Search results for "conservation."
showing 10 items of 1994 documents
The age of vines as a controlling factor of soil erosion processes in Mediterranean vineyards
2018
Abstract Vineyards incur the highest soil and water losses among all Mediterranean agricultural fields. The state-of-the-art shows that soil erosion in vineyards has been primarily surveyed with topographical methods, soil erosion plots and rainfall simulations, but these techniques do not typically assess temporal changes in soil erosion. When vines are planted they are about 30 cm high × 1 cm diameter without leaves, the root system varies from 2 to over 40 cm depth, and sometimes the lack of care used during transplanting can result in a field with highly erodible bare soils. This means that the time since vine plantation plays a key role in soil erosion rates, but very little attention …
Coastal Evolution in a Mediterranean Microtidal Zone: Mid to Late Holocene Natural Dynamics and Human Management of the Castellò Lagoon, NE Spain
2016
We present a palaeoenvironmental study of the Castelló lagoon (NE Spain), an important archive for understanding long-term interactions between dynamic littoral ecosystems and human management. Combining geochemistry, mineralogy, ostracods, diatoms, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal and archaeo-historical datasets we reconstruct: 1) the transition of the lagoon from a marine to a marginal environment between ~3150 cal BC to the 17th century AD; 2) fluctuations in salinity; and 3) natural and anthropogenic forces contributing to these changes. From the Late Neolithic to the Medieval period the lagoon ecosystem was driven by changing marine influence and the land was mainly exploited …
Spatial Distribution and Abundance of Mesopelagic Fish Biomass in the Mediterranean Sea
2020
Mesopelagic fish, being in the middle of the trophic web, are important key species for the marine environment; yet limited knowledge exists about their biology and abundance. This is particularly true in the Mediterranean Sea where no regional assessment is currently undertaken regarding their biomass and/or distribution. This study evaluates spatial and temporal patterns of mesopelagic fish biomass in the 1994–2011 period. We do that for the whole Mediterranean Sea using two well-established statistical models, the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) and Random Forest (RF). Results indicate that the bathymetry played an important role in the estimation of mesopelagic fish biomass and in its …
Opportunistic Germination Behaviour of Gypsophila (Caryophyllaceae) in Two Priority Habitats from Semi-arid Mediterranean Steppes
2011
Gypsophila tomentosa and G. struthium are closely related species, characteristic of two European priority habitats, salt and gypsum inland steppes, respectively. Germination strategies of the two taxa were investigated in plants from two nearby populations, growing under the same climatic conditions but on different types of soil, and belonging to different plant communities. Their germination patterns were studied at five constant temperatures in darkness: 5oC, 10oC, 15oC, 20oC and 25oC, and the base temperature and the thermal time requirement were calculated. As the distribution area of both species is subjected to a Mediterranean continental climate with significant differences between…
Soil wettability, runoff and erodibility of major dry-Mediterranean land use types on calcareous soils
2007
This study examines six land uses (pine woodland, long unburnt scrubland, recently burnt scrubland, orange grove, olive grove and cereal crop), typical for calcareous soils in a dry-Mediterranean region such as eastern Spain, with regard to soil surface water repellency occurrence, hydrological response and erodibility. For each land use, we performed water drop penetration time (WDPT) tests and rainfall simulations respectively on in situ soils at ten replicate plots for extremely dry antecedent conditions in summer 2002 and for wet winter conditions, in early 2003 in the Canyoles river valley. In contrasts to what might have been expected, water repellency was absent or subcritical (WDPT …
Aspilota-group (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Alysiinae) diversity in Mediterranean Natural Parks of Spain
2014
This work analyses the biodiversity of the Aspilota-group (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Alysiinae) in three Mediterranean Natural parks: Natural Park of La Font Roja, Natural Park of Las Lagunas de la Mata-Torrevieja and Natural Park of La Tinença de Benifassà. Samples were carried out from April 2004 to December 2007. In total, 822 specimens, belonging to 52 species, were collected. Alpha, beta and gamma diversities were analysed, and the Tinença Park was proven to have higher diversity than the Font Roja and Torrevieja. Also, the structure of the Aspilota-group community was analysed.
Sometimes Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) Cannot Find Their Way Back to the High Seas: A Multidisciplinary Study on a Mass Stranding
2011
BackgroundMass strandings of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) remain peculiar and rather unexplained events, which rarely occur in the Mediterranean Sea. Solar cycles and related changes in the geomagnetic field, variations in water temperature and weather conditions, coast geographical features and human activities have been proposed as possible causes. In December 2009, a pod of seven male sperm whales stranded along the Adriatic coast of Southern Italy. This is the sixth instance from 1555 in this basin.Methodology/principal findingsComplete necropsies were performed on three whales whose bodies were in good condition, carrying out on sampled tissues histopathology, virology, bacter…
Isotope evidence for the use of marine resources in the Eastern Iberian Mesolithic
2014
There are relatively few coastal Mesolithic sites in the Iberian Mediterranean region, probably due to a number of factors including sea level changes and the disappearance of sites due to agriculture and urbanisation. However, recent excavations have uncovered inland sites that have marine faunal remains (i.e. molluscs and fish) and lithics from the coastal area, which both indicate interactions between the coast and the upland valleys. These inland sites are located at a distance of 30-50km from today's coastline and are at altitudes higher than 1000m. We report on additional information on the links between the coast and these inland sites through the use of dietary isotope analysis (car…
Late Mesolithic burials at Casa Corona (Villena, Spain): direct radiocarbon and palaeodietary evidence of the last forager populations in Eastern Ibe…
2013
Abstract Current knowledge about the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Central and Western Mediterranean European regions is deeply limited by the paucity of Late Mesolithic human osteological data and the presence of chronological gaps covering several centuries between the last foragers and the first archaeological evidence of farming peoples. In this work, we present new data to fill these gaps. We provide direct AMS radiocarbon dating and carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope analysis were carried out on bone collagen samples of two single burials from the recently discovered open-air Late Mesolithic site of Casa Corona (Villena, Spain). The results shed new light on the…
Economic transitions in finis terra
2009
A gradualist approach has been taken in describing the evolution of the last foragers in the Iberian Mediterranean Region (IMR) up to their rapid collapse, brought about by the appearance of the first prehistoric farmers. This point of view assumes that the post-Last Glaical Maximum (LGM) climatic change brought about a certain restructuring of the mammal fauna and exerted a direct influence by flooding the changing coastal plain and submerging coastal sites related to marine resource use. This paper proposes that small prey was a constant and structural resource in the IMR that did not signal intensification, since human consumption of rabbits goes back to the Middle Palaeolithic. At the s…