1,720,966 research outputs found
Monitoring of threatened plants in the ‘Sentina’ Natural Reserve (Marche, Italy).
No full textAmong the plants of conservation interest in the ‘Sentina’ Natural Reserve, monitoring was carried out based on the red lists, the plant rarity, and the
importance of their habitat. The following taxa were chosen for the monitoring from 2007 to 2012: Ranunculus peltatus subsp. baudotii, Euphorbia
terracina, Carex extensa, Rumex palustris, Elytrigia juncea subsp. juncea, Spartina versicolor, Eryngium maritimum, Artemisia caerulescens subsp.
caerulescens, Medicago marina, Salicornia perennans subsp. perennans, Crypsis schoenoides, Crypsis aculeata, and Halimione portulacoides.
Following this monitoring, management activities that will be useful for the conservation of the flora of the Natural Reserve are here proposed
Contributo alla conoscenza della flora vascolare della Riserva Naturale Regionale Sentina (Italia Centrale, Marche).
Full text linkAIn this work new floristic records for 12 taxa are reported for Natural Regional Reserve Sentina. Particularly 3 are new to Marche region (Cortaderia selloana, Eclipta prostrata, and Potamogeton berchtoldii). The survey was carried out from 2014 to 2015 through field research and collections. Some recorded species are particularly interesting from phytogeographical or conservational point of views as they are very rare in central Italy along the Adriatic coasts
Diachronic Observations Reveal Different and Scale-Dependent Response of Sand Dune Plants to Seashore Dynamics
No full textClimate change and human infrastructures heavily affect seashore dynamics with cascading consequences on coastal sand dunes. While there is a high number of studies conducted on plant communities, there is a lack of monitoring approaches conducted at population level. We studied the variations in spatial patterns of the population of three plant species in response to interannual coastline variation in a coastal Nature Reserve. We performed eight diachronic field observations over the course of eleven years, in which we registered the coastline variation and the position of each functional individual of the selected species. The population of the alien-naturalized and highly clonal Sporobolus pumilus demonstrated the ability to follow the interannual variations of the coastline, thus maintaining a constant distance from the seashore. In contrast, the native Polygonum maritimum and the dune-builder Thinopyrum junceum showed a progressive reduction of the distance from the seashore (− 21 m and − 16 m, respectively). However, this effect was detected only at a finer spatial scale, thus revealing the scale-dependence of this phenomenon. In addition, the spatial distribution patterns of T. junceum changed with the variation and stability of the seashore, showing spatial dispersion and aggregation patterns, respectively. Our study reveals how the plant response to the coastline variation was species-specific, probably depending on species functional strategies. Besides highlighting the importance of frequent diachronic surveys, our population-level approach may help in explaining the compositional changes observed at higher organizational level. Finally, our findings indicate that coastal erosion poses a serious threat for the conservation of dune ecosystems
Flora della Riserva Naturale Regionale Sentina . Atlante fotografico delle piante vascolari.
No full textViene presentata la Flora vascolare della Riserva Naturale Regionale Sentina (Marche
Land-cover changes in a remote area of central Apennines (Italy) and management directions
No full textIn the Mediterranean mountains and hills spontaneous reforestation occurred in the last fifty years at the expenses of open habitats. This process was triggered by depopulation and cessation of traditional farming. In this paper we investigate landscape changes in one such area in central Apennines (Italy), which is currently almost uninhabited after centuries of human presence; we give a quantitative description of the changes that occurred between 1955 and 2006, and we discuss their management implications in a multidisciplinary context. To do this, we used aerial photos and field surveys to map land-use/land-cover classes in 1955, 1978 and 2006; we then employed a transition matrix model based on Markov chains,
together with landscape and class metrics, to analyze gains and losses of each class over time. Our results show that almost all classes were replaced directly by woodlands: no “shrub stage” was observed and a surprisingly brief interval of about 25 years was sufficient for canopy closure on abandoned open lands;
furthermore, some classes increased their transformation rate from period 1 (1955–1978) to period 2 (1978–2006), while others did not. Metrics show that reforestation is accompanied by simplification and homogenization of the original mosaic, with no intermediate fragmentation process. We discuss current management plans and propose strategies that take into account the presence of endangered species: management should exploit the spontaneous reforestation and promote the creation and preservation of mature forests; concurrently, it should plan to maintain the last “islands” of grasslands, even if small
Multiple Aspects of the Fight against the Red Palm Weevil in an Urban Area: Study Case, San Benedetto del Tronto (Central Italy)
Full text linkThe fight against alien invasive insect pests of plants in the urban environment often affects varied sectors of the economy, landscape gardening, public health, and ecology. This paper focuses on the evolution of the red palm weevil in San Benedetto del Tronto, a coastal urban area in central Italy. We investigated the evolution of this insect pest of palm trees in the 2013–2020 period, considering both the effectiveness of the chemicals used and their potentially harmful effects. With a multidisciplinary approach, we carried out a spatio-temporal analysis of the extent and mode of pest spread over time using historical aerial photos, freely available remote sensing images, and field surveys integrated in a GIS environment. We also assessed the toxicity risk associated with the chemicals used to protect the palms from the red weevil. The fight against this weevil is now concentrated in specific areas such as parks, roads, villas, hotels, farmhouses, and nurseries. The preventive chemical treatments applied are very effective in preserving the palms, but they show a toxic potential for all organisms. We discuss current local management of this pest, focusing on several aspects involved in the fight against this beetle in an urban area
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
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