Search results for " natural resource"
showing 10 items of 194 documents
Effects of temperature and desiccation on ex situ conservation of nongreen fern spores
2012
Premise of the study Fern spores are unicellular and haploid, making them a potential model system to study factors that regulate lifespan and mechanisms of aging. Aging rates of nongreen spores were measured to compare longevity characteristics among diverse fern species and test for orthodox response to storage temperature and moisture. Methods Aging of spores from 10 fern species was quantified by changes in germination and growth parameters. Storage temperature ranged from ambient room to -196°C (liquid nitrogen); spores were dried to ambient relative humidity (RH) or using silica gel. Key results Survival of spores varied under ambient storage conditions, with one species dying within …
In Itinere STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT of an integrated provincial waste system
2009
In the paper, the practical problem of analysing in an integrated way the performance of provincial waste systems is approached, in the framework of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). In particular, the in itinere phase of SEA is analysed herein. After separating out a proper group of ambits, to which the waste system is supposed to determine relevant impacts, pertinent sets of single indicators are proposed. Through the adoption of such indicators the time trend of the system is investigated, and the suitability of each indicator is critically revised. The structure of the evaluation scheme, which is essentially based on the use of ambit issues and analytical indicators, calls …
Changes and persistences of traditional architectural shapes in Burkina Faso
2018
Oggetto del presente lavoro è l’esito di una ricerca condotta presso il Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo, finalizzata all’analisi dello stato dell’arte dell’architettura tradizionale dei Paesi dell’Africa Nord-Occidentale e agli effetti che su questa ha determinato il processo di modernizzazione dell’habitat, attraverso l’introduzione di nuovi materiali da costruzione e di tecnologie avanzate importate da Paesi industrializzati. Il Paese preso in esame è il Burkina Faso, nell’Africa sub-sahariana, uno dei più poveri del Mondo e dell’Africa e, per tale ragione, uno dei più suscettibili alla superiorità economica e tecnologica dei paesi industrializzati che …
Critical range of soil organic carbon in southern Europe lands under desertification risk.
2021
Soil quality is fundamental for ecosystem long term functionality, productivity and resilience to current climatic changes. Despite its importance, soil is lost and degraded at dramatic rates worldwide. In Europe, the Mediterranean areas are a hotspot for soil erosion and land degradation due to a combination of climatic conditions, soils, geomorphology and anthropic pressure. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is considered a key indicator of soil quality as it relates to other fundamental soil functions supporting crucial ecosystem services. In the present study, the functional relationships among SOC and other important soil properties were investigated in the topsoil of 38 sites under different …
Food predictability determines space use of endangered vultures: implications for management of supplementary feeding.
2013
Understanding space use of free-living endangered animals is key to inform management decisions for conservation planning. Like most scavengers, vultures have evolved under a context of unpredictability of food resources (i.e. exploiting scattered carcasses that are intermittently available). However, the role of predictable sources of food in shaping spatial ecology of vultures has seldom been studied in detail. Here, we quantify the home range of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), a long-lived raptor which has experienced severe population decline throughout its range and is qualified as endangered worldwide. To this end six adults were tracked by satellite telemetry in Spain d…
Illegal Chinese gold mining in Amansie West, Ghana - an assessement of its impact and implications
2014
Master thesis in development management - University of Agder 2014 The thesis’ objective is to assess the impact of Chinese illegal miners in the Amansie West District in Ghana. The illegal mining sector is seen as having several negative effects, environmentally as well as socially and economically. The influx of some 20-50 000 Chinese miners into Ghana is found to increase these impacts. The Chinese illegal miners operate largely on farmland, which is bought from locals for the sum equivalent of approximately 6.5 years of farming income. This leads to a loss of long-term income for the farmer as well as the degradation of large land areas, which in the case of Amansie West is here estimat…
Evaluación multicriterio de políticas de uso y gestión de recursos naturales
2014
The purpose of this work is show the characteristics of different environmental economic assessment methodologies, and exposes a case study where possible alternatives addressed to reduce the contamination of a bay with multicriteria approach are evaluated. The results obtained show the effectiveness of multicriteria analysis to evaluate the alternatives for solution of contamination problem in a bay. Economic evaluation of the contamination effects integrated to the environmental, social and economic dimensions through multicriteria techniques allows an alternative planning to solve the environmental problem studied, providing the right decision.
Quantifying trade-offs between ecological gains, economic costs, and landowners' preferences in boreal mire protection.
2021
Private land often encompasses biodiversity features of high conservation value, but its protection is not straightforward. Commonly, landowners’ perspectives are rightfully allowed to influence conservation actions. This unlikely comes without consequences on biodiversity or other aspects such as economic considerations, but these consequences are rarely quantitatively considered in decision-making. In the context of boreal mire protection in Finland, we report how acknowledging landowners’ resistance to protection changes the combination of mires selected to conservation compared to ignoring landowners’ opinions. Using spatial prioritization, we quantify trade-offs arising between the amo…
Disentangling canid howls across multiple species and subspecies: Structure in a complex communication channel
2016
Wolves, coyotes, and other canids are members of a diverse genus of top predators of considerable conservation and management interest. Canid howls are long-range communication signals, used both for territorial defence and group cohesion. Previous studies have shown that howls can encode individual and group identity. However, no comprehensive study has investigated the nature of variation in canid howls across the wide range of species. We analysed a database of over 2000 howls recorded from 13 different canid species and subspecies. We applied a quantitative similarity measure to compare the modulation pattern in howls from different populations, and then applied an unsupervised clusteri…
Climate and agriculture: empirical evidence for countries and agroecological zones of the Sahel
2022
International audience; ow heterogenous is the impact of climate change across space and the type of agricultural production? In this paper, we investigate the relationship between climate change and variability, measured by temperature and rainfall, and agricultural production at the country and agroecological zone levels of the Sahel. We consider a crop production index and five cereals (maize, millet, sorghum, wheat and rice). Based on an original climate database and an agricultural production function estimated for the period 1961–2016, we show that average rainfall and temperature during the growing season indeed have highly heterogeneous effects on agricultural production, depending …