Search results for "Animal Science and Zoology"
showing 10 items of 2095 documents
Using present and past climosequences to estimate soil organic carbon and related physical quality indicators under future climatic conditions
2018
Abstract This research aimed at testing the use of present and past climosequences to estimate soil organic carbon (SOC) and related physical quality indicators under future climatic conditions. The influence of climate on soil features was studied for four combinations of typical Mediterranean soil types and cropping systems, placed along climosequences of the past (P1: 1961–1990), present (P2: 1981–2010) and future (P3: 2021–2050). The four test areas were located in Italy, each one characterized by the same soil typology and cropping system, placed on similar morphological position and parent material, wide enough to cross climatic boundaries. Legacy soil profiles that were sampled in th…
A high-resolution, integrated system for rice yield forecasting at district level
2019
Abstract To meet the growing demands from public and private stakeholders for early yield estimates, a high-resolution (2 km × 2 km) rice yield forecasting system based on the integration of the WARM model and remote sensing (RS) technologies was developed. RS was used to identify rice-cropped area and to derive spatially distributed sowing dates, and for the dynamic assimilation of RS-derived leaf area index (LAI) data within the crop model. The system—tested for the main European rice production districts in Italy, Greece, and Spain—performed satisfactorily; >66% of the inter-annual yield variability was explained in six out of eight combinations of ecotype × district, with a maximum of 8…
Soil erosion in sloping vineyards assessed by using botanical indicators and sediment collectors in the Ruwer-Mosel valley
2016
Steep slopes, erodible soils, rill and ephemeral gullies, compaction due to wheel. traffic and human trampling are common features in vineyards around the world and result in high soil erosion rates. However, little is known about seasonal and spatial variations of soil erosion rates due to factors such as the impact of the vine plantation, harvest, and tillage on the soil redistribution over the long-term temporal scale. The goal of this study is to assess long-term soil erosion rates and the impact of management on sediment and runoff yield by means of Gerlach troughs and a topographical approach based on botanic benchmarks in two paired vineyards with different ages (3 and 35 years) loca…
Economic performance and risk of farming systems specialized in perennial crops: An analysis of Italian hazelnut production
2019
Abstract Assessing farm profitability and economic risk is important to support farmers' decisions. Several factors affect yields and product prices, in turn influencing farmers' income level and economic risk. However, the literature has often neglected to explicitly account for the role of product quality. This is particularly important for crops such as hazelnut because farmers' prices vary according to the quality of the harvested product. Furthermore, it seems fundamental to disentangle the role of parameters influencing farm results, noticeably yield, product price and quality. This is because farmers select their risk management tools to satisfy their needs, but these are often suita…
<p><strong><em>Chilocoris</em> <em>serratus</em> n. sp., the first burrower bug species (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: …
2016
The first burrower bug species recorded in Guinea-Bissau, Chilocoris serratus n. sp., is described and compared with morphologically related species. Additionally, an annotated checklist of Afrotropical species of the genus Chilocoris is provided.
Benthic hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from bathyal and abyssal depths of the Northeast Atlantic held in the moderniDiscovery/iiCollections/i.
2017
The deep-sea benthic hydroid fauna remains poorly known, in part because of less frequent sampling than the shelf fauna, in part owing to the immense study area, and partly also because available samples have been little studied by experts. In order to correct this, deep-sea benthic hydroid material from the modern Discovery Collections has been studied. Samples come from localities in the North-East Atlantic including the Porcupine Seabight, Porcupine Abyssal Plain, Rockall Trough, Rockall Bank, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Sixteen species belonging to 12 families and 16 genera were found. Leptothecata are clearly dominant, being represented by 14 species; the remaining species belong to An…
Controlled feeding experiments with diets of different abrasiveness reveal slow development of mesowear signal in goats ( Capra aegagrus hircus )
2018
ABSTRACT Dental mesowear is applied as a proxy to determine the general diet of mammalian herbivores based on tooth-cusp shape and occlusal relief. Low, blunt cusps are considered typical of grazers and high, sharp cusps typical of browsers. However, how internal or external abrasives impact mesowear, and the time frame the wear signature takes to develop, still need to be explored. Four different pelleted diets of increasing abrasiveness (lucerne, grass, grass and rice husks, and grass, rice husks and sand) were fed to four groups of a total of 28 adult goats in a controlled feeding experiment over a 6-month period. Tooth morphology was captured by medical CT scans at the beginning and end…
Volatile-mediated foraging behaviour of three parasitoid species under conditions of dual insect herbivore attack
2016
Infochemicals play an important role in structuring intra-and interspecific interactions. Many parasitoid wasp species rely on herbivory or oviposition-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs/OIPVs) to locate their herbivorous hosts, and must cope with variation in the volatile blends due to factors such as plant/host species, herbivore density or attack by several herbivores. However, little is known about how dual herbivory or changes in herbivore density affect multiple parasitoid species, each attacking a different herbivore, in the same system. In a natural system, we investigated the effect of dual attack on the ability of three parasitoid species to differentiate between volatiles induced by …
Tri-axial accelerometry shows differences in energy expenditure and parental effort throughout the breeding season in long-lived raptors
2021
Cutting-edge technologies are extremely useful to develop new workflows in studying ecological data, particularly to understand animal behavior and movement trajectories at the individual level. Although parental care is a well-studied phenomenon, most studies have been focused on direct observational or video recording data, as well as experimental manipulation. Therefore, what happens out of our sight still remains unknown. Using high-frequency GPS/GSM dataloggers and tri-axial accelerometers we monitored 25 Bonelli’s eagles Aquila fasciata during the breeding season to understand parental activities from a broader perspective. We used recursive data, measured as number of visits and resi…
Hypothermic Stunning in Juvenile Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Uruguayan Coastal Waters: Learning for Future Events
2017
Abstract Chelonia mydas in temperate areas exhibits behavioral changes for adapting to sea temperature fluctuations; however, prolonged exposure to cold temperatures can lead to hypothermia and thus hypothermic stunning events. Here we report an unusual stranding event of 90 green turtles recorded in a 12-d period in July 2012 in southeastern Uruguay, analyzing the event in an oceanographic and meteorological context. Monitoring such events provides a unique opportunity to understand the impact of hypothermic stunning on juvenile green turtle stocks that spend the entire year in this temperate region of the southwestern Atlantic Ocean.