Search results for "forestry"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Measuring Field Rill Erodibility by a Simplified Method
2015
Many process-oriented erosion prediction models reproduce rill erosion as affected by site-specific parameters, as for example, rill erodibility, and thus, their practical application requires the measurement of these parameters or their estimate. The aim of this paper was establishing a method for indirectly measuring field rill erodibility. A simple mathematical approach based on a known soil detachment equation and accounting for the rill erosion dynamic process is applied. Field measurements carried out for seven natural rainfall events occurring at the plots of the Sparacia experimental station, southern Italy, are used for indirectly measuring the rill erodibility of the investigated …
Storia dell’eucalitticoltura in Sicilia.
2013
Eucalyptus, Italia, paesaggio, rimboschimento, selvicoltura, storia Gli eucalitti vantano una lunga storia nel nostro paese; erano già presenti infatti in Campania all’inizio dell’800 nel giardino botanico annesso alla regia di Caserta e fu proprio l’Hortus Camaldulensis a dare il nome all’Eucalyptus camaldulensis una delle specie più diffuse in Italia e nel Mondo. I primi impianti in Italia vanno fatti risalire al 1869 ad opera dei monaci della “Abbazia delle Tre Fontane” a Roma. Le ragioni iniziali della diffusione degli eucalitti vanno legate alla convinzione che potessero rendere salubre l’aria e contrastare la diffusione della malaria, effetto dovuto alla capacità dell’eucalipto di pro…
Properties and distribution of paired candidate stony meteorites at Meridiani Planum, Mars
2010
[1] The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity investigated four rocks, informally dubbed Barberton, Santa Catarina, Santorini, and Kasos, that are possible stony meteorites. Their chemical and mineralogical composition is similar to the howardite, eucrite, and diogenite group but with additional metal, similar to mesosiderite silicate clasts. Because of their virtually identical composition and because they appear to represent a relatively rare group of meteorites, they are probably paired. The four rocks were investigated serendipitously several kilometers apart, suggesting that Opportunity is driving across a larger population of similar rock fragments, maybe a meteorite strewn field. Small …
Winter feeding leads to a shifted phenology in the browntail moth Euproctis chrysorrhoea on the evergreen strawberry tree Arbutus unedo
2010
1 The browntail moth Euproctis chrysorrhoea is a highly polyphagous univoltine forest pest. Although its young larvae usually overwinter in diapause from early autumn to the beginning of spring, winter larval feeding has been reported when this species feeds on the evergreen woody shrub strawberry tree Arbutus unedo. 2 The present study investigated life-history traits of four populations of E. chrysorrhoea feeding on A. unedo, including phenology of the different life stages, larval feeding activity and diapause incidence. By modelling the relationship between larval size and host plant leaf persistence, elevation and mean annual temperature, we also studied larval development in ten popul…
Soil biodiversity monitoring in Europe : ongoing activities and challenges
2009
International audience; The increasing interest in soil biodiversity and its protection includes both the biodiversity conservation issues and the mostly unknown economic and ecological values of services provided by soil biodiversity. Inventory and monitoring are necessary tools for the achievement of an adequate level of knowledge regarding soil biodiversity status and for the detection of biodiversity hot spots as well as areas where current levels of biodiversity are under threat of decline. In this paper the main tools and methodological approaches for soil biodiversity measurement are presented. Technical aspects related to the inventory and monitoring activities at a large spatial sc…
Sulfur-free pulping of hot-water-extracted spruce sawdust
2016
Softwood (Picea abies) sawdust was hot-water-extracted with two multi-phase processes (160-180°C, 100-280 min, and liquor-to-wood ratio 5 l/kg) corresponding to P-factors of ~780 (yield 80.0%) and ~4580 (yield 72.4%). The pre-treated materials were then pulped with the soda-AQ cooking (170°C, NaOH charge 20%, AQ charge 0.1%, 30-150 min, and liquor-to-wood ratio 5 l/kg), resulting in a yield range of 36.1-61.4% (for reference cooks without pre-extraction 47.9-60.0%). It was observed that the pre-extraction under moderate conditions enhanced the dissolution especially of large-molar-mass lignin during cooking, and the total amount of the dissolved lignin was also higher than that removed from…
Reliability analysis of processes with moving cracked material
2015
Abstract The reliability of processes with moving elastic and isotropic material containing initial cracks is considered in terms of fracture. The material is modelled as a moving plate which is simply supported from two of its sides and subjected to homogeneous tension acting in the travelling direction. For tension, two models are studied: (i) tension is constant with respect to time, and (ii) tension varies temporally according to an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process. Cracks of random length are assumed to occur in the material according to a stochastic counting process. For a general counting process, a representation of the nonfracture probability of the system is obtained that exploits condi…
Choice between alternative investments in agriculture: The role of organic farming to avoid the abandonment of rural areas
2015
Abstract Sicily has a long tradition in citrus fruit cultivation that, with vineyard and olive tree, represents the main Mediterranean tree crops. Since many Sicilian farmers in recent years have decided to abandon conventional lemon orchards, in this paper we have evaluated the financial sustainability of organic lemon production by comparing it with the conventional one. Financial analysis has been carried out in a case study on the northwestern coast of Sicily, considering a 50-year economic life of an orchard. The results, per hectare of area, showed a clear advantage of organic lemon orchard. This was due to fewer labor requirements and to greater market appreciation for organic produc…
Voluntary agreements in protecting privately owned forests in Finland — To buy or to lease?
2008
Abstract A voluntary conservation approach may reveal environmentally minded landowners who are willing to protect their lands with a compensation that is lower than the market price based compensation. Consequently, voluntary conservation programs may induce lower costs than traditional obligatory programs, such as a land taking. We compared the costs accrued from land purchasing with those from temporal land leasing. The costs included both direct costs, such as fees of land acquisition and compensation payments in land leasing, and transaction costs. We used a data set from a Finnish pilot program called Trading in Natural Values (TNV). In this new practice landowners and the authority t…
Effects of dietary administration of fenugreek seeds, alone or in combination with probiotics, on growth performance parameters, humoral immune respo…
2016
The use of immunostimulants is considered a promising preventive practice that may help to maintain animal welfare and a healthy environment, while increasing production and providing higher profits. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects on gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) of the dietary administration of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum) seeds, alone or combined with one of the following probiotic strains: Bacillus licheniformis (TSB27), Lactobacillus plantarum or Bacillus subtilis (B46). Gilthead seabream were fed a control or one of the supplemented diets for 3 weeks. The effects of these supplemented diets on growth performance parameters and the humoral immune r…