Search results for "Sources"
showing 10 items of 2554 documents
Utility of island populations in re-introduction programmes--relationships between Arabian gazelles (Gazella arabica) from the Farasan Archipelago an…
2014
Understanding local adaptation and population differentiation is vital to the success of re-introduction initiatives. As other mammals living on islands, Arabian gazelles (G. arabica) show reduced body size on the Farasan archipelago, which we corroborated in this study through morphometric analyses of skulls. In the light of the steep population decline on the Arabian Peninsula – but stable population development on the archipelago – we tested the potential suitability of Farasan gazelles as a source for re-introductions on the mainland. We therefore investigated genetic differentiation between Farasan and mainland populations using eleven nuclear microsatellite loci and detected a distinc…
Landscape-scale Spatial Distribution of the Lanner Falcon (Falco biarmicus feldeggii) Breeding Population in Italy
2008
Falco biarmicus feldeggii is one of the most threatened taxa in Europe. Its global population is estimated at a few hundred pairs unequally scattered in a vast and fragmented area stretching from Sicily to the Caspian Sea. Most recent counts showed that Italy hosts a large part (>25%) of the whole population. Consequently, Italian authorities promoted a national action plan. In this framework, we carried out the first national survey for the Lanner Falcon in Italy (2003-2004). Our study area covered the whole breeding range, i.e., Sicily and the Italian peninsula (n = 2909 cells 10 × 10 km). When possible, we considered also additional information from previous regional investigations (1993…
Using change trajectories to study the impacts of multi-annual habitat loss on fledgling production in an old forest specialist bird
2017
The loss and subdivision of habitat into smaller and more spatially isolated units due to human actions has been shown to adversely affect species worldwide. We examined how changes in old forest cover during eight years were associated with the cumulative number of fledged offspring at the end of study period in Eurasian treecreepers (Certhia familiaris) in Central Finland. We were specifically interested in whether the initial level of old forest cover moderated this relation. We applied a flexible and powerful approach, latent growth curve modelling in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, to create trajectories describing changes in old forest cover through time, and studied h…
Detailed internal characterisation of two Finnish landfills by waste sampling
2006
The aim of this study was to characterise the internal structure and composition of landfilled waste at two Finnish landfills to provide information for active and post-landfill operations. The two sites, Ammässuo and Kujala, have been in operation for 17 and 48 years, respectively. Waste was sampled (total 68 samples) and analysed for total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), biological methane potential (BMP) and leaching of organic material (determined as chemical oxygen demand, COD) and ammonium nitrogen (NH(4)-N). The results showed high vertical and horizontal variability, which indicated that both the waste composition and state of degradation varied gre…
Ecological Efficiency of Voluntary Conservation of Boreal-Forest Biodiversity
2008
Current networks of protected areas are biased in many countries toward landscapes of low productivity. Voluntary conservation incentives have been suggested as a socially acceptable way to supplement existing networks with more productive, privately owned areas of high priority for nature conservation. The limited resources committed to nature conservation demand cost-efficiency. Efficiency, however, depends not only on costs incurred to society from alternative ways of maintaining biodiversity but also on ecological values that can be captured. We examined the ecological efficiency of the new market-based voluntary program to preserve forest habitats on private land in southwestern Finlan…
Predicting the risk of extinction from shared ecological characteristics
2005
Understanding the ultimate causes of population declines and extinction is vital in our quest to stop the currently rampant biodiversity loss. Comparison of ecological characteristics between threatened and nonthreatened species may reveal these ultimate causes. Here, we report an analysis of ecological characteristics of 23 threatened and 72 nonthreatened butterfly species. Our analysis reveals that threatened butterflies are characterized by narrow niche breadth, restricted resource distribution, poor dispersal ability, and short flight period. Based on the characteristics, we constructed an ecological extinction risk rank and predicted which of the currently nonthreatened species are at …
Geographic Distribution and Niche Divergence of Two Stinkbugs,Parastrachia japonensisandParastrachia nagaensis
2014
Parastrachiidae is a small stinkbug family containing only one genus and two species, Parastrachia japonensis (Scott) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomoidea) and Parastrachia nagaensis Distant. The geographic distribution of the genus has been poorly studied. Niche conservatism refers to that idea that closely related species are more ecologically similar than would be expected, whereas niche divergence predicts they occupy distinct niche spaces. The existence of only two species within one genus suggests niche conservatism or differentiation might exist among them. Herein, the distribution of the genus was mapped, potential distributions were predicted using ecological niche modeling, and …
No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential
2020
Landowners can intentionally impair biodiversity values occurring on their land to pre-empt biodiversity protection. This often leads to significant negative effects on biodiversity. We studied whether landowners in Finland engaged in pre-emptive loggings after they were notified that their wooded mires are candidate sites for a mire protection program. After the notification, harvesting rates of the candidate wooded mires were significantly lower compared to harvesting rates of similar but non-candidate wooded mires. Annual and monthly harvesting rates indicated that notifying landowners of the conservation potential did not launch systematic pre-emptive logging behavior. Nevertheless, par…
Storicità del diritto. Strutture costituzionali, fonti, codici. Prospettive romane e moderne
2018
L’intento sotteso alla realizzazione del presente volume è quello di ripercorrere sinteticamente i tratti fondamentali della storia costituzionale romana individuando, al contempo, forme concettuali e prassi consolidate che - seppur sviluppate in quell’esperienza storica - hanno segnato anche le sorti di tutta la Tradizione giuridica successiva, e pertanto, dell’intera Tradizione giuridica Occidentale . Si tratta, infatti, di uno «strato tenacissimo di concetti e pratiche» che hanno raggiunto «quei laboratori politici e istituzionali dei cui prodotti siamo diretti eredi», secondo un percorso di «lunghissima portata e tendenzialmente universale ». Le forme concettuali del diritto romano sono…
Argumentation graphs with constraint-based reasoning for collaborative expertise
2018
International audience; Collaborative processes are very important in telemedicine domain since they allow for making right decisions in complex situations with multidisciplinary staff. When modelling these collaborative processes, some inconsistencies can appear. In semantic modelling (conceptual graphs), these inconsistencies are verified using constraints. In this work, collaborative processes are represented using an argumentation system modelled in a conceptual graph formalism where inconsistencies could be particular bad attack relation between arguments. To overcome these inconsistencies, two solutions are proposed. The first one is to weight the arguments evolving in the argumentati…