Search results for "mediterranean ecosystem"
showing 5 items of 15 documents
Vegetation, soils, and humus forms of Sardinian holm oak forests and approximated cross-harmonization of vegetation types, WRB Soil Groups and humus …
2018
Five plant communities, related to elevation above sea level and geological substrata, are recognized in the holm oak forests of Sardinia (Italy). These forests show a considerable inhomogeneous structure due to present day and past uses. Coppice management prevails, influencing the quantity and quality of organic horizons. Most frequent mineral soils are Cambisols, Leptosols, and Regosols. Regarding the humus forms, Moder and, with less extent, Amphi, are prevailing. Furthermore, the paper presents a synoptic table giving a rough picture of the relationships between vegetation types, WRB Soil Groups and humus forms in selected Mediterranean ecosystems.
PLUMBAGO AURICULATA LAM. (Plumbaginaceae) IN SICILIA OCCIDENTALE: NUOVI DATI SULLA SUA DIFFUSIONE COME ESOTICA CASUALE
2017
Plumbago auriculata Lam. (Plumbaginaceae) in western Sicily: new data on its spread as casual alien. In questa nota si fornisce un quadro aggiornato sui casi di naturalizzazione di Plumbago auriculata Lam. (Plumbaginaceae) nella Sicilia occidentale e sul suo status invasivo a livello nazionale ed internazionale. Questa xenofita viene segnalata per la prima volta in diverse aree delle province di Agrigento, Palermo e Trapani, dopo essere stata segnalata per la prima volta presso l'isola di Linosa, nell'arcipelago delle Pelagie.
Daily rainfall statistics in Sicily (1920-2000)
2012
Rainfall characteristics are crucial for vegetation patterns formation and evolution in Mediterranean ecosystems. Changes in rainfall frequency and intensity could cause vegetation water stress for some plant species and benefit, at the same time, other species, driving coexistence and competition dynamics. The changes in the precipitation characteristics are sometimes more important than the changes in the total amount of precipitation in determining the partitioning between green and blue water with several implications for both the vegetation communities health and water resource management. Decreasing rainfall is a clear signature of climate change in Mediterranean countries. Annual and…
Vegetation dynamics within afforested coastal areas: regeneration by native species or invasion by alien species?
2017
During the last century, massive reforestation projects along the dunes of the southern Sicily have been carried out. Such interventions, far from being in line with the current trends of close-to-nature silviculture, are, however, particularly interesting to assess the vegetation dynamics in afforestation areas. Furthermore, these kind of interventions may determine two opposite effects, that is renaturalization by native woody species or invasion by alien species. Acacia spp. are among the most widespread and prominent invaders within Mediterranean-climate areas, where they have already shown the capability to deeply change the characters and the functioning of native ecosystems. For inst…
Biometric characterisation and taxonomic considerations of european rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus 1758) in Sicily (Italy)
2014
In Sicilian Mediterranean ecosystems the European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus is a keystone species, very important for popular small game species and for ecological reasons. However, its spread across the island seems to have decreased and fragmented in recent times, but until now no accurate population management has been carried out due to the lack of ethological, ecological and taxonomic knowledge. A biometric analysis of European rabbit specimens from Sicily to widen current taxonomic knowledge was performed. In this paper, 7 body variables and 23 cranial variables of 166 and 120 individuals, respectively, were examined. Thereafter, the results were compared with biometric data from o…