Search results for "mediterranean"
showing 10 items of 3196 documents
Climate Change in the Mediterranean Basin (Part II): A Review of Challenges and Uncertainties in Climate Change Modeling and Impact Analyses
2023
AbstractThe Mediterranean basin is particularly prone to climate change and vulnerable to its impacts. One of the most relevant consequences of climate change, especially for the southern Mediterranean regions, is certainly water scarcity as result of a reduction of surface runoff and groundwater levels. Despite the progress achieved in recent years in the field of climate change and its impact on water resources, results and outcomes should be treated with due caution since any future climate projection and derived implications are inevitably affected by a certain degree of uncertainty arising from each different stage of the entire modeling chain. This work offers a comprehensive overview…
Patterns of soil microbial biomass and diversity across Mediterranean agroecosystems in areas under desertification risk
2022
Calcification is not the Achilles' heel of cold-water corals in an acidifying ocean
2015
Ocean acidification is thought to be a major threat to coral reefs: laboratory evidence and CO2 seep research has shown adverse effects on many coral species, although a few are resilient. There are concerns that cold-water corals are even more vulnerable as they live in areas where aragonite saturation (?ara) is lower than in the tropics and is falling rapidly due to CO2 emissions. Here, we provide laboratory evidence that net (gross calcification minus dissolution) and gross calcification rates of three common cold-water corals, Caryophyllia smithii, Dendrophyllia cornigera, and Desmophyllum dianthus, are not affected by pCO2 levels expected for 2100 (pCO2 1058 ?atm, ?ara 1.29), and nor a…
MIS 5.5 highstand and future sea level flooding at 2100 and 2300 in tectonically stable areas of central mediterranean sea: Sardinia and the pontina …
2021
Areas of the Mediterranean Sea are dynamic habitats in which human activities have been conducted for centuries and which feature micro-tidal environments with about 0.40 m of range. For this reason, human settlements are still concentrated along a narrow coastline strip, where any change in the sea level and coastal dynamics may impact anthropic activities. We analyzed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and Copernicus Earth observation data. The aim of this research is to provide estimates and detailed maps (in three coastal plain of Sardinia (Italy) and in the Pontina Plain (southern Latium, Italy) of: (i) the past marine transgression occurred during MIS 5.5 highstand 119 kyrss BP
Relative sea-level rise and potential submersion risk for 2100 on 16 coastal plains of the mediterranean sea
2020
The coasts of the Mediterranean Sea are dynamic habitats in which human activities have been conducted for centuries and which feature micro-tidal environments with about 0.40 m of range. For this reason, human settlements are still concentrated along a narrow coastline strip, where any change in the sea level and coastal dynamics may impact anthropic activities. In the frame of the RITMARE and the Copernicus Projects, we analyzed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and Copernicus Earth Observation data to provide estimates of potential marine submersion for 2100 for 16 small-sized coastal plains located in the Italian peninsula and four Mediterranean countries (France, Spain, Tunisia, Cypr…
Millstone coastal quarries of the Mediterranean: A new class of sea level indicator
2014
The coasts of Italy still preserve several remnants of coastal quarries built in antiquity, that now provide insights into the intervening sea-level changes occurred during the last millennia. In this paper, we show and discuss a new class of sea level indicator consisting of millstones carved along the rocky coast of southern Italy since 2500 BP, that are currently submerged. They were extracted from beachrocks, sandstones or similar sedimentary rocks, easier for carving by ancient carving tools. Our study focuses on 10 coastal sites located at Capo d'Orlando, Avola, and Letojanni, in Sicily; Soverato, Tropea, and Capo dell'Armi, in Calabria; Castellabate, Palinuro, and Scario, in Campania…
Mediterranean carbonate system dynamics and planktonic biocalcification during the last 19,000 years
2013
Uniqueness of Planktonic Ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea: The Response to Orbital- and Suborbital-Climatic Forcing over the Last 130,000 Years
2016
The Mediterranean Sea is an ideal location to test the response of organisms to hydrological transformations driven by climate change. Here we review studies carried out on planktonic foraminifera and coccolithophores during the late Quaternary and attempt the comparison of data scattered in time and space. We highlight the prompt response of surface water ecosystems to both orbital- and suborbital-climatic variations. A markedly different spatial response was observed in calcareous plankton assemblages, possibly due to the influence of the North Atlantic climatic system in the western, central and northern areas and of the monsoon system in the easternmost and southern sites. Orbital-induc…
The impact of the Little ice age on coccolithophores in the central Mediterranea Sea
2010
The Little Ice Age (LIA) is the last episode of a series of Holocene climatic anomalies. There is still little knowledge on the response of the marine environment to the pronounced cooling of the LIA and to the transition towards the 20th century global warming. Here we present decadal-scale coccolithophore data from four short cores recovered from the central Mediterranean Sea (northern Sicily Channel and Tyrrhenian Sea), which on the basis of <sup>210</sup>Pb activity span the last 200–350 years. The lowermost part of the record of one of the cores from the Sicily Channel, Station 407, which extends down to 1650 AD, is characterized by drastic changes in productivity. Specific…