1,720,960 research outputs found
Monitoring Soil Biodiversity and Biological Resilience in Disturbed Ecosystems: First Application of the BSR Index
No full textSoil biodiversity is crucial for maintaining biological soil resilience, understood as a temporal property and as the ability of soils to uphold or recover their ecological functions under stress thanks to the diversity and complementarity of their biological communities. To evaluate this property, we developed the Biological Soil Resilience Index (BSR), conceived as an evolution of the QBS-ar approach by integrating additional key bioindicators—entomopathogenic nematodes, entomopathogenic fungi, and earthworms—together with microarthropod eco-morphological adaptation scores. This multi-taxon framework provides a more comprehensive assessment of soil biological conditions than single-group indices and is specifically designed to be applied repeatedly over time to detect resilience trajectories. The Biodiversity Soil Resilience (BSR) Index was applied across nine sites subject to low, medium, and high anthropogenic disturbance, spanning urban, industrial, and airport environments. Results revealed not a resilience gradient but a clear disturbance gradient: low-impact sites achieved the highest BSR values (52–59), reflecting diverse and functionally complementary assemblages; medium-impact sites maintained moderate BSR value (27–42), but displayed imbalances among faunal groups; and high-impact sites showed the lowest values, including a critically low score at C_HI (17.86), where entomopathogens were absent and earthworm populations reduced. Entomopathogenic organisms proved particularly sensitive, disappearing entirely under severe disturbance. The BSR was sensitive to environmental gradients and effective in distinguishing ecologically meaningful differences among soil communities. Because it can be repeatedly applied over time, BSR provides the basis for monitoring long-term resilience dynamics, detecting early warning signals, and support timely mitigation or restoration measures. Overall, the study highlights the pivotal role of biodiversity in sustaining soil resilience and supports the BSR Index as a simple yet integrative tool for soil health assessment and for future resilience monitoring in disturbed landscape
SUSCEPTIBILITY OF FOUR STORED-PRODUCT INSECT PESTS TO BEAUVERIA BASSIANA AND METARHIZIUM ANISOPLIAE STRAINS
Full text linkInsect infestations are considered one of the major problems causing enormous economic losses in stored grains. Laboratory bioassays were performed to establish the mortality induced by the commercially available Beauveria bassiana strain ATCC74040 (formulated product: Naturalis®) and by Metarhizium anisopliae strain CIST8 against four stored products pests. Adults of four grain and legume pest species (Cathartus quadricollis, Callosobruchus maculatus, Sitophilus granarius, and Oryzaephilus surinamensis) were exposed in laboratory assays to three different concentrations (103, 105 and 107/mL) of each entomopathogenic fungal strain. For each insect species, fungal strain and concentration, the mortality was recorded daily over a period of 7 days. Mean survival time and final cumulative mortality were determined, and 7-day mortality curves were established. A significant effect of insect species, fungal strain, and conidial concentration was observed on the 7-day mortality curves and the final cumulative mortality. Also, the mean survival time varied significantly with the conidial concentration. In addition, a significant interaction between insect species and fungal strain was recorded for all three assessed parameters. In general, at all tested concentrations, B. bassiana strain ATCC 74040 caused higher mortality than M. anispliae strain CIST8 in all four insect species. Our results suggest that entomopathogenic fungi could be effectively used as part of an integrated pest management program for the control of legumes and grain pests. © 2022 CREA-DC, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification. All rights reserved
Can a Soil Index Reveal Ecosystem Recovery? The Biodiversity Soil Resilience Index: A new index to assess resilience in environmentally stressed ecosystems
No full textEcological resilience remains a central yet challenging concept to operationalise. In this study, we present the Biological Soil
Resilience Index (BSR-Index), a composite, field-deployable metric that integrates three complementary bioindicators: soil
microarthropods, entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi (EPNs, EPF), and earthworms. Raw values are normalised to fixed
theoretical maxima and combined using a weighted mean (40% microarthropods, 30% EPN/EPF, 30% earthworms), producing
a unitless score on a 0–100 scale that is classified into four resilience levels. The index was applied across forest, agricultural
and agroforestry systems arranged along a stress gradient. Results show that the BSR-Index effectively discriminates between
soils of high and low biological integrity, capturing both structural composition and functional depth of soil communities. By
integrating multiple biological compartments into a single metric, the BSR-Index advances beyond traditional single-taxon
approaches, offering a robust and reproducible framework for resilience assessment. Standardised scoring facilitates crossecosystem
comparisons and
provides
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practical
decision-support
tool
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land
management,
conservation
and environmental
policy.
The BSR-Index highlights the pivotal role of soil biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services and offers a scalable
framework for monitoring, restoration prioritisation and adaptive planning in the context of ecological resilience
Wildfire severity and time-since-fire drive biodiversity, ecosystem services and multifunctionality in Mediterranean forests
No full textWildfires are key ecological drivers in Mediterranean forests, yet their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ESs) vary widely depending on fire characteristics. In this study, we assessed how fire severity and time-since-fire shape biodiversity, ES provision, ES-multifunctionality and ES-uniqueness in Mediterranean oak forests across southern Italy. Drawing on 26 ecological indicators across 30 forest sites, we evaluated responses of above- and belowground biodiversity and five ESs: pollination, pest control, carbon storage, soil fertility, and water regulation. Our findings reveal that low-severity fires can enhance multiple ESs and aboveground multifunctionality, particularly in the short term, by promoting pollination and pest control functions. In contrast, high-severity fires tend to reduce multifunctionality, especially belowground, but significantly increase ecosystem uniqueness, fostering distinct combinations of biodiversity and service profiles. These divergent effects suggest that low-severity burns may support forest resilience and ecosystem functioning, while high-severity wildfires contribute to spatial heterogeneity and ecological novelty. Integrating both outcomes into wildfire management strategies can help balance conservation and multifunctionality goals in fire-prone Mediterranean landscapes
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Prima segnalazione di Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Motschulsky, 1866) (Coleoptera Curculionidae – Scolytinae) in Puglia
Full text linkFirst report of Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Motschulsky, 1866) (Coleoptera Curculionidae – Scolytinae) in the Apulia region.
The authors report, for the first time, the presence of the beetle Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Motschulsky, 1866) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae,
Scolytinae) in Apulia, in the province of Bari, in a private garden located in the countryside of Torre a Mare, on Carob trees. Xylosandrus
crassiusculus, originally from Asia, is a xylophagous insect that has a significant impact on its host plants, causing economic damage
and threatening ecosystem biodiversity. Its high level of ecological adaptability and ability to infest healthy trees raises concerns about its potential
impact in new environmental settings. This report highlights the importance of thorough ecological surveys to understand and manage
the effects of this invasive species
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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