Search results for "mediterranean"

Lina Bo Bardi: Unbuilt in Sicily

2017

In August 1940 the magazine ‘Domus’, in a special issue dedicated to the “casa al mare”, publishes the project of the “Casa sul mare di Sicilia” by Lina Bo Bardi and Carlo Pagani. It is one of the first projects of Lina Bo, an utopian project whose representations indicate a way of proceedings that coagulates theory and imagination conceived as indissoluble relationship of “doing”. Add to the ‘unconventional’ drawings of the project, plans, perspectives and perspective section, indicating a very personal way in using of graphic language, we can find a synthesis’ drawing that underlines how the representation is intended both as an extension of the mind, and as order structure of a speech. I…

Occurrence of priority pollutants in WWTP effluents and Mediterranean coastal waters of Spain

2011

A comprehensive study aimed at evaluating the occurrence, significance of concentrations and spatial distribution of priority pollutants (PPs) along the Comunidad Valenciana coastal waters (Spain) was carried out in order to fulfil the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Additionally, PP concentrations were also analysed in the effluent of 28 WWTPs distributed along the studied area. In coastal waters 36 organic pollutants of the 71 analysed, including 26 PPs were detected although many of them with low frequency of occurrence. Only 13 compounds, which belong to four different classes (VOCs, organochlorinated pesticides, phthalates and tributyltin compounds (TBT)) showed a frequency o…

HISTORY AND FOREST VEGETATION DYNAMICS OF THE FAVORITA PARK IN THE PALERMO SUBURBS (NW SICILY)

2017

The use of insular vertebrates in palaeogeographic reconstructions.

2009

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…

The vegetation for mitigating the microclimate and designing livable and healthy public spaces in Palermo City Centre

2018

Urban morphology and increasing building density play a key role in the overall heat and energy balance of our cities. The urban environment and CO2 emissions resulting from human activities cause a local increase of temperature, a phenomenon known as Urban Heat Island (UHI). This is also due to the reduction of vegetation in urban areas. The benefits that green spaces have in urban planning have been widely acknowledged. In particular, in temperate and hot contexts, plants help to reduce the extreme summer temperatures, improving people’s outdoor and indoor thermal comfort and, at the same time, reducing the buildings’ energy demand for cooling. The way plants affect urban climates is gene…

Sea level rise in the Mediterranean Sea: High resolution constraints from vermetid reefs

2009

The Mediterranean Sea (MS), is extremely sensitive to rising sea-levels (SL) as attested by drowned archeological remains from the Roman Period [2]. Due to the absence of coral reefs, evidence for recent and Holocene SL change has so far mainly been restricted to coastal cores [1] archeological remains [2] and submerged speleothem deposits. Vermetid reefs are an extremely sensitive high resolution carbonate archive [3,4] and they are mainly formed in the lower intertidal zone by gregarious and sessile gastropods belonging to the genus Dendropoma (family Vermetidae). Since their interval of growth is restricted to the tidal zone, they can be used as precise SL proxies (about ±0.1 m in low ra…

Temporal dynamic of biofilms enhances the settlement of the central-Mediterranean reef-builder Dendropoma cristatum (Biondi, 1859).

2021

Abstract Research on marine invertebrate settlement provides baseline knowledge for restoration technique implementation, especially for biogenic engineers with limited dispersion ability. Previously, we determined that the maturity of a biofilm strongly enhances the settlement of the vermetid reef-builder Dendropoma cristatum. To elucidate settlement-related biofilm features, here we analyse the structure and composition of marine biofilms over time, through microscopic observations, eukaryotic and prokaryotic fingerprinting analyses and 16S rDNA Illumina sequencing. The vermetid settlement temporal increase matched with the higher biofilm coverage on the substratum and the reduction of th…

CONSERVATION NEEDS FOR THE VERMETID REEFS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA

2015

Vermetid reefs are intertidal bioconstructions typical of many subtropical and temperate coastal areas worldwide. Distributed in the warmest waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the reefs are built by the vermetid gastropod Dendropoma petraeum and the coralline alga Neogoniolithon brassica-florida, two species included in the annexes of the Berna Convention. Vermetid reefs provide a wide set of ecosystem services, such as coastal protection from erosion, regulation of sediment transport and accumulation, serving as carbon deposit and increasing biodiversity at the intertidal level. Despite its vulnerability to several threats, such as pollution, spread of invasive species, ocean acidification a…

The role of pedogenic overprinting in the obliteration of parent material in some polygenetic landscapes of Sicily (Italy)

2016

Abstract Many soils older than the Holocene have experienced several changes, and possess properties that may be due to the complex effect of several stages of soil development; these soils are called polygenetic. It is still rather unclear, however, if, as time elapses, pedogenic processes tend to diverge generating different soils, or converge towards increasingly similar soils. We studied five pedons (37°60′N, 13°90′E) exposed to present weathering simultaneously since the Holocene but located on Upper Miocene or Holocene parent material. Their XRD and FTIR clay mineralogy reveal an overall homogeneity; smectites, calcite and gypsum reach the thermodynamic equilibrium, a slight undersatu…