Search results for "Climate"
showing 10 items of 4934 documents
Spatio-temporal patterns of Holocene vegetation change in southern Sicily
2012
Few examples of natural forest remain near the Mediterranean coast. Therefore, it is difficult to study how coastal forests respond to climatic change or their resilience to human impact. We developed new sedimentary record of Holocene vegetation and fire history at Lago Preola, a coastal lake in southwestern Sicily (Italy). In order to verify the existence of forest at large scale on the coast, we compare pollen from Lago Preola, a medium-sized lake (33 ha), to Gorgo Basso, a small lake (3 ha) located nearby with the aim of separating local from extra-local vegetation dynamics through time using pollen percentages and influx. We then compare Lago Preola pollen to the record from Biviere di…
Ornithological communities as indicators of recent transformations on a regional scale: the case of the Sicily island.
2014
A study on the Sicilian avifauna changes and its existing connections with the land use variations has been carried out from the 80s till today. We compared the Sicilian ornithological data acquired from the atlas maps with the regional land use maps data. We examined the land use variations and the distribution changes of some bird species on a regional level. To this aim, we analyzed the spatial distribution data of the birds in the period from 1984-1992 and 1993-2006. Moreover we examined the land use data of the period going from 1987-1988 and 1993-2000. After a preliminary analysis, we selected target species linked to different environments. Forest: Great spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopo…
Sustainable management of water as a strategy for preventing conflicts and enhancing unity in mediterranean countries affected by water scarcity and …
2009
Hydroseeding for revegetation in a semiarid Mediterranean environment
2012
Hydroseeding is a technique increasingly used to establish vegetation on degraded areas in order to perform environmental protection. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of four different hydroseeding methods on a degraded artificial slope in the southern Mediterranean area determining total vegetation cover, hydroseeding vegetation cover, hydroseeding success index (HSI), natural and hydroseeded vegetation height. The test area does not allow the use of any operating machine for soil and vegetation management, the only applicable technique is therefore hydroseeding. After hydroseeding was applied (December 2010), 21 checks were carried out every 15 days (from Janu…
Reproductive characteristics and differential response to seasonal temperatures of Blue and Great Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus & Parus major) in three n…
2011
The breeding ecology of the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tit (Parus major) was studied for 18 years in three different neighbouring habitats in Sicily, comprising oakwoods, reforested pine and a reforested mix of pine and broad-leaved trees. Both Blue and Great Tits laid eggs up to two weeks earlier in oakwoods than in the reforested areas. Our results indicate a statistically greater breeding success for both species in the oakwoods compared to reforested habitats, with the mixed reforested habitat having a greater success than that of reforested pine habitat. We also correlated reproductive characteristics with local air temperature to verify if the laying date of tits advance…
The Plant as a Habitat for Entomophagous Insects
2016
Populations of herbivorous insects are naturally consumed by other predacious or predatory insect species. These entomophagous insects are thus plant-dwelling organisms that use the plant for several vital functions and are affected by plant traits at the evolutionary, organism and population levels. Many entomophagous species are used for the biological control of insect pests worldwide. The aim of this chapter is to provide an exhaustive review of mechanisms underlying the interactions between plants and entomophagous insects, including those governing life history traits at the individual level, as well as those acting on population and community structure and dynamics. We detail how pro…
Estimating carbon credits variations supplied from agricultural and forest soils of Italy between 1979 and 2008.
2011
Soils contain approximately three times the world amount of organic carbon in vegetation and approximately the double of that present in the atmosphere. However, soil organic carbon (SOC) has been found lowering in many areas, while atmospheric CO2 was on increase. It is well known that there is a marked inter-dependence between SOC and climate, nevertheless, recent researches have demonstrated that changes of land use and management can cause gains or losses of SOC greater than climatic changes. Italy, which has joined the Kyoto Protocol, has decided to consider only forest management within the additional activities contemplated for the count of carbon credits, and to launch a monitoring …
Effect of climate on carbon storage, humus fractions, allophanes, imogolite and poorly cristalline and crystalline oxy-hydroxides in volcanic soils o…
2006
Genetic diversity of Mediterranean cattle breeds related to geography and climate
2015
In recent decades, changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems. Mediterranean countries will be particularly affected by this phenomenon, with growing temperatures and reduced rainfall. Understanding how species and ecosystems respond to climate change has become a crucial focus in biodiversity conservation and management. The genome-wide SNP panels allows providing background information on genome structure in domestic animals, opening new perspectives to livestock genetics. The International Project GALIMED "Genetic Adaptation of Bovine Livestock and production systems in MEDiterranean region", develops an integrated approach that combines the analysis of SNP marke…