Search results for "area"
showing 10 items of 3002 documents
First Assessment of Plasticizers in Marine Coastal Litter-Feeder Fauna in the Mediterranean Sea
2021
Micro and nanoplastics are harmful to marine life due to their high level of fragmentation and resistance to degradation. Over the past two decades, marine coastal sediment has shown an increasing amount of microplastics being a sort of trap for debris wastes or chemicals. In such an environment some species may be successful candidates to be used as monitors of environmental and health hazards and can be considered a mirror of threats of natural habitats. Such species play a key role in the food web of littoral systems since they are litter-feeders, and are prey for fishes or higher trophic level species. A preliminary investigation was conducted on five species of small-sized amphipod cru…
Tracking marine alien macroalgae in the mediterranean sea: The contribution of citizen science and remote sensing
2021
The accelerating rate of the introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS) and the magnitude of shipping traffic make the Mediterranean Sea a hotspot of biological invasions. For the effective management of NIS, early detection and intensive monitoring over time and space are essential. Here, we present an overview of possible applications of citizen science and remote sensing in monitoring alien seaweeds in the Mediterranean Sea. Citizen science activities, involving the public (e.g., tourists, fishermen, divers) in the collection of data, have great potential for monitoring NIS. The innovative methodologies, based on remote sensing techniques coupled with in situ/laboratory advanced sampli…
Searching for a compromise between biological and economic demands to protect vulnerable habitats
2018
AbstractIdentifying vulnerable habitats is necessary to designing and prioritizing efficient marine protected areas (MPAs) to sustain the renewal of living marine resources. However, vulnerable habitats rarely become MPAs due to conflicting interests such as fishing. We propose a spatial framework to help researchers and managers determine optimal conservation areas in a multi-species fishery, while also considering the economic relevance these species may have in a given society, even in data poor situations. We first set different ecological criteria (i.e. species resilience, vulnerability and trophic level) to identify optimal areas for conservation and restoration efforts, which was bas…
An annotated checklist and bibliography of the diaptomidae (copepoda, calanoida) of Italy, Corsica, and the maltese islands
2021
Calanoids of the family Diaptomidae are the most widespread copepods in the lentic inland waters of the Palearctic region. In Italy, studies on the family date back to the end of 19th century. Since then, several papers contributed to increasing the knowledge on their presence, distribution, and ecological preferences. Nevertheless, new records for the area and the discovery of putative new species stress that the current knowledge on these inland water crustaceans is still far from being exhaustive. This paper presents an updated and annotated checklist and bibliography of the Diaptomidae of the Italian peninsula and surrounding islands, including Corsica and the Maltese islands, compiled …
Interannual variation and long-term trends in proportions of resident individuals in partially migratory birds
2016
Partial migration - a part of a population migrates and another part stays resident year-round on the breeding site - is probably the most common type of migration in the animal kingdom, yet it has only lately garnered more attention. Theoretical studies indicate that in partially migratory populations, the proportion of resident individuals (PoR) should increase in high latitudes in response to the warming climate, but empirical evidence exists for few species. We provide the first comprehensive overview of the environmental factors affecting PoR and the long-term trends in PoR by studying 27 common partially migratory bird species in Finland. The annual PoR values were calculated by divid…
An Empirical Evaluation of the Utility of Convex Hull and Standard Ellipse Areas for Assessing Population Niche Widths from Stable Isotope Data
2013
Stable isotope analyses are increasingly employed to characterise population niche widths. The convex hull area (TA) in a δ¹³C–δ¹⁵N biplot has been used as a measure of isotopic niche width, but concerns exist over its dependence on sample size and associated difficulties in among-population comparisons. Recently a more robust method was proposed for estimating and comparing isotopic niche widths using standard ellipse areas (SEA), but this approach has yet to be tested with empirical stable isotope data. The two methods measure different kind of isotopic niche areas, but both are now widely used to characterise isotopic niche widths of populations. We used simulated data and an extensive e…
Positive impacts of important bird and biodiversity areas on wintering waterbirds under changing temperatures throughout Europe and North Africa
2020
Clausen, Preben/0000-0001-8986-294X WOS: 000536149100018 Migratory waterbirds require an effectively conserved cohesive network of wetland areas throughout their range and life-cycle. Under rapid climate change, protected area (PA) networks need to be able to accommodate climate-driven range shifts in wildlife if they are to continue to be effective in the future. Thus, we investigated geographical variation in the relationship between local temperature anomaly and the abundance of 61 waterbird species during the wintering season across Europe and North Africa during 1990-2015. We also compared the spatio-temporal effects on abundance of sites designated as PAs, Important Bird and Biodivers…
Prediction of germination rates of weed species: Relationships between germination speed parameters and species traits
2011
International audience; In fields, the timing of weed emergence flushes is mostly related to the timing and rate of seed germination, which depend on seed dormancy level, soil temperature and water potential conditions as well as soil tillage and crop sowing date. Seed germination parameters are essential in weed dynamics models to account for the effects of soil conditions on weed demography. Since these parameters are difficult to measure, our objective was to test the possibility of estimating them from easily accessible information. Seed germination parameters (germination lag-time, time to mid-germination and mid-germination rate) were measured or collected from the literature for 25 w…
Restoration of Abundance and Dynamics of Coastal Fish and Lobster Within Northern Marine Protected Areas Across Two Decades
2021
This article reviews a suite of studies conducted in a network of coastal Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Skagerrak, Southeast Norway. In 2006, Norway’s first lobster reserves were implemented, with the aim of protecting European lobster (Homarus gammarus) through a ban on fixed gear. A before–after control-impact paired series (BACIPS) monitoring program was initiated to evaluate effects of protection on depleted lobster populations. Experimental trapping and capture-recapture techniques were combined to track demography of populations, also including movement of individuals within and beyond MPAs and adjacent control areas. Further, population genetics and parentage studies were applied,…
Tackling invasive alien species in Europe II: threats and opportunities until 2020
2017
2nd Freshwater Invasives - Networking for Strategy II (FINS-II) Conference -- JUL 11-14, 2016 -- Zagreb, CROATIA Skora, Michal Edward/0000-0002-9121-1318; Groom, Quentin/0000-0002-0596-5376; Lukas, Juliane/0000-0003-3336-847X; Skora, Michal/0000-0002-9121-1318; Piria, Marina/0000-0001-6324-9282; Smith, Emily/0000-0003-2767-9933; Simonovic, Predrag/0000-0002-4819-4962; Pastorino, Paolo/0000-0002-0585-1168; Koutsikos, Nicholas/0000-0003-0680-4504; Vilizzi, Lorenzo/0000-0001-8103-885X; Dobrzycka-Krahel, Aldona/0000-0002-4252-895X; Tarkan, Ali Serhan/0000-0001-8628-0514 WOS: 000412582000002 Invasive alien species (IAS) are a significant and growing problem worldwide. In Europe, some aspects of …