Search results for "VEGETATION"
showing 10 items of 1069 documents
I pantani di Anguillara (Calatafimi Segesta, Trapani): dati preliminari sulla biodiversità a supporto della tutela del biotopo
2016
Vengono presentati i risultati preliminari di una indagine multidisciplinare condotta in una zona umida nel territorio di Calatafimi Segesta in provincia di Trapani. L'area è di grande interesse per la presenza di rare specie animali e vegetali, di habitat minacciati tutelati da normative nazionali ed internazionali, ma anche perché è una delle ultime zone umide superstiti dell'entroterra trapanese. L'area ha subito in tempi recenti un pesante disturbo antropico che rischia di portare alla distruzione questo ambiente e il suo biota di pregio. Con questo contributo gli autori intendono supportare la richiesta di adeguata e urgente tutela del sito. Anguillara Ponds (Calatafimi Segesta, Trapan…
Grassland fire effect on soil organic carbon reservoirs in a semiarid environment
2013
Abstract. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of an experimental fire used for grassland management on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. The study was carried out on Hyparrhenia hirta (L.) Stapf (Hh) grassland and Ampelodesmos mauritanicus (Desf.) T. Durand & Schinz (Am) grasslands located in the north of Sicily. Soil samples were collected at 0–5 cm before and after the experimental fire, and SOC was measured. During the grassland fire, soil surface temperature was monitored. Biomass of both grasses was analysed in order to determine dry weight and its chemical composition. The results showed that SOC varied significantly with vegetation type, while it is not affecte…
Notes on the status and the current spread of Viburnum tinus L. (Viburnaceae) in Sicily (Italy)
2021
The authors carried out a multi-disciplinary research in order to clarify the native status of Viburnum tinus in Sicily and update the knowledge about its current regional distribution. With this purpose, a large amount of scientific papers on forestry, botany and palaeo- and archaeobotany was consulted; more useful data issued from papers focused on local historical gardens, from archives and from herbarium specimens. The available data suggest that most of the extant nuclei may issue from the recent colonization of plants introduced just few centuries ago. Although the status of the stands found in some warm and humid sites in the surroundings of the city of Palermo and on the Sicani Moun…
Hydroseeding for revegetation in a semiarid Mediterranean environment
2012
Hydroseeding is a technique increasingly used to establish vegetation on degraded areas in order to perform environmental protection. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of four different hydroseeding methods on a degraded artificial slope in the southern Mediterranean area determining total vegetation cover, hydroseeding vegetation cover, hydroseeding success index (HSI), natural and hydroseeded vegetation height. The test area does not allow the use of any operating machine for soil and vegetation management, the only applicable technique is therefore hydroseeding. After hydroseeding was applied (December 2010), 21 checks were carried out every 15 days (from Janu…
The Plant as a Habitat for Entomophagous Insects
2016
Populations of herbivorous insects are naturally consumed by other predacious or predatory insect species. These entomophagous insects are thus plant-dwelling organisms that use the plant for several vital functions and are affected by plant traits at the evolutionary, organism and population levels. Many entomophagous species are used for the biological control of insect pests worldwide. The aim of this chapter is to provide an exhaustive review of mechanisms underlying the interactions between plants and entomophagous insects, including those governing life history traits at the individual level, as well as those acting on population and community structure and dynamics. We detail how pro…
The role of Characeae in the communities of the vegetation class Potametea
2018
The stonewort vegetation is commonly classified into the phytosociological class Charetea fragilis F. Fukarek ex Krausch 1964; however, the Characeae are not exclusively found in vegetation stands ascribed to this class but also in other habitat types. In our preliminary investigations, we draw the attention to the relationship between the classes Charetea fragilis and Potametea pectinati Klika in Klika & Novák 1941 in some Sicilian biotopes. In some cases, the Charetea vegetation is ecologically and spatially distinct, although close, from that referable to the Potametea. In some other cases, one or more species of Characeae are structurally intrinsic to the vegetation of Potametea: on…
Assessment of the environmental quality of the Sicilian coast through a phytoecological and biogeographic analysis
2017
Large-scale habitat measurements have been aided greatly by advances in remote sensing and GIS software. However, the degree of resolution of this technique is still inadequate for many purposes, such as detail monitoring of many habitats that occur on the coast (e.g. temporary Mediterranean pools or ephemeral therophytic grasslands). Lists and distribution mapping of taxa are probably the most commonly used surrogate for overall biodiversity at both local and broader scales. For the Sicilian coasts a complete study, dating back more than 25 years ago and based on a multidisciplinary approach of flora, vegetation and fauna, exists (Raimondo & al. 1990. Quad. Bot. Amb. Appl. 1: 131-182).…
Evolution of the forest landscape in the Punic Eparchy area (West Sicily): the importance of cork oak in natural residual vegetation for the purposes…
2018
The natural forest vegetation in the territory of the western provinces of Sicily (Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento) has almost completely disappeared. This area coincides with the ancient administrative ter- ritorial unit that precedes the division into three "valleys" of the most inhabited island of the Mediterranean: it is the Val di Mazara, remembered by archaeologists as "Punic Eparchy". As a seat of important Greek cities (Himera, Solunto, Entella, Agrigento, Gela, Eraclea Minoa, Segesta, Selinunte, Erice, Lilibeo, Mozia, etc.), it was a Punic domain before being abandoned. Due to the lack of a marked relief and the benefit of climate, agriculture was practiced for three millennia. In t…
The Olea europaea L. var. sylvestris (Mill.) Lehr. forests in the Mediterranean area
2019
This paper examines the forest communities dominated by Olea europaea L. var. sylvestris (Mill.) Lehr. that have been described up until now in the Mediterranean Region (including other isolated extrazonal areas in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula and in Northern Turkey) as more or less evolved aspects of woods, microwoods and high maquis that principally tend to make up climacic and edapho-climacic “series heads”. These forma- tions maintain a significant large-scale distributive potential within the infra- and thermomediterranean bioclimate belts (with a few penetrations into the mesomediterranean) with a dry-subhumid (and sometimes humid) ombrotype; however, they are currently quite ra…