Search results for "Island"

Ludovico Sicardi, an unknown pioneer of the Volcanic Geochemical Monitoring

2018

On December of 1977, almost 100 years since its last eruption, intense volcanic activity took place in Vulcano Island (Sicily). The elevated fluxes and the temperature increase of the fumaroles in La Fossa Crater, as well as the variations in their chemical composition, alarmed the scientific community. During that period, in the city of Palermo, Marcello Carapezza along with his colleagues Mariano Valenza and Mario Nuccio, were studying the fumarolic field of Vulcano. After extended bibliographic research, Valenza discovered the studies of Ludovico Sicardi, which were focused on Vulcano, Stromboli, Vesuvio and Campi Flegrei. Considering the fact that Sicardi’s research was performed 60 yea…

Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea

2022

Shallow water hydrothermal vents represent highly dynamic environments where strong geochemical gradients can shape microbial communities. Recently, these systems are being widely used for investigating the effects of ocean acidification on biota as vent emissions can release high CO2 concentrations causing local pH reduction. However, other gas species, as well as trace elements and metals, are often released in association with CO2 and can potentially act as confounding factors. In this study, we evaluated the composition, diversity and inferred functional profiles of microbial biofilms in Levante Bay (Vulcano Island, Italy, Mediterranean Sea), a well-studied shallow-water hydrothermal ve…

Seeking the mantle source and storage system of carbonatite magmas: case studies from Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) and Mt. Vulture volcano (souther…

Carbonatite magmatism is mainly associated with intraplate continental tectonic settings, with a temporal distribution from Archean to the present. The growing number of carbonatite occurrences from unconventional tectonic settings, such as oceanic contexts (e.g., Carnevale et al., 2021) or subduction zones (e.g., D’Orazio et al., 2007), received considerable attention during last two decades, given their importance as source of rare elements, and, most importantly, because they provide meaningful information about the geochemical cycle of carbon and mantle metasomatism as well. This work shows how the study of fluids trapped within minerals from carbonatites and carbonatite magmas can prov…

Metallic nanoparticle enrichment at low temperature, shallow CO2 seeps in Southern Italy

2012

We report on metal enrichment along a natural pH gradient owing to increased CO2 degassing at cold, shallow seeps of Vulcano Island in the Mediterranean Sea, off Sicily. We assessed composition of unfiltered and filtered seawater (<100 nm) along acidic zones ranging between ambient and pH 5, and showed that most seep derived elements are present as nanoclusters which then aggregate into larger colloids while mixing with ambient seawater along a pH gradient. Size and elemental composition of such naturally occurring nanoparticles assessed by modern characterisation methods were in good agreement with the results from conventional analytical methods. We provide analytical evidence for the pre…

Manure as a potential source of renewable energy: The behaviour and characterisation of biofuels generated from three animal manure types when subjec…

2020

Regions with high livestock density lack sufficient land on which to apply manure without exceeding the legal limits set by the European Union Directives. The lack of manure processing alternatives aggravates the situation, especially in the case of islands. Consequently, manure becomes a liability rather than an asset. Results indicate that pyrolysis is an option for manure processing. However, a significant limitation is the moisture content of the starting material, that could compromise the process efficiency. Yields of biogas, bio-oil and biochar, all of which have a potential use as biofuels, are particular to animal type and manure handling system. The conversion of manure to biofuel…

The state of water resources in major mediterranean islands

2014

This work analyses the state of water resources in six Mediterranean islands: Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Mallorca, Malta and Sicily. The analysis is focused on the prevailing social, economic and hydroclimatological characteristics of these islands in order to identify the main common features affecting water availability, demand and use. A detailed analysis of the state of water resources in all the considered islands has been carried out. A background of current conditions relating to freshwater availability, quality and use has been established. Different strategies to face water scarcity and enhance water quality in theislands have been assessed in a context of climate change which is a co…

A Preliminary Energy Assessment to Improve the Energy Sustainability in the Small Islands of the Mediterranean Sea

2020

Power plants supplied by renewable energy sources are expanding around the world, in order to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions, limit the global warming and improve the energy sustainability. Despite the relevant achieved results, small islands are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. In this context, renewable energy sources are available but practically unused, due to landscape and economic constraints. This condition is quite common in the Mediterranean Sea. These islands are normally fed by a stand-alone electrical grid and a power plant, equipped with diesel engines. In order to improve the sustainability of the energy sector, the paper considers the case study of Ustica, a small Italia…

An Innovative Wave Energy Converter in the Mediterranean Sea

2018

The paper proposes a revolutionary device for the utilization of a new entry of renewable energy sources: sea wave. This technology is based on linear generators, able to converts directly a linear motion into electrical output, limiting to minimum the chain of energy conversion. A preliminary feasibility study considers a case study, applied in Lampedusa, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Economic and environmental assessments are reported.

Deciphering the role of insertion sequences in the evolution of bacterial epidemic pathogens with panISa software

2020

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is now widely used in microbiology to explore genome evolution and the structure of pathogen outbreaks. Bioinformatics pipelines readily detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms or short indels. However, bacterial genomes also evolve through the action of small transposable elements called insertion sequences (ISs), which are difficult to detect due to their short length and multiple repetitions throughout the genome. We designed panISa software for the ab initio detection of IS insertions in the genomes of prokaryotes. PanISa has been released as open source software (GPL3) available from https://github.com/bvalot/panISa. In this study, we assessed the utilit…

Wickerhamomyces sylviae f.a., sp. nov., an ascomycetous yeast species isolated from migratory birds.

2013

In the present work, we investigated the phylogenetic position and phenotypic characteristics of eight yeast isolates collected from migratory birds on the island of Ustica, Italy. A phylogenetic analysis based on the D1/D2 region of the large-subunit rRNA gene showed that all isolates clustered as a single separate lineage within the Wickerhamomyces clade. They exhibited distinct morphological and physiological characteristics and were clearly separated from their closest relatives, Wickerhamomyces lynferdii, Wickerhamomyces anomalus and Wickerhamomyces subpelliculosus, in blastn searches. On the basis of the isolation source, physiological features and molecular strain typing carried out …