Search results for "Feature"
showing 10 items of 4091 documents
Man-made garbage pollution on the Mediterranean coastline
1991
Abstract Measurements of persistent litter on 13 beaches in Spain, Italy (Sicily), Turkey, Cyprus and Israel between 1988 and 1989 show that plastic items are the most abundant in the litter composition, followed by wood, metal and glass items. Remnants of fishing gear are rather rare. It appears that the quantity of litter on a beach is inversely related to its geographical distance to a population center and directly related to the number of visitors frequenting it. Seasonal fluctuations in coastal litter are caused by storm waves which wash the litter landward, leaving the beach clean during winter, and by bathers who pollute it during summer. Based on the nature of the garbage, there ar…
Threatened biogenic formations of the Mediterranean: Current status and assessment of the vermetid reefs along the Lebanese coastline (Levant basin)
2019
Abstract Vermetid reefs are a key intertidal habitat in the warm-temperate part of the Mediterranean Sea and in some subtropical and tropical regions in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This unique and highly diverse ecosystems is under siege due to both the high anthropogenic pressure and the global climate change, with documented local population declines in the Eastern Mediterranean. This study aims at evaluating the conservation state of vermetid reefs along the Lebanese coast (Eastern Mediterranean), where seawater warming, habitat degradation and coastal urbanization likely threaten their presence. In order to assess the conservation status of vermetid reefs in Lebanon, five sites wer…
Unveiling the diet of the thermophilic starfish Ophidiaster ophidianus (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) combining visual observation and stable isotopes a…
2020
The starfish Ophidiaster ophidianus is an Atlanto-Mediterranean species protected under the EU’s Habitat Directive. Despite the wide distribution and the current range of expansion of this thermophilic species in the northern Mediterranean Sea, nothing is known about its diet. Using field observations and δ13C and δ15N Stable Isotopes Analysis (SIA), the feeding habits of O. ophidianus were explored in two Mediterranean rocky reef areas located in the southern Tyrrhenian (Ustica Island, Italy) and the eastern Adriatic Sea (Molunat, Croatia). According to field observations, O. ophidianus preys mainly on crustose coralline algae (CCA) and the keratose sponge Ircinia variabilis in both areas.…
Relative growth in the Mediterranean endemic shore crab Brachynotus foresti Zariquiey Álvarez, 1968 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Varunidae)
2019
AbstractThe relative growth of crustaceans has become a solid field of study since the early allometric studies undertaken during the first decades of the 20th century. The type of relative growth of brachyuran crabs mainly depends on the number of critical moults and growth phases, as well as on differences in the slopes of the relative growth of secondary sexual characters. We analysed for the first time the allometric growth of the brachyuran Brachynotus forestiZariquiey Álvarez, 1968 (Varunidae), a small Mediterranean endemic species, testing whether its small size might impede the manifestation of large allometries through ontogeny. We obtained 13 body measurements from 370 females and…
Species–area relationship and small-island effect of vascular plant diversity in a young volcanic archipelago
2021
International audience; Aims: Aeolian islands form an active volcanic archipelago. By using updated vascular plant checklists for islands and islets, we tested four hypotheses: (i) Island speciesarea relationship (ISAR) of alien species has lower c-and higher z-values than native species, (ii) islands with active volcanoes have lower species richness than expected for native and alien species, (iii) ISAR of native species shows lower c-and higher z-values than ISARs of Mediterranean land bridge archipelagos and (iv) species richness of smaller islets is independent of area.Location: Aeolian Archipelago, Mediterranean Basin.Taxon: Vascular plants, identified and named according to the Flora …
Summer drought reconstruction in northeastern Spain inferred from a tree ring latewood network since 1734
2017
Drought recurrence in the Mediterranean is regarded as a fundamental factor for socio-economic development and the resilience of natural systems in context of global change. However, knowledge of past droughts has been hampered by the absence of high-resolution proxies. We present a drought reconstruction for the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula based on a new dendrochronology network considering the Standardized Evapotranspiration Precipitation Index (SPEI). A total of 774 latewood width series from 387 trees of P. sylvestris and P. uncinata were combined in an inter-regional chronology. The new chronology, calibrated against gridded climate data, reveals a robust relationship with the S…
Influence of the conservation status on carbon balances of semiarid coastal Mediterranean wetlands
2020
Permanent freshwater and brackish marshes are the typical wetland type of the Mediterranean Spanish coast. Historically, alterations to the original morphological and hydrological characteristics o...
Tropical CO2 seeps reveal the impact of ocean acidification on coral reef invertebrate recruitment
2017
Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations are causing ocean acidification by reducing seawater pH and carbonate saturation levels. Laboratory studies have demonstrated that many larval and juvenile marine invertebrates are vulnerable to these changes in surface ocean chemistry, but challenges remain in predicting effects at community and ecosystem levels. We investigated the effect of ocean acidification on invertebrate recruitment at two coral reef CO2 seeps in Papua New Guinea. Invertebrate communities differed significantly between 'reference' (median pH7.97, 8.00), 'high CO2' (median pH7.77, 7.79), and 'extreme CO2' (median pH7.32, 7.68) conditions at each reef. There were also significant …
Effects of nutrient addition, recovery thereafter and the role of macrophytes in nutrient dynamics of a Mediterranean shallow lake: a mesocosm experi…
2017
Eutrophication in coastal wetlands has increased greatly because of human impact, reducing water quality and affecting aquatic plants. The aim of the present study was to investigate the eutrophication of Mediterranean wetlands and their possible recovery. An in situ mesocosm nutrient enrichment experiment was performed in a coastal shallow lake from eastern Spain, holding dense Chara meadows. In this lake, 36 mesocosms were installed and fertilised weekly with four levels of N and P addition over an 8-week period from June to August. Mesocosms fertilised with the two higher levels (N:P ≥5:0.5mgL–1) shifted to turbid status with macrophyte loss before Week 4. Saturation concentrations were…
Criteria to identify old-growth forests in the Mediterranean: A case study from Sicily based on a literature review and some management proposals
2018
Old growth forests are increasingly considered and studied all around the world. However, the knowledge of such important forest systems is still limited in some bioclimatic regions, such as in the Mediterranean Basin. Starting from the knowledge acquired elsewhere, our research was carried out with the aim to select the most effective criteria to identify potential old-growth forests in Mediterranean ecosystems (Sicily, Italy). Four key proxy indicators were considered: deadwood amount, tree size, structural traits, and tree species richness. A preliminary classification of the local forest stands level in three classes of old-growthness (high, medium and low) has also been proposed. The m…