Search results for "Cape"
showing 10 items of 1938 documents
"In vitro" antagonism of a grapevine endophytic Bacillus subtilis strain towards "esca" fungi.
2008
Preliminary investigations on grapevines (CV Catarratto) with symptoms of “esca” permitted to isolate only bacterial colonies, from black punctuations belonging to the genus Bacillus. Particularly, an isolate was Gram-positive with spore forming and, on the basis of the partial 16S rRNA sequence comparison, it showed a similarity of 99% with Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis. There are numerous reports on the antagonistic activity of the species towards several phytopathogenic microorganisms. For this reason the possible bacterial control against the “esca” fungi (Phaeoacre- monium aleophilum, PAL; Phaemoniella clamidospora, PCH; Fomitiporia mediterranea, FOMED), was studied. The antagonist…
Probabilistic maturation reaction norms assessed from mark-recaptures of wild fish in their natural habitat
2014
Published version of an article in the journal: Ecology and Evolution. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1044 Open Access Reaction norms are a valuable tool in evolutionary biology. Lately, the probabilistic maturation reaction norm approach, describing probabilities of maturing at combinations of age and body size, has been much applied for testing whether phenotypic changes in exploited populations of fish are mainly plastic or involving an evolutionary component. However, due to typical field data limitations, with imperfect knowledge about individual life histories, this demographic method still needs to be assessed. Using 13 years of direct mark-recap…
Contemporary spatial and environmental factors determine vascular plant species richness on highly fragmented meadows in Central Finland
2018
Context Habitat loss is a major threat to biodiversity. It can create temporal lags in decline of species in relation to destruction of habitat coverage. Plant species specialized in semi-natural grasslands, especially meadows, often express such extinction debt. Objectives We studied habitat loss and fragmentation of meadows and examined whether the changes in meadow coverage had caused an extinction debt on vascular plants. We also studied whether historical or present landscape patterns or contemporary environmental factors were more important determinants of species occurrence. Methods We surveyed the plant species assemblages of 12 grazed and 12 mown meadows in Central Finland and dete…
Environmental mitigation hierarchy and biodiversity offsets revisited through habitat connectivity modelling.
2020
International audience; Biodiversity loss is accelerating because of unceasing human activity and land clearing for development projects (urbanisation, transport infrastructure, mining and quarrying …). Environmental policy-makers and managers in different countries worldwide have proposed the mitigation hierarchy to ensure the goal of “no net loss (NNL) of biodiversity” and have included this principle in environmental impact assessment processes. However, spatial configuration is hardly ever taken into account in the mitigation hierarchy even though it would greatly benefit from recent developments in habitat connectivity modelling incorporating landscape graphs. Meanwhile, national, Euro…
Hillslope degradation in representative Italian areas. Just soil erosion risk or opportunity for development?
2018
In recent years, much research have dealt with the impact of human and climate change on the morpho-evolution of Mediterranean catchments characterized by high ecological and cultural value. In this paper, we speculated how humans can influence hillslope degradation by reviewing the relationships between denudation processes and land use changes in some representative areas located in different Italian regions (i.e., Liguria, Tuscany, Basilicata, and Sicily). The selected study cases are characterized by different climatic and geological features, land use, and land management and can be considered indicative of the hillslope degradation issues that affected the Apennines during the last ce…
Hybrid Learning Situation as a Challenge for Design
2016
In the paper, we address the physical learning space and focus on designing enabling settings for learning. New practices emerge from an accelerating context change and a rapid adoption of novel ICT solutions. Educational institutions and professionals strive to implement effective settings and instructional methods in order to facilitate an acquisition of the 21st century skills. Little attention is paid to changes that take place at the level of interpersonal communication, let alone their possible impacts in the long run. As the methods and the settings diversify, and the whole learning landscape turns hybrid, a good fit between the setting and the instructional method is a daily design …
Energy and speleogenesis: Key determinants of terrestrial species richness in caves
2017
Abstract The aim of this study was to unravel the relative role played by speleogenesis (i.e., the process in which a cave is formed), landscape‐scale variables, and geophysical factors in the determination of species richness in caves. Biological inventories from 21 caves located in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula along with partial least square (PLS) regression analysis were used to assess the relative importance of the different explanatory variables. The caves were grouped according to the similarity in their species composition; the effect that spatial distance could have on similarity was also studied using correlation between matrices. The energy and speleogenesis of caves account…
LATENT CONFLICTS AND PLANNING ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY “LANDSCAPE OF EXCEPTION”
2015
In the last 30 years Southern Italy has changed from being a region of emigration to one of immigration, in main cities as well as in rural areas. Accordingly, South-Eastern Sicily is recently experiencing remarkable physical, social and economic changes, with significant transformation of its agricultural landscape. Statistics of the last 20 years show high levels of development of the agricultural sector, with remarkable innovation and internationalization of production. At the same time non-official statistics show a higher concentration of - often illegal - immigrants in rural areas. On the other hand, landscape planning and management ensure more “sustainable” local development. The di…
Exploring individual preferences for periurban landscapes
2015
International audience; Landscape aesthetic quality has recently become an important dimension of land use policies since it is likely to play a role in human well-being. Several scientific studies have shown that landscape is a significant component of residential satisfaction of inhabitants in urban and suburban areas (Hur & Nasar, 2010; Kweon et al., 2010). Although neglected by land-use planning for decades (Gallent et al., 2004), urban fringes are particularly interesting for analyzing landscape changes. These spaces where town meets countryside (Scott et al., 2013) are indeed particularly concerned with urban sprawl that occurs in all European cities from 1960s (EEA, 2006). Such chang…
Droplet digital PCR as a tool for investigating dynamics of cryptic symbionts
2021
Abstract Interactions among symbiotic organisms and their hosts are major drivers of ecological and evolutionary processes. Monitoring the infection patterns among natural populations and identifying factors affecting these interactions are critical for understanding symbiont–host relationships. However, many of these interactions remain understudied since the knowledge about the symbiont species is lacking, which hinders the development of appropriate tools. In this study, we developed a digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) assay based on apicomplexan COX1 gene to detect an undescribed agamococcidian symbiont. We show that the method gives precise and reproducible results and enables detecting cryp…