Search results for " land use"

The Halaesa landscape (III B.C.) as ancient example of the complex and bio-diverse traditional Mediterranean polycultural landscape.

2014

Southern Europe and the whole Mediterranean area are distinguished by landscape types whose characters result from countless, long and complex cultural and historical processes that developed in an equally complex and varied environment. The Mediterranean rural landscape would keep these same distinctive characteristics until the crisis of the mixed-crops, and the phenomena of urbanization in the nineteen-sixties/ seventies. This paper identifies the characteristics of the Mediterranean polycultural and polyspecific (coltura promiscua) landscape, characterized by the presence of trees (both wild and cultivated), starting from a historical overview of the central Mediterranean. The analysed …

Does lake age affect zooplankton diversity in Mediterranean lakes and reservoirs? A case study from southern Italy

2010

Zooplankton assemblages of 51 lacustrine environments located in the middle of the Mediterranean Region were analysed to evaluate the existence of an ‘age effect’ in determining their structure. The analysed datasets refer to two different geographic areas, one comprising 30 natural and artificial lakes in Sicily and the other an arrangement of 21 analogous aquatic ecosystems located at the bottom of the Italian Peninsula, a more pristine area called Southern Apennine region. Most of the natural lakes are of post-glacial origin. The artificial lakes in both datasets were built in the last century and offer the opportunity to evaluate the possible short-term effects of ageing on the structur…

Soil Erosion as an Environmental Concern in Vineyards. The Case Study of Celler del Roure, Eastern Spain, by Means of Rainfall Simulation Experiments

2018

Soil erosion in vineyards is considered as an environmental concern as it depletes soil fertility and causes damage in the fields and downstream. High soil and water losses decrease soil quality, and subsequently, this can reduce the quality of the grapes and wine. However, in specialized journals of viticulture and enology, soil erosion studies are not present. This paper surveys the soil erosion losses in the vineyards of Celler del Roure, Eastern Spain, as an example of Mediterranean vineyards. We applied rainfall simulation experiments (10 plots) using a small portable rainfall simulator and 55 mm h−1 in one hour to characterize soil erodibility, runoff discharge, and soil erosion…

Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin

2020

Producción Científica

Jūras un sauszemes teritoriju funkcionālās sasaistes nodrošināšana pašvaldību teritorijas plānošanas procesā

2019

Jūras un sauszemes teritoriju izmantošana ir funkcionāli cieši saistīta. Lielākoties jūrā iegūtie resursi tiek izmantoti cilvēku ekonomisko darbību nodrošināšanai sauszemē. Ne visi teritorijas izmantošanas veidi ir savā starpā funkcionāli saistīti, taču tie var ietekmēt viena vai otra izmantošanas veida attīstības iespējas nākotnē. Lai novērstu pretrunas un konfliktu situācijas starp jūras un sauszemes teritorijas izmantošanas veidiem, būtiski ir saskaņot un koordinēt abu plānošanas telpu attīstību, ne tikai nacionālā un reģionālajā plānošanas līmenī, bet arī vietējā. Maģistra darba mērķis ir veicināt sauszemes un jūras telpiskās plānošanas savstarpējo funkcionālo sasaisti, izvērtējot iespē…

Effect of Afforestation on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Content on a Mediterranean Island (Lampedusa, Italy)

2015

During the 20th century, large surfaces in the Mediterranean countries were subject to afforestation activities, mostly affecting abandoned agricultural lands. Under semi-arid climate conditions, Pinus spp. were the most frequently used species for these activities. The effect of pine plantations on soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) content in Lampedusa Island (South Italy) was investigated. SOC and soil N content under pine plantations of different ages (14, 24 and 43 years since plantation) were compared with SOC and soil N content in garrigue communities, which were dominated by shrubs, subshrubs and perennial herbs. The results showed that SOC content is affected by plantation …

Analysis, assessment and quantification of the climate changes impact: the resilience silvicultural indicators

2017

Sicilian forests can be considered at high decay risk because of more and more frequent wildfires and, even more, because of climate change effects, like floods, draught, heat waves, snow and wind storms. They are worrying processes, contributing at making ecosystems weaker and intensifying the potential desertification risk in Sicily, one of the most threatened of Italian regions by this form of soil degradation. The most effective approach to mitigate the effects of the climate change has been developed through the following action: analysis, assessment and quantification of the climate change impact: the silvicoltural resilience indicators.

Soil physical quality in a Sicilian agricultural area

2008

Anthropogenic Soils and Soil Security: environmetal and economic consideration.

2017

Since ancient times Man and Soil have experienced interwoven links. Nowadays soil scientists continue to stress such links highlighting the importance of soil to provide man’s growing demand for food, water and energy, and also the soil’s importance in providing ecosystem services that affect climate change, human health and biodiversity. In soil management for agricultural purposes, pedotechniques to tailor soils suitable for table grapes cultivation in large-scale farming are used to get substantial financial returns. However farmers, in tailoring soils for high income crops, frequently do not take into account the fundamental objective of the pedotechnique, i. e. to meet the needs of man…

Bird abundance and richness in ten Mediterranean agroforestry systems

2019

Since the last century agriculture is strongly promoting the simplification of the landscape. The LIFE Desert Adapt project is been developed across 1000 hectares in Italy, Spain, Portu-gal and has the objective of implementing integrative agroforestry-based land use planning and management, and one of the indicators to evaluate the project effectiveness is birds richness and abundance. Here we present the results of the first assessment and explore the relationships with the main vegetation cover types. We established 68 sampling points where we recorded bird abundance and richness. In total we registered 57 bird species, sampling points surrounded by woodlands presented 50 species, while …