Search results for "ECOLOGIA"

Residence Time Analysis in the Albufera of Valencia, a Mediterranean Coastal Lagoon, Spain

2021

The Albufera of Valencia is a coastal lagoon located in the western area of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 23.1 km2 and an average depth of only 1 m, with a maximum depth of 1.6 m. This lagoon is the remnants of an original and more extensive wetland of about 220 km2 which is now mostly dedicated to rice cultivation. Surface water is supplied through several main and many secondary canals for a total of 64 water entry points and three exit points to the sea. It is difficult to evaluate the residence time due to the lack of reliable measurements of the inflow or outflow, as well as continuous measurements. Between 1988 and 2018, several procedures were use…

Freshening of the Mediterranean Salt Giant: controversies and certainties around the terminal (Upper Gypsum and Lago-Mare) phases of the Messinian Sa…

2021

The late Miocene evolution of the Mediterranean Basin is characterized by major changes in connectivity, climate and tectonic activity resulting in unprecedented environmental and ecological disruptions. During the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC, 5.97-5.33 Ma) this culminated in most scenarios first in the precipitation of gypsum around the Mediterranean margins (Stage 1, 5.97-5.60 Ma) and subsequently > 2 km of halite on the basin floor, which formed the so-called Mediterranean Salt Giant (Stage 2, 5.60-5.55 Ma). The final MSC Stage 3, however, was characterized by a "low-salinity crisis", when a second calcium-sulfate unit (Upper Gypsum; substage 3.1, 5.55-5.42 Ma) showing (bio)geochemica…

Surface hydrographic changes at the western flank of the sicily channel associated with the last sapropel

2021

Abstract In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the early Holocene was characterized by major climatic and oceanographic changes that led to the formation of the last sapropel (S1) between 10.8 and 6.1 kyr cal. BP. These hydrographic changes might have altered the water exchange between the eastern and western Mediterranean sub-basins through the Strait of Sicily, but the existing evidences are inconclusive. In the present study we show new evidence from sediment core NDT-6-2016 located at the western flank of the Sicily channel, a key location to monitor the surface/intermediate water exchange between the two Mediterranean sub-basins. We perform paleo-hydrographic reconstructions based on plank…

Late Pleistocene-Holocene coastal adaptation in central Mediterranean: Snapshots from Grotta d’Oriente (NW Sicily)

2018

Marine faunal remains from Grotta d’Oriente (Favignana Island, NW Sicily) offer invaluable snapshots of human-coastal environment interaction in the central Mediterranean from the Late Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. The long-term shellfish and fish records reflect human exploitation of coastal environments undergoing considerable reorganizations during the postglacial sea level rise and the progressive isolation of Favignana from mainland Sicily. We detected an intensification of marine resource exploitation between ∼9.6 ka and ∼7.8 ka BP, which corresponds with the isolation of Favignana Island and, later on, with the introduction of early agro-pastoral economy in this region. We sugg…

Reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental changes around the Miocene-Pliocene boundary along a W-E transect across the Mediterranean

2006

Abstract In order to reconstruct the environmental changes at the end of the Messinian salinity crisis, a multidisciplinary study has been carried out with a high sampling resolution of the late Messinian–early Zanclean (Zone MPl 1) sediments along a West–East Mediterranean transect. The studied examples comprise sections from southern Spain (Vera/Almanzora), Balearic Basin (ODP Site 975), Tyrrhenian Basin (ODP Site 974), Sicily (Eraclea Minoa), Zakynthos (Kalamaki), Corfu (Aghios Stefanos), Crete (Aghios Vlasis). Previously analyzed sections from the Levantine Basin (Cyprus and ODP Sites 968 and 969) are used for comparison. The sections have been correlated using planktonic foraminiferal …

ASTROCHRONOLOGY OF LATE MIDDLE MIOCENE MEDITERRANEAN SECTIONS

2004

Influences of synoptic situation and teleconnections on fog-water collection in the Mediterranean Iberian Peninsula, 2003-2012

2019

Fog-water collection has been widely analysed for its quantification and potential uses; however, there are few studies assessing the synoptic conditions and large-scale teleconnection patterns that affect its occurrence. Focusing on the Mediterranean Iberian Peninsula, this work aims to analyse the synoptic patterns, both at surface level and 850 hPa geopotential height, that most likely to favour fog-water collection, and to quantify the relationship between fog-water collection and the NAOi (North Atlantic Oscillation index), MOi (Mediterranean Oscillation index) as well as WeMOi (Western Mediterranean Oscillation index) teleconnection patterns. For this purpose, daily fog-water observat…

The age of vines as a controlling factor of soil erosion processes in Mediterranean vineyards

2018

Abstract Vineyards incur the highest soil and water losses among all Mediterranean agricultural fields. The state-of-the-art shows that soil erosion in vineyards has been primarily surveyed with topographical methods, soil erosion plots and rainfall simulations, but these techniques do not typically assess temporal changes in soil erosion. When vines are planted they are about 30 cm high × 1 cm diameter without leaves, the root system varies from 2 to over 40 cm depth, and sometimes the lack of care used during transplanting can result in a field with highly erodible bare soils. This means that the time since vine plantation plays a key role in soil erosion rates, but very little attention …

Coastal Evolution in a Mediterranean Microtidal Zone: Mid to Late Holocene Natural Dynamics and Human Management of the Castellò Lagoon, NE Spain

2016

We present a palaeoenvironmental study of the Castelló lagoon (NE Spain), an important archive for understanding long-term interactions between dynamic littoral ecosystems and human management. Combining geochemistry, mineralogy, ostracods, diatoms, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal and archaeo-historical datasets we reconstruct: 1) the transition of the lagoon from a marine to a marginal environment between ~3150 cal BC to the 17th century AD; 2) fluctuations in salinity; and 3) natural and anthropogenic forces contributing to these changes. From the Late Neolithic to the Medieval period the lagoon ecosystem was driven by changing marine influence and the land was mainly exploited …

The carrying capacity for Mediterranean bivalve suspension feeders: evidence from analysis of food availability and hydrodynamics and their integrati…

2004

Abstract In order to assess the carrying capacity of two Mediterranean areas, the Incze et al. model and its modification were applied. Our measures were carried out in the Gulf of Gaeta (Central MED), where mussels ( Mytilus galloprovincialis ) are intensively cultivated (production of approximately 200 t per year) and the Gulf of Castellammare (Southern MED), where bivalve culture is not widely practised. Velocities of water current and in field filtration rates were measured in each area. Total suspended matter (TSM), suspended chlorophyll-a (CHLa), lipid, protein and carbohydrate concentrations in the particulate were measured seasonally and used as tools to evaluate the trophic status …