Search results for "LAND"
showing 10 items of 9939 documents
At the Central European-Balkan transition: forest land snail faunas of the Banat contrasted with those of the Carpathian chain
2015
Twenty-nine forest sites in six sampling areas in the Banat region of Romania, adjacent to Serbia, were sampled to obtain inventories of their snail faunas and to make comparisons between these and previously studied faunas in the mountains from the Sudetes in the north-west to the Southern Transylvanian Carpathians in the south. 65 species were recorded overall, with between 13 and 33 at individual sites. Among the six sampling areas that on Schist rock at high altitude differed markedly from the others, and contained mainly species also found in Carpathian forests further north. The remainder, mainly on limestone, also differed among themselves, but contained more species endemic to the r…
From glacial refugia to hydrological microrefugia: Factors and processes driving the persistence of the climate relict tree Zelkova sicula
2021
Abstract With only two tiny populations, the climate relict Zelkova sicula (Sicily, Italy) is one of the rarest trees in the world. It also represents the most marginal member of genus Zelkova that was widespread in the broadleaved forests thriving in warm–temperate climates throughout Eurasia until the Last Glacial Age. Occurring at the westernmost range of the genus under typical Mediterranean climate, the micro‐topographic settings have always appeared crucial for the survival of this relict. However, the factors and processes actually involved in its persistence in the current refugia, as well as the response of similar relict trees in arid environments, are poorly understood worldwide.…
Historical and current diversity patterns of mediterranean marine species
2021
In this issue, the biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea has been described at a synchronic and a diachronic level, highlighting the past two centuries for which museum collections can provide overlooked information. Historical records are preserved for the major marine taxa, knowledge of which would greatly benefit from employing specimens and data collected in the past. All of the articles review the current status of the marine diversity of species belonging to several taxonomic groups (seagrasses, macroalgae, sponges, polychaetes, bivalves, sharks, fishes, mammals) and explore the ecological and conservation implications of some of the most threatened ones.
Seagrasses along the Sicilian coasts
2010
All seagrass species known from the Mediterranean basin have been recorded along the Sicilian coast, where studies have been carried out at a very local scale and information is fragmented or confined to the grey literature. The objective of this article is to summarise and evaluate current knowledge on seagrass species on the Sicilian coasts, providing an overview of species distribution, genetic diversity, biology and ecology, based on the literature and unpublished data. Most literature studies have been carried out on Posidonia oceanica meadows because of their wide distribution, complexity and ecological importance. In this study, the analyses carried out on P. oceanica structural and …
First confirmed record of the Lessepsian migrant Pteragogus pelycus Randall, 1981 (Teleostei: Labridae) for the North African coasts
2012
4 pages, 2 figures
Vertebrate-mediated seed rain and artificial perches contribute to overcome seed dispersal limitation in a Mediterranean old field
2019
Natural regeneration of vegetation is a frequent outcome of land abandonment, although the rate and diversity of such regeneration may be severely restricted by seed dispersal limitation, among other factors. In spite of this, studies aiming to quantify seed rain and test methods to enhance it, such as artificial perches, are still underrepresented in the Mediterranean. In our study, we quantified seed rain density and richness and tested the effects of artificial perches on such rain over a distance gradient on seven Mediterranean island old fields. In each of the seven sites, we positioned three sampling stations, each consisting of 1 seed trap under an artificial perch and 1 as a control…
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 …
Circummed pine forest database: An electronic archive for mediterranean and submediterranean pine forest vegetation data
2019
Large thematic databases of vegetation plots are increasingly needed for vegetation studies and biodiversity research. In this paper, we present the CircumMed Pine Forest Database (GIVD ID: EU-00-026), which in November 2018, comprised records from 6317 pine-dominated vegetation plots (relevés) and associated vegetation types from 20 countries of the Mediterranean Basin, Near East and Crimea. These vegetation plots were collected through a detailed literature search for plots not previously included in the European Vegetation Archive (EVA), in order to fill geographic gaps in data coverage. The database comprises Mediterranean (including Oromediterranean) pine-forest vegetation plots from b…
Grapes and vines of the Phoenicians: morphometric analyses of pips from modern varieties and Iron Age archaeological sites in the Western Mediterrane…
2021
The present study aims to contribute to the investigation of the role of Phoenicians in the spreading and trade of the grapevine through the morphometric analysis of grape pips. Waterlogged and charred samples were selected from three Iron Age sites in the Western Mediterranean: Motya (Sicily, Italy), Nuraghe S’Urachi (Sardinia, Italy) and Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). While only Motya is a Phoenician foundation, all three were nevertheless associated with Phoenician expansion and cultural interaction. Ten cultivars from the “Vivaio Federico Paulsen” in Marsala (western Sicily) were chosen as modern reference material. The key challenge was the comparison of archaeological pips preserved throu…
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…