Search results for "Human Impact"

Sistemi ambientali e Rete Natura 2000 della Regione Basilicata: scoprire e proteggere gli ambienti naturali e i paesaggi culturali della Lucania

2015

Floristic survey of the former royal hunting reserve of Renda, near Palermo (Sicily, Italy)

2021

A mountainous area in western Sicily, where relic wood vegetation is still preserved notwithstanding past and present human pressure, is here analysed in order to prepare a checklist of its vascular flora. Field investigations allowed to compile a floristic inventory including 601 infrageneric taxa belonging to 304 genera and 80 families. Some remarks on the biological and chorological spectra are presented, and some measures to protect flora and vegetation are suggested, too.

Detecting human impacts: non-pollen palynomorphs as proxies for human impact on the environment

2021

International audience; Abstract Non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) are widely used to detect human activities, in addition to the anthropogenic indicators used in palynology. This paper first tries to determine the best way to approach most probable number (MPN) counting for young scientists. It then looks at the anthropogenic indicators and the different types of human activity that can reveal the studied taxa. Among the different fungal spores, coprophilous fungi are very useful to evidence pastoral activities and grazing pressure. Numerous taxa related to dung are also indicators of decaying organic matter and deserve our attention. Erosion processes due to human activities increase the rep…

Holocene vegetation and fire dynamics in the supra-mediterranean belt of the Nebrodi Mountains (Sicily, Italy).

2012

High-resolution pollen, macrofossil and charcoal data, combined with accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating and multivariate analysis, were used to reconstruct Holocene vegetation and fire dynamics at Urio Quattrocchi, a small lake in the supra-mediterranean belt in the Nebrodi Mountains of Sicily (Italy). The data suggest that after 10 000 cal a BP increasing moisture availability supported closed forests with deciduous (Quercus cerris, Fagus sylvatica and Fraxinus spp.) and evergreen (Quercus ilex) species. Species-rich closed forest persisted until 6850 cal a BP, when Neolithic activities caused a forest decline and affected plant diversity. Secondary forest with abundant Ilex aquifoli…

On the origin and evolution of the Mediterranean dry grasslands.

2006

A synthesis on the functional types of Mediterranean dry grasslands is outlined. Three different types are outlined: wintergreen perennial dry grasslands, wintergreen ephemeral dry grasslands, summergreen perennial dry grasslands. The first type is the most primitive, including several relict species, often characterized by very disjoint, sometimes anfi-saharian distribution ranges. The second type is resulting from an evolutionary trend towards short-lived life strategy, triggered by climatic and topographic perturbations that affected the Mediterranean region in the Plio- and Pleistocene. The third type, only marginally occurring in the Mediterranean region, is deriving from Holarctic and…

GLI EFFETTI DEL DISTURBO ANTROPICO SULLA TOPOGRAFIA DEL REEF A VERMETI

2011

Intertidal vermetid reefs could be affected by many human disturbances. Using a microtopography device, the authors analysed the changes induced by the accessibility on the surface topography of the reefs. Human activities seems to be able to induce a decrease in rugosity and a surface smoothing on the outer margin of the reef. These effects are proportional to the accessibility of the site.

The Impact of Climate, Resource Availability, Natural Disturbances and Human Subsistence Strategies on Sicilian Landscape Dynamics During the Holocene

2022

This paper presents a multidisciplinary summary of the most recent discoveries and hypotheses concerning factors driving the human subsistence economy and landscape shaping in Sicily during the Holocene. A number of scientific papers have recently pointed out the key role played by paleogeography, resource (water, food) availability and natural disturbances (volcanic eruptions, tsunamis) in local human activities. Modern anthropology and archaeology increasingly use biological remains (e.g. soils, bones, wood, plant macroremains, pollen) to better understand how human communities managed to survive and spread. Likewise, refined reconstructions of past human demographic fluxes and socio-econ…

Development, human impact and habitat distribution in submarine canyons of the Central and Western Mediterranean

2015

We present in this paper different studies on canyon systems, adopting distinct approaches, temporal and spatial scales. Most of our study areas coincide with the NW Sicilian canyons, which present striking differences in their morphologies in response to the Plio-Quaternary tectonic evolution of the northern Sicilian margin. In the present-day, active sedimentary processes inferred from bedform analyses along some of the studied canyons could drive to enhanced biological activities along them. This is also confirmed by an on-going study of the impact of trawling fishery on the morphology and sedimentary environments of the Sicilian margin, where intense deep-sea bottom trawling activities …

Evaluating the effects of man-induced topographic changes in landscape structure on soil erosion by water: a case study in Sicily

2012

Anthropogenic travertine between History, Archaeology and Environment: a geoarchaeological study of the Roman site of Jebel Oust, Tunisia.

2013

Travertine, known as lapis tiburtinus during Roman times, are continental limestones precipitated in calcareous environments from thermal waters of hot springs (travertine) or cool waters of karstic springs (calcareous tufa). This phenomenon is well-known during Classical Antiquity and had been described by several ancient authors (Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius) who depicted a stone that forms extremely rapidly, a stone that outlines the landscape and which is largely used for construction (e.g. The Colosseum in Roma, the Greek temple at Segesta in Sicily). These deposits are widespread on Earth’s surface showing various morphologies and are great sedimentary records of climatic and hy…