Search results for "mediterranean"
showing 10 items of 3196 documents
Epibiotic barnacles of sea turtles as indicators of habitat use and fishery interactions: An analysis of juvenile loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta car…
2019
Abstract Sea turtles exploit a variety of habitats during their lifetime and are thus exposed to a number of anthropogenic threats, including interaction with fisheries. Mitigating this impact requires determining patterns of habitat use by turtles, which largely relies on data from marked individuals. We investigated the use of epibiotic barnacles as a cost-effective method to ascertain habitat use by sea turtles, choosing the juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the western Mediterranean as a model. A total of 200 turtles collected in the central Spanish Mediterranean between 1990 and 2017 were examined for epibionts: 25% were accidentally captured by pelagic longliners, 1…
Mediterranean monk seal hunting in the regional Epipalaeolithic of Southern Iberia. A study of the Nerja Cave site (Málaga, Spain)
2019
Abstract During the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition Southern Iberia has an extensive record of Palaeolithic coastal sites, wich have been preserved due thanks to the morphology of the continental shelf. This is was a period with rapid palaeoclimatic oscillations and changes in sea level. However, the sites show an apparent continuity in technology and subsistence trends, although human groups made increasingly intense use of marine resources. In this paper we will focus on the study of Mediterranean seal remains from the Vestibulo hall of Cueva de Nerja (Malaga, Spain), unit NV4, dated 12,990–11,360 cal. BP. The presence of these bones at the site are interpreted as direct exploitati…
The effects of marine protected areas on ecosystem recovery and fisheries using a comparative modelling approach
2020
17 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3368.-- This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Daniel Vilas, Marta Coll, Xavier Corrales, Jeroen Steenbeek, Chiara Piroddi, Antonio Calò, Antonio Di Franco, Toni Font, Paolo Guidetti, Alessandro Ligas, Josep Lloret, Giulia Prato, Rita Sahyoun, Paolo Sartor, Joachim Claudet, The effects of marine protected areas on ecosystem recovery and fisheries using a comparative modelling approach, Aquatic Conservation - Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 30(10):1885-1901(2020), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3368. This article may be used for non-commercial purpose…
Seascape connectivity of European anchovy in the Central Mediterranean Sea revealed by weighted Lagrangian backtracking and bio-energetic modelling
2020
AbstractEcological connectivity is one of the most important processes that shape marine populations and ecosystems, determining their distribution, persistence, and productivity. Here we use the synergy of Lagrangian back-trajectories, otolith-derived ages of larvae, and satellite-based chlorophyll-a to identify spawning areas of European anchovy from ichthyoplanktonic data, collected in the Strait of Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea), i.e., the crucial channel in between the European and African continents. We obtain new evidence of ecosystem connectivity between North Africa and recruitment regions off the southern European coasts. We assess this result by using bio-energetic modeling, …
A formal classification of the Lygeum spartum vegetation of the Mediterranean Region
2019
Aims: We examined all available literature and some unpublished data on the We examined all available literature and some unpublished data on the grasslands dominated by Lygeum spartum from Southern Europe and North Africa to produce a formalised classification of this vegetation and to identify the main factors determining its plant species composition. Location: Mediterranean Basin and Iberian Peninsula. Methods: We used a dataset of 728 releves, which were resampled to reduce unbalanced sampling effort, resulting in a dataset of 568 releves and 846 taxa. We classified the plots by TWINSPAN, interpreted the resulting pools, and used them to develop formal definitions of phytosociological …
Fire and Plant Diversification in Mediterranean-Climate Regions
2018
Despite decades of broad interest in global patterns of biodiversity, little attention has been given to understanding the remarkable levels of plant diversity present in the world’s five Mediterranean-type climate (MTC) regions, all of which are considered to be biodiversity hotspots. Comprising the Mediterranean Basin, California, central Chile, the Cape Region of South Africa, and southwestern Australia, these regions share the unusual climatic regime of mild wet winters and warm dry summers. Despite their small extent, covering only about 2.2% of world land area, these regions are home to approximately one-sixth of the world vascular plant flora. The onset of MTCs in the middle Miocene …
Evaluating the presence of microplastics in striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded in the Western Mediterranean Sea.
2020
Litter is a well-known problem for marine species; however, we still know little about the extent to which they're affected by microplastics. In this study, we analyse the presence of this type of debris in Western Mediterranean striped dolphins' intestinal contents over three decades. Results indicated that frequency was high, as 90.5% of dolphins contained microplastics. Of these microplastics, 73.6% were fibres, 23.87% were fragments and 2.53% were primary pellets. In spite of the high frequency of occurrence, microplastic amount per dolphin was relatively low and highly variable (mean ± SD = 14.9 ± 22.3; 95% CI: 9.58–23.4). Through FT-IR spectrometry, we found that polyacrylamide, typic…
Phylogeny, biogeography, and morphological ancestral character reconstruction in the Mediterranean genus Fumana (Cistaceae)
2020
Fumana is a diverse genus of the Cistaceae family, consisting of 21 currently accepted species. In this study, nuclear (ITS) and plastid (matK, trnT‐L) molecular markers were used to reconstruct the phylogeny and to estimate divergence times, including 19 species of Fumana. Phylogenetic analyses (Bayesian Inference, Maximum Parsimony and Maximum Likelihood) confirmed the monophyly of Fumana and did not support the infrageneric divisions previously established. The results support four main clades that group species that differ in vegetative and reproductive characters. Given the impossibility to define morphological characters common to all species within the clades, our proposal is to reje…
Morphological observations on the reproductive structures of Ambrosina (Araceae), a Mediterranean endemic monotypic genus
2017
This research was carried out to better define the pollen, fruit and seed morphology of Ambrosina bassii , the only species of this rare Mediterranean endemic genus. Pollen traits were already known, but here we investigated on their variability in distant populations and in different morphotypes (‘varieties’). Fruit and seed traits were almost unknown, also because of the rarity of fruit-set in this species. The surface features of pollen, fruit and seed, as well as length, width and length/width ratio, were analysed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Comparative observations were made also on Arisarum vulgare , since Arisarum is the closest genus. The principal component anal…
Phenotypic variation across populations of red mullet (Mullus barbatus) in different environments of the central Mediterranean
2020
Geometric morphometrics is an effective tool for quantifying intraspecific variations in fish body shape and differentiating populations and fisheries stocks. This study used geometric morphometrics to examine patterns of intraspecific morphological differentiation among four red mullet (Mullus barbatus) populations in the Strait of Sicily in the central Mediterranean Sea. We hypothesised that morphological differences among local populations were caused by the diverse hydrodynamic features characterising the sampled areas and maintained by geographical isolation. We also examined whether body shape homogeneity or variability within local populations was related to seabed rugosity as an in…