Search results for "CONSERVATION"
showing 10 items of 2328 documents
Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
2021
A synthetic and updated overview about the vascular flora and vegetation of the Island of Capo Passero (SE-Sicily) is provided. These data issue from two series of field surveys—the first carried out between 1997 and 2000, and the second between 2005 and 2019 and mostly focused on refining and implementing vegetation data. The current islet’s flora consists of 269 taxa, of which 149 (58%) are annual plants. The Mediterranean species are largely prevailing, 108 (40%) of which have a strictly Mediterranean biogeographical status. The comparison with a species list published in 1919 and updated in 1957 suggest that, despite the overall prevalence of anemochorous taxa, the vertebrate fauna repr…
Invasive alien species in Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas: the Egadi Islands (Italy) case study
2021
Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the most severe threats to Mediterranean Sea biodiversity. Currently, the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in providing protection for marine biodiversity from IAS is still not fully understood. Here, we analysed eight Mediterranean MPAs located in a strategic geographic position within the Mediterranean basin. All the analysed MPAs were affected by the presence of IAS - evidence of the vulnerability of MPAs to biological invasion. Valuable habitats such as vermetid reef and coralligenous formations have become victim to numerous alien species. Alien species populations are likely to continue increasing in the Mediterranean Sea, so imple…
Staying alive on an active volcano: 80 years population dynamics of Cytisus aeolicus (Fabaceae) from Stromboli (Aeolian Islands, Italy)
2020
Abstract Cytisus aeolicus is a narrow endemic species restricted to the Aeolian archipelago (SE Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) and it is one of the most evolutionarily isolated plants in the Mediterranean flora. Historical and literature data suggest that both metapopulations and isolated individuals of C. aeolicus are gradually shrinking. Field investigations and drone images demonstrate that the C. aeolicus metapopulation from Stromboli experienced a strikingly fast increase during the last decades. As of 2019, more than 7000 ± 3000 mature individuals occur on Stromboli, i.e. 14 to 20 times more than those counted during the last census, 25 years ago. The diachronic analysis of aerial photos conc…
Analysis of movement patterns and macrohabitat use in Hermann’s tortoises (Testudo hermanni hermanni, Gmelin 1789) reintroduced in a coastal area dom…
2016
The Hermann’s tortoise is a strictly European species found mostly in areas with Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean climes and, especially the subspecies T. hermanni hermanni, has to deal with various threats which reduced its geographic distribution to only a few isolated populations. Thus, with the objective of recovering natural populations of the species, numerous reintroduction projects are being carried out throughout its historical and prehistorical geographic distribution. The aim of our study is to evaluate the success of the T. hermanni reintroduction project carried out in the Albufera de Valencia Natural Park since 2011, through the analysis of movements, home range sizes and h…
Mediterranean monk seal hunting in the regional Epipalaeolithic of Southern Iberia. A study of the Nerja Cave site (Málaga, Spain)
2019
Abstract During the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition Southern Iberia has an extensive record of Palaeolithic coastal sites, wich have been preserved due thanks to the morphology of the continental shelf. This is was a period with rapid palaeoclimatic oscillations and changes in sea level. However, the sites show an apparent continuity in technology and subsistence trends, although human groups made increasingly intense use of marine resources. In this paper we will focus on the study of Mediterranean seal remains from the Vestibulo hall of Cueva de Nerja (Malaga, Spain), unit NV4, dated 12,990–11,360 cal. BP. The presence of these bones at the site are interpreted as direct exploitati…
The effects of marine protected areas on ecosystem recovery and fisheries using a comparative modelling approach
2020
17 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3368.-- This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Daniel Vilas, Marta Coll, Xavier Corrales, Jeroen Steenbeek, Chiara Piroddi, Antonio Calò, Antonio Di Franco, Toni Font, Paolo Guidetti, Alessandro Ligas, Josep Lloret, Giulia Prato, Rita Sahyoun, Paolo Sartor, Joachim Claudet, The effects of marine protected areas on ecosystem recovery and fisheries using a comparative modelling approach, Aquatic Conservation - Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 30(10):1885-1901(2020), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3368. This article may be used for non-commercial purpose…
Seascape connectivity of European anchovy in the Central Mediterranean Sea revealed by weighted Lagrangian backtracking and bio-energetic modelling
2020
AbstractEcological connectivity is one of the most important processes that shape marine populations and ecosystems, determining their distribution, persistence, and productivity. Here we use the synergy of Lagrangian back-trajectories, otolith-derived ages of larvae, and satellite-based chlorophyll-a to identify spawning areas of European anchovy from ichthyoplanktonic data, collected in the Strait of Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea), i.e., the crucial channel in between the European and African continents. We obtain new evidence of ecosystem connectivity between North Africa and recruitment regions off the southern European coasts. We assess this result by using bio-energetic modeling, …
A formal classification of the Lygeum spartum vegetation of the Mediterranean Region
2019
Aims: We examined all available literature and some unpublished data on the We examined all available literature and some unpublished data on the grasslands dominated by Lygeum spartum from Southern Europe and North Africa to produce a formalised classification of this vegetation and to identify the main factors determining its plant species composition. Location: Mediterranean Basin and Iberian Peninsula. Methods: We used a dataset of 728 releves, which were resampled to reduce unbalanced sampling effort, resulting in a dataset of 568 releves and 846 taxa. We classified the plots by TWINSPAN, interpreted the resulting pools, and used them to develop formal definitions of phytosociological …
Allium nazarenum (Amaryllidaceae), a new species of the section Codonoprasum from Israel
2017
Allium nazarenum, a new species of A. sect. Codonoprasum, is described and illustrated from Israel. Within this species, two well distinct subspecies have been recognized, represented by the subsp. nazarenum and subsp. ramonense respectively. The first one occurs in northern and central Israel, which falls within the Mediterranean bioclimate, while the second one is circumscribed to the Negev desert. Both taxa are diploid with 2n = 16 and are found on various substrata usually in the batha or steppic plant communities. This species shows close relationships with the species belonging to the A. staticiforme group, from which it differs in several relevant diacritic features. Its morphology, …
Assessing cetacean surveys throughout the Mediterranean Sea: a gap analysis in environmental space
2018
Heterogeneous data collection in the marine environment has led to large gaps in our knowledge of marine species distributions. To fill these gaps, models calibrated on existing data may be used to predict species distributions in unsampled areas, given that available data are sufficiently representative. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of mapping cetacean densities across the entire Mediterranean Sea using models calibrated on available survey data and various environmental covariates. We aggregated 302,481 km of line transect survey effort conducted in the Mediterranean Sea within the past 20 years by many organisations. Survey coverage was highly heterogeneous geographicall…