Search results for "Bioindicators"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Organic enrichment effects on a marine meiofauna community, with focus on Kinorhyncha
2016
Abstract Within the framework of a programme aimed at monitoring the impact of fish farming on the marine biota, we have had the opportunity to study the effect of the organic enrichment caused by the fish farm on meiofauna abundances and Kinorhyncha communities’ structure over two farming cycles. Up to now, studies on kinorhynchs have focussed mostly on the taxonomy, biogeography, and the ultrastructure, and, more recently, on the phylogenetic aspects of the taxon. Only few studies have dealt with the ecology of these creatures and studies focusing on the response of these animals to disturbances of anthropogenic origin are rare. The study took place in the Western Mediterranean and fauna …
CHANGES IN COLLEMBOLA RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY ALONG A GRADIENTOF LAND-USE INTENSITY : A pan European study
2006
Changes in Collembola richness and diversity along a land-use intensity gradient were studied in eight European countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Hungary, UK, Ireland and Finland). In each country a set of six 1 km2 land-use units (LUUs) were selected forming a gradient ranging from natural forest to agricultural dominated landscapes, passing through mixed-use ones. In addition to data on Collembola, detailed information regarding landscape diversity and structure was collected for each LUU. A total of 47,774 individuals were identified from 281 species. Collembola reacted not only to changes in the diversity of the landscape, but also to the composition of that diversity and…
Evaluating the presence of microplastics in striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded in the Western Mediterranean Sea.
2020
Litter is a well-known problem for marine species; however, we still know little about the extent to which they're affected by microplastics. In this study, we analyse the presence of this type of debris in Western Mediterranean striped dolphins' intestinal contents over three decades. Results indicated that frequency was high, as 90.5% of dolphins contained microplastics. Of these microplastics, 73.6% were fibres, 23.87% were fragments and 2.53% were primary pellets. In spite of the high frequency of occurrence, microplastic amount per dolphin was relatively low and highly variable (mean ± SD = 14.9 ± 22.3; 95% CI: 9.58–23.4). Through FT-IR spectrometry, we found that polyacrylamide, typic…
Effects of organic mercury on Mytilus galloprovincialis hemocyte function and morphology
2020
Abstract Filter-feeding organisms accumulate xenobiotics and other substances in their tissues. They can be useful as sentinel organisms in biomonitoring of the marine compartment. Bivalve cellular immunity is ensured by phagocytosis and cytotoxic reactions carried out by hemocytes in a network with humoral responses. These can be affected by chemical contaminants in water that can be immunosuppressors also at a low concentration increasing the sensibility to pathogens. This work is an attempt to individuate cellular markers for pollution detection, investigating the effect of methylmercury (CH3HgCl) at different concentrations on the activity and hemocyte morphology of the Mediterranean m…
Démarche statistique pour la sélection des indicateurs par Random Forests pour la surveillance de la qualité des sols
2013
The volume of data, and the large number of biological variables to be tested (one hundred), require analytical techniques, such asRandom Forests, which can overcome the problem of multi-colinearity for the selection of indicators, sensitive to various factors.Random Forests methodology is appropriate for the selection of the most discriminant variables. So, we searched for the best wayto select them, by bringing together all biological variables, representing the Microflora and Fauna. This approach focuses on impactindicators from the Bio2 program, indicators of flora and indicators of accumulation (snails) were not included.This work has been implemented on the three factors of discrimina…
Overview of pesticide use in Moroccan apple orchards and its effects on the environment
2021
International audience; The cultivation of apple trees needs to use phytosanitary products, which are used in an irrational way by certain farmers. The harmful effects of pesticides result mainly from their persistence in the environment. Several studies have been carried out to estimate the pesticide residues and assess their effects on soil microorganisms and aquatic organisms. The results of these studies have revealed a harmful effect on these bioindicators. Therefore, a disruption in their growth and reproduction, an increase in their mortality, and a decrease in their fertility have been proven. In addition, a considerable reduction in the number and diversity of soil microorganisms a…
Contribution to development of microbial bioindicators for assessing the impact of agricultural pratices on soil
2015
Soil is the support of agricultural production. It performs many functions essential to the provision of ecosystem services necessary for the well-being of our societies. Soil physicochemical and biological properties have been altered by the development of intensive agriculture while it is a non-renewable resource, revealing the need to develop new management practices suitable for the sustainability of soil quality. This also marked the entry into the “Agroecology” era, which promotes the development of new agricultural systems optimizing services provided by biodiversity to reduce the use of inputs and energy use. To achieve this aim, the development of a range of indicators to assess th…
The use of zooplankton metrics to determine the trophic status and ecological potential: An approach in a large Mediterranean watershed.
2021
In the European Water Framework Directive, zooplankton was not included as a Biological Quality Element despite its important place in the aquatic trophic web. In the present study on zooplankton abundances and biomasses, we used several metrics to test their ability to detect differences among trophic statuses and ecological potential levels, and collected a large sum of data in more than 60 reservoirs at Ebro watershed, on more than 300 sampling occasions over 10 years. Our results indicate that most zooplankton metrics are correlated to environmental variables that determine reservoirs’ trophic states, especially chlorophyll a and total phosphorus. The metrics with better sensitivity to …
Una inaspettata biodiversità valutata con la trappola malaise: il caso dei collemboli di Lampedusa
2013
All‟interno di uno studio sulla biodiversità dell‟entomofauna dell‟Isola di Lampedusa, che verteva principalmente sulla fauna aerea, si sono trovati diversi taxa normalmente appartenenti alla fauna edafica. Infatti per il monitoraggio sono state utilizzate trappole di tipo Malaise internazionalmente impiegate e consigliate nei protocolli per il monitoraggio di popolazioni di insetti volatori. Inaspettatamente, anche se qualche altro caso è citato in letteratura, si sono rinvenuti diversi taxa più tipicamente rappresentativi della fauna del suolo ed in particolare dell‟epifauna quali chilopodi, collemboli, coleotteri carabidi. La nostra attenzione si è focalizzata sui collemboli in quanto so…
Innovative and Applied Research in Biology: Proceedings
2022
The collection contains SCIENTIFIC articles on the topics of the LU 80 conference reports. The main focus is on innovative and applied research in biology and interdisciplinary fields.