Search results for "CAPE"
showing 10 items of 1938 documents
Gray plumage color is more cryptic than brown in snowy landscapes in a resident color polymorphic bird
2020
Abstract Camouflage may promote fitness of given phenotypes in different environments. The tawny owl (Strix aluco) is a color polymorphic species with a gray and brown morph resident in the Western Palearctic. A strong selection pressure against the brown morph during snowy and cold winters has been documented earlier, but the selection mechanisms remain unresolved. Here, we hypothesize that selection favors the gray morph because it is better camouflaged against predators and mobbers in snowy conditions compared to the brown one. We conducted an online citizen science experiment where volunteers were asked to locate a gray or a brown tawny owl specimen from pictures taken in snowy and snow…
A Methodology to Derive Global Maps of Leaf Traits Using Remote Sensing and Climate Data
2018
This paper introduces a modular processing chain to derive global high-resolution maps of leaf traits. In particular, we present global maps at 500 m resolution of specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen and phosphorus content per dry mass, and leaf nitrogen/phosphorus ratio. The processing chain exploits machine learning techniques along with optical remote sensing data (MODIS/Landsat) and climate data for gap filling and up-scaling of in-situ measured leaf traits. The chain first uses random forests regression with surrogates to fill gaps in the database (> 45% of missing entries) and maximizes the global representativeness of the trait dataset. Plant species are then a…
An Updated Checklist of the Sicilian Native Edible Plants: Preserving the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Century-Old Agro-Pastoral Landscapes
2020
The traditional use of native wild food plants (NWFP) may represent a valuable supplementary food source for the present and future generations. In Sicily, the use of wild plants in the human diet dates back to very ancient times and still plays an important role in some rural communities. Moreover, in this regard, the natural and cultural inheritance of this island is wealthy and diversified for several reasons. First, Sicily hosts a rich vascular flora, with 3,000 native and 350 endemic plants. Second, due to its central position in the Mediterranean, the island has acted as a veritable melting pot for the ethnobotanical knowledge of the rural communities of the entire basin. We reviewed …
Whistle variation in Mediterranean common bottlenose dolphin: The role of geographical, anthropogenic, social, and behavioral factors.
2020
Abstract The studies on the variation of acoustic communication in different species have provided insight that genetics, geographic isolation, and adaptation to ecological and social conditions play important roles in the variability of acoustic signals. The dolphin whistles are communication signals that can vary significantly among and within populations. Although it is known that they are influenced by different environmental and social variables, the factors influencing the variation between populations have received scant attention. In the present study, we investigated the factors associated with the acoustic variability in the whistles of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatu…
Rehabilitating boreal forest structure and species composition in Finland through logging, dead wood creation and fire: The EVO experiment
2007
This paper reviews an ongoing, large-scale multidisciplinary experiment designed to study the possibilities of rehabilitating forest structure and species composition through logging, dead wood creation and fire in managed Norway spruce (Picea abies) forests in southern Finland. These forests have been utilized for several centuries with intensive management and clear-cut harvesting, which has been the dominant practice in Finland since World War II. During this era, the forest structure has become relatively even-aged, and the amount of dead wood has been reduced considerably. Simultaneously, due to an effective fire suppression policy, the role of fire in Finnish nature has been almost co…
Impact of forest management on threatened epiphytic macrolichens: Evidence from a Mediterranean mixed oak forest (Italy)
2019
Abstract: Forest management practices may heavily affect epiphytic cryptogams. This study was conceived in March 2016, as soon as we were informed about an authorized logging for timber within a Mediterranean mixed oak forest in Tuscany (central Italy), which threatened a large population of the forest macrolichen Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm., composed of hundreds of fertile thalli. Lobaria pulmonaria is often used as an ecological indicator of high quality habitats hosting rare lichens, and in general, cryptogams worthy of conservation. The species has suffered a general decline throughout Europe as a consequence of air pollution and intensive forest management, and currently it is red-l…
Dispersal ecology of deadwood organisms and connectivity conservation
2016
Limited knowledge of dispersal for most organisms hampers effective connectivity conservation in fragmented landscapes. In forest ecosystems, deadwood-dependent organisms (i.e., saproxylics) are negatively affected by forest management and degradation globally. We reviewed empirically established dispersal ecology of saproxylic insects and fungi. We focused on direct studies (e.g., mark-recapture, radiotelemetry), field experiments, and population genetic analyses. We found 2 somewhat opposite results. Based on direct methods and experiments, dispersal is limited to within a few kilometers, whereas genetic studies showed little genetic structure over tens of kilometers, which indicates long…
Time at risk: Individual spatial behaviour drives effectiveness of marine protected areas and fitness
2021
11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table.-- Under a Creative Commons license
Plot - A new tool for global vegetation analyses
2019
23Biodiversity Conservation Department, ISPRA – Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Rome, Italy
Assessing the influence of the amount of reachable habitat on genetic structure using landscape and genetic graphs.
2021
Genetic structure, i.e. intra-population genetic diversity and inter-population genetic differentiation, is influenced by the amount and spatial configuration of habitat. Measuring the amount of reachable habitat (ARH) makes it possible to describe habitat patterns by considering intra-patch and inter-patch connectivity, dispersal capacities and matrix resistance. Complementary ARH metrics computed under various resistance scenarios are expected to reflect both drift and gene flow influence on genetic structure. Using an empirical genetic dataset concerning the large marsh grasshopper (Stethophyma grossum), we tested whether ARH metrics are good predictors of genetic structure. We further i…