Search results for "VEGETATION"
showing 10 items of 1069 documents
The Contrasted Impact of Land Abandonment on Soil Erosion in Mediterranean Agriculture Fields
2018
Abstract Abandonment of agricultural land results in on- and off-site consequences for the ecosystem. In this study, 105 rainfall simulations were carried out in agriculture lands of the Mediterranean belt in Spain (vineyards in Malaga, almond orchards in Murcia, and orange and olive orchards in Valencia) and in paired abandoned lands to assess the impact of land abandonment on soil and water losses. After abandonment, soil detachment decreased drastically in the olive and orange orchards, while vineyards did not show any difference and almond orchards registered higher erosion rates after the abandonment. Terraced orchards of oranges and olives recovered a dense vegetation cover after the …
Two Rare Northern Entoloma Species Observed in Sicily under Exceptionally Cold Weather Conditions
2011
The biology and ecology of manyEntolomaspecies is still poorly known as well as their geographical distribution. In Italy, there are no studies on the influence of weather on fungal abundance and richness and our knowledge on the ecology and distribution ofEntolomaspecies needs to be improved. The discovery of twoEntolomaspecies in Sicily (southern Italy), reported in the literature as belonging to the habitat of north European countries, was the basis leading to the assumption that anomalous climatic conditions could stimulate the growth of northern entolomas in the southernmost Mediterranean regions. The results of this study show that the presence of northernEntolomaspecies in Sicily is …
The Pamir-Alai Mountains (Middle Asia: Tajikistan)
2020
The Pamir-Alai Mountains are extremely diverse in terms of climate, landscape and habitat conditions. With one of the largest altitudinal amplitudes in the world, long gradients of precipitation and temperatures, different soil substrates and a diverse geology, the Pamir-Alai promotes a great number of plant species and diverse vegetation types. Currently almost 4300 vascular plant species have been reported from the area. The flora of the Pamir-Alai is clearly dominated by Irano-Turanian species (ca. 70%) followed by Mediterranean (10.6%) and Euro-Siberian species (9%). Out of a ca. 4300 known vascular plants naturally occurring in Tajikistan, 1486 are endemics belonging to 60 families and…
Daily GPP estimates in Mediterranean ecosystems by combining remote sensing and meteorological data
2015
The accurate representation of terrestrial CO2 uptake (GPP) using Monteith's approach requires a frequent and site-specific parameterization of the model inputs. In this work, an optimization of this approach has been carried out by adjusting the inputs (f(APAR), PAR and epsilon) for the study area, peninsular Spain, a typical Mediterranean region. The daily GPP images have been calculated for 2008 and 2011 with a 1-km spatial resolution and validated by comparison with in situ GPP estimates from the eddy covariance data (direct validation) and by inter-comparison with the MODIS GPP product. The direct validation has evidenced an excellent agreement with correlations up to 0.98 in 2008 and …
Characterization of the interannual and intraseasonal variability of West African vegetation between 1982 and 2002 by means of NOAA AVHRR NDVI data
2007
AbstractThe interannual and intraseasonal variability of West African vegetation over the period 1982–2002 is studied using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR).The novel independent component analysis (ICA) technique is applied to extract the main modes of the interannual variability of the vegetation, among which two modes are worth describing. The first component (IC1) describes NDVI variability over the Sahel from August to October. A strong photosynthetic activity over the Sahel is related to above-normal convection and rainfall within the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in summertime and is partly associated …
The SMOS mediterranean ecosystem L-band characterisation experiment (MELBEX) over natural shrubs
2010
10 páginas, 5 figuras, 7 tablas.
Habitat preferences of the Tawny owl (Strix aluco) in a Special Conservancy Area of eastern Spain.
2020
The Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) is the most abundant nocturnal raptor in Europe. It has been thoroughly studied in various regions, but its habitat preferences in Mediterranean environments remain poorly understood. With the aim to present novel information about this aspect of the ecology of the Tawny Owl, we established 115 survey stations in the Special Conservancy Area 'Sierras de Talayuelas y Aliaguilla' (Castilla-La Mancha region, eastern Spain) and carried out nocturnal surveys by recording spontaneous calls and vocal responses to call playbacks. We then assessed environmental characteristics (vegetation types, soil type, altitude, potential competitors, and anthropic disturbance) in are…
HalocnemumM. Bieb. vegetation in the Mediterranean Basin
2013
The aim of the article is the syntaxonomic interpretation of hyperhalophilous woody or semi-woody vegetation with Halocnemum M. Bieb. along the coasts of the Mediterranean Basin. For this area, the two species of Halocnemum, H. strobilaceum (Pall.) M. Bieb. and H. cruciatum (Forssk.) Tod. are identified; their morphological characteristics, synonymy and distribution are here described. The study carried out of particular aspects of the plant morphology and the micromorphological characteristics of the seeds collected from different places in the Mediterranean allows to better differentiate the two species. Vegetation studies already done in many communities of the Mediterranean by several a…
Bioclimatology and Vegetation Series in Sicily: A Geostatistical Approach
2015
Tackling the Sicilian woody vegetation as a case-study, this work aims to verify the correspondence between Rivas-Martínez's bioclimatic units and the main vegetation series in the Mediterranean region. Following this approach, one macrobioclimate and 25 bioclimatic type belts can be recognized in Sicily. By means of a geostatistical analysis based on WorldClim data sets, cartographic models of the distribution range of each single bioclimatic unit were obtained and combined with vegetation data, in order to develop a new regional spatial framework, integrating climatic and vegetation data. Fidelity of each vegetation unit to a given climatic range was then evaluated as percent distribution…
Monitoring temporal changes in the spatial patterns of a Mediterranean shrubland using Landsat TM images
2001
Summary The overall goal of this study is to understand the structure and function of a Mediterranean shrubland at landscape scale by means of satellite images and GIS. Specifically, to assess the sensitivity of several spatial statistics to characterise landscape pattern, measure fragmentation and quantify the change through time. We study the landscape structure of a Mediterranean shrubland located in the east part of Spain (Valencia) and the change in spatial patterns of different shrubs types from 1984 to 1994. To accomplish these objectives, we used 10 Landsat™ images from 1984 to 1994 (except 1988) to which a geometric correction and an atmospheric normalization was applied. In additi…