Search results for "Engineers"
showing 10 items of 33 documents
La fortificación del Reino de Valencia en la década de1640 a la luz de la revolución militar
2019
This article proposes a study of the traditions in defensive architecture that concurred in the projects designed by Spanish military engineers for the fortification of the Valencian frontier in 1648 and 1649, in the context of the War of Catalonia (1640-1652). For this it is essential to follow the route of the Valencian adaptations to the military revolution in the matter of fortifications throughout the sixteenth century and compare them with those brought to Valencia in 1641 by the Marquis of Leganes and his engineers from the school of Milan.
Settlement performance of the Mediterranean reef-builders Dendropoma cristatum (Biondi 1859) in response to natural bacterial films
2018
The gastropod Dendropoma cristatum is a biogenic engineer of the central Mediterranean, forming reefs along the lower rocky intertidal fringe with a remarkable ecological role. To understand whether reef-associated biofilm cultivable bacterial and biofilm ageing may trigger the settlement of the juvenile snails, a combination of laboratory techniques and field experiments was used. Reef-associated biofilm cultivable bacteria were isolated, and a settlement-choice experiment was performed in situ on artificial biofilms composed of i) a mixture of six biofilm-forming selected isolates, ii) all the cultivable bacteria, and iii) 13-, 23-, 32-day old biofilms formed under naturalconditions. Overall,sett…
Ponti di Sicilia (XVI-XIX secolo). Catalogo della mostra
2015
Ad essere esposti sono stati disegni, incisioni, libri, modelli e documenti archivistici, molti dei quali presentati al pubblico per la prima volta, provenienti da archivi, biblioteche, nonché collezioni pubbliche e private, con l'intento di provare a "ricostruire", attraverso le carte le immagini, la storia complessa e stratificata dei ponti siciliani, interpretandone le vicende progettuali e costruttive anche in relazione al più ampio dibattito che ha animato il mondo scientifico europeo, in particolar modo tra XVII e XIX secolo.
Mediterranean bioconstructions along the Italian coast
2018
Marine bioconstructions are biodiversity-rich, three-dimensional biogenic structures, regulating key ecological functions of benthic ecosystems worldwide. Tropical coral reefs are outstanding for their beauty, diversity and complexity, but analogous types of bioconstructions are also present in temperate seas. The main bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea are represented by coralligenous formations, vermetid reefs, deep-sea cold-water corals, Lithophyllum byssoides trottoirs, coral banks formed by the shallow-water corals Cladocora caespitosa or Astroides calycularis, and sabellariid or serpulid worm reefs. Bioconstructions change the morphological and chemicophysical features of prima…
Ecosystem services provided by marine and freshwater phytoplankton
2021
AbstractPhytoplankton, the ecological group of microalgae adapted to live in apparent suspension in water masses, is much more than an ecosystem’s engineer. In this opinion paper, we use our experience as phytoplankton ecologists to list and highlight the services provided by phytoplankton, trying to demonstrate how their activity is fundamental to regulate and sustain Life on our Planet. Although the number of services produced by phytoplankton can be considered less numerous than that produced by other photosynthetic organisms, the ubiquity of this group of organisms, and their thriving across oceanic ecosystems make it one of the biological engines moving our biosphere. Supporting servic…
Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties
2021
Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties. Datasets were required, at a minimum, to include abundance or biomass of earthworms at a site. Where possible, site-level species lists were included, as well as the abundance and biomass of individual species and ec…
Soil biodiversity monitoring in Europe : ongoing activities and challenges
2009
International audience; The increasing interest in soil biodiversity and its protection includes both the biodiversity conservation issues and the mostly unknown economic and ecological values of services provided by soil biodiversity. Inventory and monitoring are necessary tools for the achievement of an adequate level of knowledge regarding soil biodiversity status and for the detection of biodiversity hot spots as well as areas where current levels of biodiversity are under threat of decline. In this paper the main tools and methodological approaches for soil biodiversity measurement are presented. Technical aspects related to the inventory and monitoring activities at a large spatial sc…
Antonio Ferramolino da Bergamo, un ingegnere militare nel Mediterraneo di Carlo V
2016
Sono trascorsi ormai trent’anni dagli importanti contributi monografici offerti da Guido Tadini sulla figura complessa e affascinante di Antonio Ferramolino da Bergamo, di certo uno dei più autorevoli ingegneri militari al servizio della monarchia spagnola nel Mediterraneo del primo Cinquecento. Sebbene gli studi più recenti, in particolar modo quelli sull’ingegnere Pietro Antonio Tomasello da Padova, suo predecessore, abbiano in parte ridimensionato quel ruolo “pionieristico” nel processo di potenziamento delle difese siciliane che la storiografia gli aveva attribuito, resta indubbio come la figura di Ferramolino offra molteplici spunti di interesse. La sua lunga attività professionale, do…
When are researchers willing to share their data? - Impacts of values and uncertainty on open data in academia.
2020
PLOS ONE 15(7), e0234172 (2020). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0234172
Utilization of microbial abundance and diversity as indicators of the origin of soil aggregates produced by earthworms
2013
This study aimed at testing the capability of microbial community structure and abundance to be used as bioindicators of the origin of earthworm cast aggregates. Compact surface casts produced by Amynthas khami and surrounding aggregates lacking visible signs of biological activity (control) were left to disaggregate by natural rainfall and separated into four size classes (5-2, 2-0.5, 0.5-0.25 and <0.25 mm). The genetic structure and the abundance of the bacterial and fungal communities were characterized using B- and F-ARISA fingerprinting approach and quantitative PCR directly from DNA extracted from soil. Bacteria and to a lesser extent fungi were more abundant in casts than in control …