Search results for "Ecological restoration"

Diversity and complexity of microbial communities from a chlor-alkali tailings dump

2015

Abstract Revegetation of the tailings dumps produced by various industrial activities is necessary to prevent dust storms and erosion and represents a great challenge for ecological restoration. Little is known about the microbial colonisation and community structure of revegetated tailings following site exploitation. Here, we report the sequencing of 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) fungal RNA gene amplicons from chlor-alkali residue and from an adjacent undisturbed soil to define the composition and assembly of the rhizosphere microbial communities. After quality filtering, a total of 72,373 and 89,929 bacterial sequences and 122,618 and 111,209 fungal sequences remained fo…

The effect of peatland drainage and restoration on Odonata species richness and abundance

2015

Background Restoration aims at reversing the trend of habitat degradation, the major threat to biodiversity. In Finland, more than half of the original peatland area has been drained, and during recent years, restoration of some of the drained peatlands has been accomplished. Short-term effects of the restoration on peatland hydrology, chemistry and vegetation are promising but little is known about how other species groups apart from vascular plants and bryophytes respond to restoration efforts. Results Here, we studied how abundance and species richness of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) respond to restoration. We sampled larvae in three sites (restored, drained, pristine) on each o…

Sustainable management systems to prevent and adaptat to desertification: Case Studies from the LIFE Desert Adapt project

2021

Around 40% of the ice-free terrestrial surface is under desertification risk, and the Mediterranean is one of the most sensible regions. Concomitantly, most areas occupied by agriculture suffer from lack of organic matter in the soil, as well as very low tree cover, making them more vulnerable to climate change. The LIFE (Desert Adapt) project aims to develop a desert adaptation model to enhance resistence and resilience of farms, both public and private, to desertification by appliyng an integrative sustainable land management in Italy, Spain and Portugal. In Italy three sites in Sicily are involved, two private areas in Caltanissetta and Catagirone and the municiaplity of Lampedusa.The mo…

Deciphering biotic interactions and their role in soil microbial community assembly

2021

National audience; Soil microbial communities play key roles in ecosystem functioning. Yet, little is known aboutthe importance of microbe-microbe interactions in soil microbial community assembly andfunctions. To address this knowledge gap, the objective of my thesis is to assess the role ofinteractions between micro-organisms in soil microbial communities. For this purpose, we willmanipulate the interactions between microorganisms within complex soil microbialcommunities by (i) removing different members of the soil community, (ii) adding microbialtaxa to the soil community and (iii) increasing the physical distance between members of thesoil community. How shifts in microbial interaction…

Ecosystem rescue : when protection is not enough

2015

Kääpien kannalta ennallistamalla tuotettu lahopuu ei täysin vastaa luontaista lahopuuta

2014

Repairing the living: ethics of ecological compensation

2017

The mechanism of ecological compensation has a paradox, it is denounced on the ethical level and consecrated on the legal level. While they are supposed to repair the environmental damages, the compensatory measures are accused of bad intentions: authorization to destroy biodiversity, financial drift of the management of nature... Despite these criticisms, ecological compensation can find a a profound moral issue if it is used like an accountability tool between human and nature, and more broadly, an instrument for dynamic management of territories.

Trophic and spatial complementarity on seed dispersal services by birds, wild mammals, and cattle in a Mediterranean woodland pasture

2021

Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-01T09:47:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-11-01 Università degli Studi di Palermo CYTED Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras Most earth surfaces have undergone intensive land-use changes, creating habitat mosaics. Seed dispersal by animals is a crucial process in such mosaics, but community-wide studies comparing the functional complementarity and response to man-imposed habitat heterogeneity are rare. Here, we investigate the trophic and spatial seed dispersal networks underpinning a strong, woody vegetation expansion over a pastureland inside the largest forest remnant in western Sici…

Is the riparian habitat creation an effective measure of plant conservation within the urbanized area?

2015

The study presents results of habitat creation and riparian vegetation recovery in artificial oxbow lakes in urbanized area within the large river valley. The investigation of open water, rush and wet meadows flora and vegetation in three ponds located in the city centre of Opole was conducted in years 2001–2013. Oxbow lakes were constructed as a compensation measure and no vegetation was transplanted into the ponds on purpose. 13-years observation showed that (1) the red-listed species are able to spontaneous reoccurrence after habitat restoration, but they can thrive only in first years of oxbow lakes recolonisation process, (2) there are some restoration constraints, especially in relati…

The ecological role of Pyrus Spinosa Forssk. in the ecosystem recovery and land restoration of Mediterranean woodlands

2021

In the Mediterranean basin, large areas still call for active reforestation, having a very low woody cover, thus resulting less resistant and resilient to climate change and suffering from a higher risk of soil degradation processes. Knowing the effects on soil fertility and carbon sequestration of single woody species can be of great practical importance, although being rarely tested. We aimed to assess the effect of Pyrus spinosa on soil fertility (soil carbon and nitrogen), microbial biomass and carbon sequestration (in aboveground stems) of Mediterranean pasturelands. The research was carried out in Ficuzza Nature Reserve (NW Sicily), where large areas are composed of extensive pasturel…