Search results for "ISLAND"
showing 10 items of 761 documents
The Case of a Rudderfish Highlights the Role of Natural History Museums as Sentinels of Bio-invasions
2017
In September 2013 fishermen captured a rudderfish—Kyphosus vaigiensis—off Favignana Island, one of the islands of the Egadi Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) in western Sicily (Mannino et al., 2015). This species is rarely sampled in the Mediterranean Sea.
Biogeochemical cycling and ecological thresholds in a High Arctic lake (Svalbard)
2019
Lakes are a dominant feature of the Arctic landscape and a focal point of regional and global biogeochemical cycling. We collected a sediment core from a High Arctic Lake in southwestern Svalbard for multiproxy paleolimnological analysis. The aim was to find linkages between the terrestrial and aquatic environments in the context of climate change to understand centennial-long Arctic biogeochemical cycling and environmental dynamics. Two significant thresholds in elemental cycling were found based on sediment physical and biogeochemical proxies that were associated with the end of the cold Little Ice Age and the recent warming. We found major shifts in diatom, chironomid and cladoceran comm…
Reciprocal extrapolation of species distribution models between two islands – Specialists perform better than generalists and geological data reduces…
2020
Abstract This study aims to test the extrapolation effects of species distribution models (SDM) using three groups of predictor variables: climate, relief and geology (bedrock type). We highlight potential ecological differences for selected taxa, regarding both generalists and specialists in terms of edaphic conditions. We used distributional data of 12 woody species shared by two large Mediterranean islands (Crete and Sicily) to calibrate Maxent models of their potential distribution. We trained models with data from Crete and extrapolated to Sicily and vice versa. We tested ten proxies for the three variable groups and compared AUC values as a measure of model performance. Extrapolation …
Dispersal and colonization in heterosporous lycophytes: palynological and biogeographical notes on the genus Isoetes in the Mediterranean region
2016
After a short review of the available information on dispersal in the heterosporous genus Isoetes, which has been the subject of some mainly anecdotal or occasional observations, a case study in the Mediterranean area is presented. In the geographical context given by the island of Sicily with its satellite islets and archipelagos, the distribution of terrestrial and amphibian Isoetes species was analysed to verify if any of them occurred in the oceanic (‘thalassogenous’) islets, never connected to the mainland. The only species revealed to be able to cross the geographical and ecological barrier represented by the sea and colonize some volcanic islands was Isoetes durieui Bory, a terrestri…
Contribution to the knowledge of Mediterranean wetland vegetation: Lemnetea and Potamogetonetea classes in Western Sicily
2021
The freshwater aquatic vegetation of the Lemnetea and Potamogetonetea classes in Western Sicily was surveyed and analyzed. 85 lakes and small pools were investigated collecting 147 phytosociological unpublished relevés to integrate the very scarce available data (only 3 relevés). By applying statistical analyses on abundances data and on the bases of physiognomy and dominant species, two alliances (Lemnion minoris and Stratiotion) and four different coenoses have been identify for the Lemnetea class; while 11 associations, assigned to two orders (Potamogetonetalia pectinati and Callitricho hamulatae-Ranunculetalia aquatilis) and four alliances (Potamogetonion, Nymphaeion albae, Ranunculion …
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 …
Plant invasions on small Mediterranean islands. An overview
2016
Biological invasions have become one of the main drivers of habitat degradation and a leading cause of biodiversity loss in island ecosystems worldwide. The spread of invasive species poses a particular environmental threat on the islands of the Mediterranean Basin, which are hot spots of biodiversity and contain rare habitats and endemic species, especially on small islands, which are highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Following a recent survey, in this paper we aim to provide an overview of the present-day non-native vascular flora of small Mediterranean islands based on a sample of 37 islands located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Italy. By comparing the cu…
Conflicts between touristic recreational activities and breeding shearwaters: short-term effect of artificial light and sound on chick weight
2018
Human disturbances are increasingly becoming a conservation concern for many populations of colonial seabirds. Colonially reproducing species are particularly vulnerable to localised disturbances because detrimental elements can simultaneously affect the entire population. Studies of petrels and shearwaters have shown that light pollution, in particular, can be harmful for both fledglings and adults, but little is known of the way such anthropogenic elements affect the quality of parental care at the nest. Chick provisioning in petrels and shearwaters occurs exclusively at night and is also negatively correlated with the amount of moonlight. We tested the hypothesis that high-intensity ligh…
A Mediterranean Monk Seal Pup on the Apulia coast (Southern Italy): sign of an ongoing recolonisation?
2020
The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) is one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world. This species has been threatened since ancient times by human activities and currently amounts to approximately 700 individuals distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (Aegean and Ionian Sea) and Eastern Atlantic Ocean (Cabo Blanco and Madeira). In other areas, where the species is considered “probably extinct”, an increase in sporadic sightings has been recorded during recent years. Sightings and accidental catches of Mediterranean monk seals have become more frequent in the Adriatic Sea, mainly in Croatia but also along the coasts of Montenegro, Albania and Southern Italy. A Med…
The impact of Carpobrotus cfr. acinaciformis (L.) L. Bolus on soil nutrients, microbial communities structure and native plant communities in Mediter…
2016
Background and aims: Carpobrotus spp. are amongst the most impactful and widespread plant invaders of Mediterranean habitats. Despite the negative ecological impacts on soil and vegetation that have been documented, information is still limited about the effect by Carpobrotus on soil microbial communities. We aimed to assess the changes in the floristic, soil and microbial parameters following the invasion by Carpobrotus cfr. acinaciformis within an insular Mediterranean ecosystem. Methods: Within three study areas a paired-site approach, comparing an invaded vs. a non-invaded plot, was established. Within each plot biodiversity indexes, C and N soil content, pH and microbial biomass and st…