Search results for "Nature"
showing 10 items of 1564 documents
The arthropod community of boreal Norway spruce forests responds variably to stump harvesting
2016
Forest fuel harvesting increases the need to collect not just logging residues but also tree stumps from harvested stands. This biomass removal has raised concern over forest biodiversity. Here, the effects of stump harvesting on spiders, ants, harvestmen, ground beetles and epiedaphic springtails occupying boreal Norway spruce (Picea abies) forest floor were studied two and five years after harvesting by comparing pitfall trap samples from clear-cut sites with and without subsequent stump harvesting and from unharvested mature forests in central Finland. At harvested sites, traps were placed both on intact and exposed mineral soil surface. Open-habitat and generalist ground beetles benefit…
Effectiveness of European Atlanto-Mediterranean MPAs: Do they accomplish the expected effects on populations, communities and ecosystems?
2008
The success of MPAs in conserving fishing resources and protecting marine biodiversity relies strongly on how well they meet their planned (or implicit) management goals. From a review of empirical studies aiming at assessing the ecological effects of Mediterranean and Macaronesian MPAs, we conclude that establishing an MPA is successful for (i) increasing the abundance/biomass, (ii) increasing the proportion of larger/older individuals, and (iii) enhancing the fecundity of commercially harvested populations; also, MPAs demonstrated to be effective for (iv) augmenting local fishery yields through biomass exportation from the protected area, and (v) inducing shifts in fish assemblage structu…
Moving Toward a Strategy for Addressing Climate Displacement of Marine Resources: A Proof-of-Concept
2020
Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorporating quantitative information on functional traits, can potentially predict species- and population-specific responses that result from the cumulative impacts of small-scale processes acting at the organismal level, and can be used to infer population-level dynamics and inform natural resources management. Here we present a proof-of-concept study…
Morphology, geographical variation and the subspecies of Marsh TitPoecile palustrisin Britain and central Europe
2016
Capsule: All British Marsh Tits belong to subspecies Poecile palustris dresseri, being smaller than nominate P. p. palustris of central Europe. Aims: Determining the subspecies of Marsh Tit in Britain to test whether ssp. P. p. palustris occurs in northern England and Scotland, by assessing regional variation in size compared with central European birds. Methods: 1147 wing length and 250 tail length measurements from 953 Marsh Tits were compared between eight British locations to test for regional variation. Biometrics were compared between birds from Britain and six locations within the continental European range of ssp. palustris. Results: There was no regional variation in wing or tail l…
Interbreeding between local and translocated populations of a cleaner fish in an experimental mesocosm predicts risk of disrupted local adaptation
2019
Source at https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5246. Translocation of organisms within or outside its native range carries the risk of modifying the community of the recipient ecosystems and induces gene flow between locally adapted populations or closely related species. In this study, we evaluated the genetic consequences of large‐scale translocation of cleaner wrasses that has become a common practice within the salmon aquaculture industry in northern Europe to combat sea lice infestation. A major concern with this practice is the potential for hybridization of escaped organisms with the local, recipient wrasse population, and thus potentially introduce exogenous alleles and breaking down coadap…
Classification of European and Mediterranean coastal dune vegetation
2018
Aims: Although many phytosociological studies have provided detailed local and regional descriptions of coastal dune vegetation, a unified classification of this vegetation in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin has been missing. Our aim is to produce a formalized classification of this vegetation and to identify the main factors driving its plant species composition at a continental scale. LocationAtlantic and Baltic coasts of Europe, Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea region. - Methods: We compiled a database of 30,759 plots of coastal vegetation, which were resampled to reduce unbalanced sampling effort, obtaining a data set of 11,769 plots. We classified these plots with TWINSPAN, int…
At the intersection of cultural and natural heritage: Distribution and conservation of the type localities of Italian endemic vascular plants
2017
Abstract We conducted a GIS spatial analysis with the aim of providing the first quantitative large-scale overview of the distribution patterns of 1536 type localities ( loci classici ) of 1216 Italian endemic vascular plants and their relationship with a set of descriptive variables. Whereas some variables were used to model the presence-absence distribution patterns of the type localities for the whole set of endemics as well as for the subset of narrow endemics, others (e.g., presence inside or outside protected areas and Italian Important Plant Areas) were considered with the purpose of assessing potential assets or risks for conservation. The largest number of type localities was found…
Fungal Diversity in the Mediterranean Area
2020
The Special Issue entitled “Fungal Diversity in the Mediterranean Area” aimed at highlighting the role of various organisms in the Mediterranean habitat. The role of fungi at the root and phyllosphere level; the biodiversity in small island territories and the sea; rare forms of fungi never previously found; the commercial, food, and therapeutic value of some ascomycetes and basidiomycetes; the diversity related to fungi associated with galls on plants; and the important role of culture collection for the ex situ conservation of fungal biodiversity are the topics dealt with in this Special Issue.
Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
2021
A synthetic and updated overview about the vascular flora and vegetation of the Island of Capo Passero (SE-Sicily) is provided. These data issue from two series of field surveys—the first carried out between 1997 and 2000, and the second between 2005 and 2019 and mostly focused on refining and implementing vegetation data. The current islet’s flora consists of 269 taxa, of which 149 (58%) are annual plants. The Mediterranean species are largely prevailing, 108 (40%) of which have a strictly Mediterranean biogeographical status. The comparison with a species list published in 1919 and updated in 1957 suggest that, despite the overall prevalence of anemochorous taxa, the vertebrate fauna repr…
Invasive alien species in Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas: the Egadi Islands (Italy) case study
2021
Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the most severe threats to Mediterranean Sea biodiversity. Currently, the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in providing protection for marine biodiversity from IAS is still not fully understood. Here, we analysed eight Mediterranean MPAs located in a strategic geographic position within the Mediterranean basin. All the analysed MPAs were affected by the presence of IAS - evidence of the vulnerability of MPAs to biological invasion. Valuable habitats such as vermetid reef and coralligenous formations have become victim to numerous alien species. Alien species populations are likely to continue increasing in the Mediterranean Sea, so imple…