Search results for " human impact"

The Impact of Climate, Resource Availability, Natural Disturbances and Human Subsistence Strategies on Sicilian Landscape Dynamics During the Holocene

2022

This paper presents a multidisciplinary summary of the most recent discoveries and hypotheses concerning factors driving the human subsistence economy and landscape shaping in Sicily during the Holocene. A number of scientific papers have recently pointed out the key role played by paleogeography, resource (water, food) availability and natural disturbances (volcanic eruptions, tsunamis) in local human activities. Modern anthropology and archaeology increasingly use biological remains (e.g. soils, bones, wood, plant macroremains, pollen) to better understand how human communities managed to survive and spread. Likewise, refined reconstructions of past human demographic fluxes and socio-econ…

Development, human impact and habitat distribution in submarine canyons of the Central and Western Mediterranean

2015

We present in this paper different studies on canyon systems, adopting distinct approaches, temporal and spatial scales. Most of our study areas coincide with the NW Sicilian canyons, which present striking differences in their morphologies in response to the Plio-Quaternary tectonic evolution of the northern Sicilian margin. In the present-day, active sedimentary processes inferred from bedform analyses along some of the studied canyons could drive to enhanced biological activities along them. This is also confirmed by an on-going study of the impact of trawling fishery on the morphology and sedimentary environments of the Sicilian margin, where intense deep-sea bottom trawling activities …

Evaluating the effects of man-induced topographic changes in landscape structure on soil erosion by water: a case study in Sicily

2012

Hillslope degradation in representative Italian areas. Just soil erosion risk or opportunity for development?

2018

In recent years, much research have dealt with the impact of human and climate change on the morpho-evolution of Mediterranean catchments characterized by high ecological and cultural value. In this paper, we speculated how humans can influence hillslope degradation by reviewing the relationships between denudation processes and land use changes in some representative areas located in different Italian regions (i.e., Liguria, Tuscany, Basilicata, and Sicily). The selected study cases are characterized by different climatic and geological features, land use, and land management and can be considered indicative of the hillslope degradation issues that affected the Apennines during the last ce…

The Influence of Industrial Waste on the Magnetic Properties of Salt-Affected Soils from Two Soda Ash Manufacturing Sites

2021

The aim of this study was to characterize the impact of soda ash manufacturing on the magnetic properties of soils located in the agricultural landscape in north-central Poland. Two study sites were chosen: Mątwy (SM) and Janikowo (SJ). Highly saline soils with halophyte communities were selected in order to develop an understanding of the relationship between salinization of water–soil interface and the potential contamination risk of the environment. Basic chemical and physicochemical properties of topsoil (0–25 cm) and water (surface and groundwater) samples from five locations were characterized. The characteristics of soil contamination were based on the content of sel…