Search results for "Politics."
showing 10 items of 2222 documents
Tendencies in paleontological practice when defining species, and consequences on biodiversity studies
2005
The exploration of evolutionary patterns over geological time has recently received new impetus from the development of morphological disparity as a new biodiversity metric alongside taxonomic diversity. Clade dynamics can be analyzed by comparing and contrasting these two metrics. Like any metrics based on sampling, quantification, and naming, taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity are not free from bias. The long use of taxonomic diversity has prompted many studies of bias and its effects, whereas bias affecting morphological disparity has only been summarily explored. This is particularly so for the effect of the growth of knowledge over paleontographical time (i.e., historical …
Ant recognition cue diversity is higher in the presence of slavemaker ants
2015
Social insect colonies defend themselves from intruders through nestmate recognition, yet the evolution and maintenance of recognition cue diversity is still poorly understood. We compared the recognition cue diversity of 9 populations of Temnothorax longispinosus ant colonies, including populations that harbored the socially parasitic slavemaker ant, Protomognathus americanus. Although ants recognize friends from foe based on recognition cues encoded in their cuticular hydrocarbon profile, which specific compounds are involved in recognition is unknown for most species. We therefore started by statistically identifying 9 putative recognition compounds involved in worker and colony aggressi…
Behavioural, ecological, and evolutionary aspects of diversity in frog colour patterns
2016
The role of colours and colour patterns in behavioural ecology has been extensively studied in a variety of contexts and taxa, while almost overlooked in many others. For decades anurans have been the focus of research on acoustic signalling due to the prominence of vocalisations in their communication. Much less attention has been paid to the enormous diversity of colours, colour patterns, and other types of putative visual signals exhibited by frogs. With the exception of some anecdotal observations and studies, the link between colour patterns and the behavioural and evolutionary ecology of anurans had not been addressed until approximately two decades ago. Since then, there has been eve…
Eduardo Sojo: The architect of the satirical journalism in Spain and Argentina
2016
El artículo analiza la extensa obra de Eduardo Sojo a través de las publicaciones satíricas que fundó en España y en Argentina durante las últimas décadas siglo XIX. A partir de la indagación de algunas de sus caricaturas políticas se reconstruye su posicionamiento político en los diferentes contextos en los que desarrolló su obra y el impacto que suscitó en la opinión pública su discurso en favor de los valores republicanos y su reiterado repudio hacia el clero, en ambos países. This article analyzes Eduardo Sojós extensive work through the satirical publications, which he founded in Spain and Argentina during the last decades of 19 th century. By looking into some of his political cartoon…
mtDNA diversity in rabbit population from Sicily (Italy)
2017
The European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (O.c) lives all over the world and it represents an important resource for many predators. It has been classified as a Near-Threatened species in the Red List of Vertebrates of Italy. It is present in mediterranean basin as two known subspecies: O.c. cuniculus and O.c. algirus. The mediterranean geographic distribution of the two subspecies is still not well known. In particular, in Sicily, lacking of deep studies, is based on the body size and morphological characteristics; there wasn’t a complete description of the actual existing subspecies and previous studies only reported the morphological characteristics of the sicilian rabbit population. In …
Much more than a clasp: evolutionary patterns of amplexus diversity in anurans
2020
AbstractThe evolution and diversification of animal reproductive modes have been pivotal questions in behavioural ecology. Amphibians present the highest diversity of reproductive modes among vertebrates, involving various behavioural, physiological and morphological traits. One such feature is the amplexus, which is the clasp or embrace of males on females during reproduction and is found almost universally in anurans. Hypotheses about the origin of amplexus are limited and have not been tested thoroughly, nor have they taken into account evolutionary relationships in most comparative studies. However, these considerations are crucial to an understanding of the evolution of reproductive mo…
Sicilian Myrtle Diversity: Evaluation of Leaf Total Phenols Content and Antioxidant Properties
2017
Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) is an aromatic plant spontaneously growing and increasingly cultivated in Mediterranean area. Recently, interest on myrtle plant is growing due to the pharmacological and antioxidant properties since myrtle leaves are important sources of phenolic and antioxidant compounds with health-promoting effects. Plant genotype is the primary factor affecting antioxidant activity and phenol content. For this reason, a core collection of local selected myrtle accessions from Sicily was evaluated with the aim to identify genotypes with high antioxidant value. Thirty-six myrtle individuals belonging to seven populations were studied for leaf total phenols, tannins and antioxi…
Shrines in Central Italy conserve plant diversity and large trees
2015
Sacred natural sites (SNS) are instances of biocultural landscapes protected for spiritual motives. These sites frequently host important biological values in areas of Asia and Africa, where traditional resource management is still upheld by local communities. In contrast, the biodiversity value of SNS has hardly been quantitatively tested in Western contexts, where customs and traditions have relatively lost importance due to modernization and secularization. To assess whether SNS in Western contexts retain value for biodiversity, we studied plant species composition at 30 SNS in Central Italy and compared them with a paired set of similar but not sacred reference sites. We demonstrate tha…
Life‐form diversity across temperate deciduous forests of Western Eurasia: A different story in the understory
2021
[Aim]To analyse the biogeographic patterns of Temperate Deciduous Forests (TDFs) in Western Eurasia based on different life-forms and forests layers and explore their relationships with the current climate, Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate and topography.
Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras.
2021
Understanding drivers of success for alien species can inform on potential future invasions. Recent conceptual advances highlight that species may achieve invasiveness via performance along at least three distinct dimensions: 1) local abundance, 2) geographic range size, and 3) habitat breadth in naturalized distributions. Associations among these dimensions and the factors that determine success in each have yet to be assessed at large geographic scales. Here, we combine data from over one million vegetation plots covering the extent of Europe and its habitat diversity with databases on species' distributions, traits, and historical origins to provide a comprehensive assessment of invasive…