Search results for "ECOSYSTEM"
showing 10 items of 1752 documents
Sunscreen Products as Emerging Pollutants to Coastal Waters
2013
A growing awareness of the risks associated with skin exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation over the past decades has led to increased use of sunscreen cosmetic products leading the introduction of new chemical compounds in the marine environment. Although coastal tourism and recreation are the largest and most rapidly growing activities in the world, the evaluation of sunscreen as source of chemicals to the coastal marine system has not been addressed. Concentrations of chemical UV filters included in the formulation of sunscreens, such as benzophehone 3 (BZ-3), 4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4-MBC), TiO2 and ZnO, are detected in nearshore waters with variable concentrations along the day a…
Sea Surface Temperature Effects on the Mediterranean Marine Ecosystem: a Semiparametric Model Approach
2021
Ocean warming is a worldwide phenomenon. The mean temperature of the catch (MTC) is becoming one of the leading indicators to assess the impact of sea surface temperature on fish communities. In this study, we apply a semiparametric regression approach to the MTC of the catches from MEDITS bottom trawl program in the Strait of Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea) for the period 1995 to 2018 to evaluate the effects of climate change on continental shelf fish community. All covariates included in the model have a significant impact on the MTC level. Notably, the sea surface temperature (SST) effect on the MTC depends on depth, being positive near the surface and negative at the bottom.
Marine molecular biology : An emerging field of biological sciences
2007
An appreciation of the potential applications of molecular biology is of growing importance in many areas of life sciences, including marine biology. During the past two decades, the development of sophisticated molecular technologies and instruments for biomedical research has resulted in significant advances in the biological sciences. However, the value of molecular techniques for addressing problems in marine biology has only recently begun to be cherished. It has been proven that the exploitation of molecular biological techniques will allow difficult research questions about marine organisms and ocean processes to be addressed. Marine molecular biology is a discipline, which strives t…
Conservation, Spillover and Gene Flow within a Network of Northern European Marine Protected Areas
2013
Published version of an article in the journal: PLoS ONE. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073388 Open access To ensure that marine protected areas (MPAs) benefit conservation and fisheries, the effectiveness of MPA designs has to be evaluated in field studies. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we empirically assessed the design of a network of northern MPAs where fishing for European lobster (Homarus gammarus) is prohibited. First, we demonstrate a high level of residency and survival (50%) for almost a year (363 days) within MPAs, despite small MPA sizes (0.5-1 km2). Second, we demonstrate limited export (4.7%) of lobsters tagged within MPAs…
Spatio-temporal behaviour of five picophytoplankton populations in Tyrrhe- nian Sea: Model and data
2014
Recent works presented detailed analyses of spatio-temporal dynamics in marine ecosystems, reproducing real vertical distributions of phytoplankton biomass. These study however do not take into account the changes in environmental variables. On the contrary, seasonal variations can influence considerably the primary production, i.e. phytoplankton biomass, in marine ecosystems, determining significative consequences in the whole food chain, in particular fish species, whose growth is mainly explained by seasonal changes in the chlorophyll concentration, a marker of phytoplankton species. Here we present a one-dimensional reaction-diffusion-taxis model to describe the spatio-temporal dynamics…
Reaction-diffusion-taxis model for spatio-temporal dynamics of five picophytoplankton populations
2014
Recently new models were devised to study spatio-temporal dynamics of phytoplankton populations in view of obtaining more precise predictions of the vertical biomass distributions in marine ecosystems. These studies can be crucial from the point of view of shery. Indeed the abundance of fi sh species is strictly connected with primary production, i.e. phytoplankton biomass, responsible for chlorophyll concentration. In this work a one-dimensional deterministic reaction-di ffusion-taxis model is used to reproduce the spatio-temporal dynamics, along a water column, of five picophytoplankton populations sampled in a real ecosystem. In our analysis, to better reproduce the spatio-temporal behav…
The invasive seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis erodes the habitat structure and biodiversity of native algal forests in the Mediterranean Sea
2021
Abstract Invasive seaweeds are listed among the most relevant threats to marine ecosystems worldwide. Biodiversity hotspots, such as the Mediterranean Sea, are facing multiple invasions and are expected to be severely affected by the introduction of new non-native seaweeds in the near future. In this study, we evaluated the consequences of the shift from the native Ericaria brachycarpa to the invasive Asparagopsis taxiformis habitat on the shallow rocky shores of Favignana Island (Egadi Islands, MPA, Sicily, Italy). We compared algal biomass and species composition and structure of the associated epifaunal assemblages in homogenous and mixed stands of E. brachycarpa and A. taxiformis. The r…
Entrepreneurial ecosystems for developing the sports industry in European Union countries
2021
Abstract In recent years, the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach has gained particular interest worldwide for understanding the context of entrepreneurship at the macro level. However, although the sports sector is gaining importance in the European Union and can improve people's health, generate employment, and contribute to countries' GDP, no research from this perspective has been found. Thus, this paper aims to analyze the influence of different indicators related to innovation on European Union countries' shared sport-related GDP (last data available from 2012 were used). The results showed that 12 solutions could explain 76% of the cases of high levels of shared sport-related GDP. The…
The Market Reorientation of Farms: The Case of Olive Growing in the Nebrodi Area
2014
In addition to safeguarding the landscape, olive growing makes a unique contribution to protecting the environment and the agricultural ecosystem. Olive growing in mountainous and hilly areas is severely constrained by structural limitations. Rural tourism can be a potential strategy to increase the competitiveness of olive-growing activities. After an initial analysis of the relationship between landscape, tourism, and olive growing, this study focused on olive growing in the Nebrodi area. In particular, we examined two case studies of olive farms to analyze the related production costs and market positioning strategies.
Creating value through product-service-software systems in institutionalized ecosystems – The case of autonomous ships
2021
Abstract Introducing product-service-software systems (PSSS) to the market requires forming an enabling ecosystem, which can be largely based on incumbent business ecosystems. Creating value through PSSS with autonomous capabilities will likely encounter numerous challenges related to the lock-ins in current ecosystem structure. We use institutional theory as a lens and autonomous ships as the case to shed some light on types and impacts of these barriers. We identify a set of institutional barriers pertinent to regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars of institutions. We further analyze how institutional barriers affect creating, delivering, and capturing value of autonomous sh…