Search results for " ecological"

Contextual influences on italian university students during the covid-19 lockdown: Emotional responses, coping strategies and resilience

2021

Based on an ecological perspective on the COVID-19 lockdown experience, this study describes psychological responses among Italian university students. Our study considers three zones of the country that have differed in the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this research explores whether differences in pandemic conditions can account for their divergent psychological outcomes. The participants were 792 university students from seven different Italian universities. Students were asked to express their emotions and describe meaningful events during the lockdown in writing. Based on the grounded theory approach, this study conducted qualitative data analysis using ATLAS.ti 8.0…

Convergence of roles among peracarids in critical environments.

2011

L'uomo e il suo ambiente nella Grecia antica: per una "ecopoiesi"

2017

The modern concept of “nature” was born in the XVIIIth Century: a nature as object, submitted to man’s reason. A long traditon sees the origin of the modern notion of nature in the Greek phúsis. To go from phúsis invites us on the contrary to be critical towards the modern paradigm of a nature opposed to culture. Actually the domination of nature and the exploitation by man of what are for us “natural resources” is at the core of the ideological, economical and financial model imposed on us by neoliberal capitalism. This model shapes and destroys the communities of men as well as their environments. To face anthropologically the Greek phúsis invites us to break off with a technological capi…

Bryophytes as ecological indicators in the beech woods of sicily

2019

Beech woods, which have in Sicily one of the southernmost places of their distribution area, are localized in the mountain belt of North and North-Eastern Sicily, at an altitude of 1300-1900 m, reaching 900 m on the Peloritani. They are referred to the priority habitat 9210*, according to the Natura 2000 network of the European Union. Beech woods settle on different soils, such as incoherent sandy volcanic (Etna), calcareous or silico-arenaceous (Madonie) and clayey-schistose soils (Nebrodi and Peloritani). Bryophytes are considered important components of forestry ecosystems. Many of these organisms are specific to particular types of microhabitats and sensitive to changes such that specie…

Invasion biology in non‐free‐living species: interactions between abiotic (climatic) and biotic (host availability) factors in geographical space in …

2013

In invasion processes, both abiotic and biotic factors are considered essential, but the latter are usually disregarded when modeling the potential spread of exotic species. In the framework of set theory, interactions between biotic (B), abiotic (A), and movement-related (M) factors in the geographical space can be hypothesized with BAM diagrams and tested using ecological niche models (ENMs) to estimate A and B areas. The main aim of our survey was to evaluate the interactions between abiotic (climatic) and biotic (host availability) factors in geographical space for exotic symbionts (i.e., non-free-living species), using ENM techniques combined with a BAM framework and using exotic Entoc…

Renewable electricity producing technologies and metal depletion: A sensitivity analysis using the EROI

2015

International audience; More and more attention is being paid to renewable technologies because they are seen as a great opportunity to disengage our society from its dependence on fossil fuels. Such flow-based energy resources that rely on solarenergy are supposed to lead us toward a sustainable energy future. However, because of their high capitalintensity, renewable technologies require large amounts of matter, including both common and rare metals.These metals require energy for their production, and more specifically for their extraction. The energy costassociated with metal extraction is linked to mineral ore grade, meaning that as depletion progresses, energycost increases. In additi…

Environmental expenditure interactions among OECD countries, 1995-2017

2021

International audience; How do countries respond to other countries when setting the level of their environmental expenditures? Using data from 1995-2017 on a sample of 28 OECD countries, we examine the nature and extent of strategic interactions in environmental expenditures among OECD countries using a spatial Durbin model including economic and political control variables and both economic and spatial weight matrices reflecting several interaction mechanisms. The results show the existence of significant positive spatial dependence in environmental spending suggesting that OECD countries consider their neighbors' behavior when making policy choices related to environmental expenditures. …

Electric mobility in the Sicilian short food supply chain

2019

This paper is the first study to explore the intention of entrepreneurs operating in the Short Food Supply Chain to adopt electric mobility inside their business. For this purpose, a case study approach was chosen, employing a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the New Ecological Paradigm to investigate the determinants affecting this intentional behaviour. The empirical analysis has been carried out in the city of Palermo (Italy), involving 42 entrepreneurs who participate in farmer's markets. Results show that entrepreneurs with higher levels of intention to introduce sustainable means of transport, such as electric vehicles, are the most concerned about the enviro…

Ecological stoichiometry: a link between developmental speed and physiological stress in an omnivorous insect

2019

The elemental composition of organisms is a part of a suite of functional traits that may adaptively respond to fluctuating selection pressures. Life history theory predicts that predation risk and resource limitations impose selection pressures on organisms’ developmental time and are further associated with variability in energetic and behavioral traits. Between-individual differences in developmental speed, behaviors and physiology have been explained using the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis. However, how an organism’s developmental speed is linked with elemental body composition, metabolism and behavior is not well understood. We compared elemental body composition, latency to …

Functional classifications and their application in phytoplankton ecology

2015

SUMMARY 1. Ecologists often group organisms based on similar biological traits or on taxonomic criteria. However, the use of taxonomy in ecology has many drawbacks because taxa may include species with very different ecological adaptations. Further, similar characters may evolve independently in different lineages. 2. In this review, we examine the main criteria that have been used in the identification of nine modes of classifying phytoplankton non-taxonomically. These approaches are based purely on morphological and/or structural traits, or on more complex combinations including physiological and ecological features. 3. Different functional approaches have proved able to explain some frac…