae. Brassica incana, in the shrubs formations with Euphorbia dendroides, Rhamnus alaternus, Pistacia terebinthus and Olea europaea var. sylvestris, has high values of abundance-dominance.