Search results for "ITS"
showing 10 items of 4946 documents
Quaternary marine and continental unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units of the NW Sicily coastal belt
2017
In the coastal sector of NW Sicily, the regional correlation of relevant unconformities recognised within the Quaternary sedimentary successions allowed the mapping of seven unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units (UBSUs). The regional unconformities are marine or subaerial erosional surfaces, as well as non-depositional surfaces, locally marked by paleosoils. The erosional surfaces were produced from marine abrasion, surface water overland/concentrated flow, river erosion, karst solution, mass movement, or wind erosion. The main lithofacies of the Quaternary UBSUs consist of: (a) marine and coastal bioclastic calcarenites, (b) aeolian sandstones, (c) river deposits, (d) colluvial deposits…
Carbonate slope re‐sedimentation in a tectonically‐active setting (Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment, Italy)
2020
Tectonic processes are widely considered as a mechanism causing carbonate platform margin instabilities leading to the emplacement of mass transport deposits and calciturbidites. However, only few examples establishing a clear link between tectonics and re-sedimentation processes are known from the lit- erature. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional wire-cut walls of hun- dreds of quarries extracting ornamental limestones (for example, Perlato di Sicilia) from the Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment in Italy expose a series of mass transport deposits. The depositional architecture, spatial facies distri- bution and sedimentary features of these deposits were studied in detail. Thin sec…
Benefits for nurse and facilitated plants emerge when interactions are considered along the entire life-span
2019
The structure of plant communities is often influenced by facilitative interactions where ‘facilitated’ plants benefit from growing associated with ‘nurse’ plants. Facilitation has been mostly studied from the facilitated plant's perspective, and bidirectional effects between nurse and facilitated plants have received less attention. We hypothesized that reciprocal benefits in plant-plant interactions may emerge when interactions are considered along the life-span of the plants involved. Over one spring, we selected five species with similar life-form and growth strategy, and using a full factorial design, we compared different fitness components along the plants’ life-span (seedling establ…
Modelling forest decline using SMOS soil moisture and vegetation optical depth
2018
Global change is increasing the risk of forest decline worldwide, impacting carbon and water cycles. Hence, there is an urgent need for predicting forest decline occurrence. To that purpose, this study links forest decline events in Catalonia, detected by the DEBOSCAT forest monitoring program, with information from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite. Firstly, this study reviews the role of the SMOS soil moisture in a previous forest decline episode occurred in 2012, where the authors concluded that dry soils increased the probability of observing decline in broadleaved forests. Secondly, the present study detects that forest decline in 2012 and 2016 was linked to very dr…
Drivers of shell growth of the bivalve, Callista chione (L. 1758) - Combined it environmental and biological factors
2018
WOS:000426027100014; Seasonal shell growth patterns were analyzed using the stable oxygen and carbon isotope values of live-collected specimens of the bivalve Callista chione from two sites in the Adriatic Sea (Pag and Cetina, Croatia). Micromilling was performed on the shell surface of three shells per site and shell oxygen isotopes of the powder samples were measured. The timing and rate of seasonal shell growth was determined by aligning the delta O-18(shell)-derived temperatures so that the best fit was achieved with the instrumental temperature curve. According to the data, shells grew only at very low rates or not at all during the winter months, i.e., between January and March. Shell…
Pace-of-life in a social insect: behavioral syndromes in ants shift along a climatic gradient
2017
Lay SummaryLinks between behavioral traits can shift with the local climate. We show that behavioral associations with temperature not only occur across, but also within populations. At warmer sites ant colonies increased their exploration and foraging activity, but were less aggressive. Moreover, at these warmer sites, more positive links were found between behaviors within populations compared to colder sites, where more negative links prevailed. Our study suggests that associations between behaviors shift along climatic gradients.
Medicinal mushrooms: Valuable biological resources of high exploitation potential
2017
Higher Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes mushrooms possess various immunological and anticancer properties. They also offer important health benefits and exhibit a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiallergic, antidepressive, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, digestive, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, osteoprotective, and hypotensive activities. This minireview summarizes the perspectives, recent advances, and major challenges of medicinal mushrooms with reference to their nutraceutical properties and dietary value, the production of mushroom biomass …
Interaction Between ABA Signaling and Copper Homeostasis inArabidopsis thaliana
2016
ABA is involved in plant responses to non-optimal environmental conditions, including nutrient availability. Since copper (Cu) is a very important micronutrient, unraveling how ABA affects Cu uptake and distribution is relevant to ensure adequate Cu nutrition in plants subjected to stress conditions. Inversely, knowledge about how the plant nutritional status can interfere with ABA biosynthesis and signaling mechanisms is necessary to optimize stress tolerance in horticultural crops. Here the reciprocal influence between ABA and Cu content was addressed by using knockout mutants and overexpressing transgenic plants of high affinity plasma membrane Cu transporters (pmCOPT) with altered Cu up…
Further insights in the Tardigrada microbiome: phylogenetic position and prevalence of infection of four new Alphaproteobacteria putative endosymbion…
2019
Abstract Data from a previous study showed that microbiomes of six tardigrade species are species-specific and distinct from associated environmental microbes. We here performed a more in-depth analyses of those data, to identify and characterize new potential symbionts. The most abundant bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) found in tardigrades are classified, and their prevalence in other environments is assessed using public databases. A subset of OTUs was selected for molecular phylogenetic analyses based on their affiliation with host-associated bacterial families in tardigrades. Almost 22.6% of the most abundant OTUs found do not match any sequence at 99% identity in the IMNGS…
Genetic Distinctiveness Highlights the Conservation Value of a Sicilian Manna Ash Germplasm Collection Assigned to Fraxinus angustifolia (Oleaceae)
2020
The cosmopolitan genus Fraxinus comprises about 40 species occupying several habitats in the Northern Hemisphere. With some species hybridizing and sharing genetic variants, questions remain on the species assignment of germplasm within the genus Fraxinus despite numerous species-specific assessments. A multidisciplinary approach was employed to provide a definitive insight into the genetics of an endangered Fraxinus &ldquo