1,178 research outputs found
VIA TIBURTINA
No full textSi tratta del catalogo della mostra inaugurale del Museo delle Arti del Castello di Nocciano (PE), patrocinata dalla Regione Abruzzo, dalla Provincia di Pescara e dal Comune di Nocciano e curata da Eugenio Riccitelli. Sono stati selezionati dodici artisti abruzzesi trasferiti a Roma lungo la via Tiburtina, appartenenti a diverse generazioni: Mario Ceroli, Gianfranco D'Alonzo, Giovanna De Sanctis, Mauro Folci, Giulia Napoleone, Nunzio, Bruno Liberatore, Marcello Mondazzi, Enrico Pulsoni, Oliviero Rainaldi, Giancarlo Sciannella, Claudio Verna.It is the catalog of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Arts Castle Nocciano (PE), sponsored by the Abruzzo Region, the Province of Pescara and the City of Nocciano and curated by Eugenio Riccitelli. Were selected twelve artists Abruzzo transferred to Rome along the Via Tiburtina, from different generations: Mario Ceroli, Gianfranco D'Alonzo, Giovanna De Sanctis Mauro Folci, Giulia Napoleone, Nunzio Bruno Liberatore, Marcello Mondazzi, Henry Pulsoni, Oliviero Rainaldi Giancarlo Sciannella, Claudio Verna
Living between widely separated areas: Long-term monitoring of Mediterranean loggerhead turtles sheds light on cryptic aspects of females spatial ecology
No full textOver the last decades, satellite tracking techniques have substantially advanced our understanding of sea turtle spatial behaviour, especially for the post-nesting migrations of females. Substantial gaps remains in our knowledge of the turtle behaviour during the remaining inter-reproductive period, that spans over 2–3 years. We report the results of a prolonged tracking experiment on loggerhead turtles nesting along the Ionian Calabria, the main breeding ground in Italy. Argos satellite transmitters were deployed on eight females, a sample representing a substantial fraction of the overall population (20–25 nesting females). All turtles but one were tracked for > 300 days (range: 313–1523 days), revealing their spatial behaviour during a complete reproductive cycle and providing novel information on a number of poorly-known aspects of loggerhead spatial ecology: i) the post-nesting migratory strategy resulted in accordance with that of most adult loggerheads tracked so far, as the nine routes of six turtles were directed towards specific sites all located in the Tunisian continental shelf, a main foraging area for Mediterranean turtles; ii) the pre-breeding migratory routes were rather variable, likely deriving from different navigational strategies adopted by migrating turtles, and their temporal pattern indicates that mating occurred away from the nesting area; iii) the 10 inter-nesting movements of four turtles revealed unusual long-distance loops mostly in oceanic waters (median of maximum distance from nesting location: 145.5 km); iv) while at the foraging grounds, four turtles occupied distinct areas during summer and winter, making directed movements between the two sites, seasonal core areas were separated and their size was larger in winter than in summer (median: 498 km2 vs. 258 km2); v) individual females displayed an high fidelity to both sites in successive years. These findings further highlight the plasticity in loggerhead spatial behaviour and the importance of the Central Mediterranean and of the Tunisian shelf for loggerhead conservation
Migratory restlessness and stopover duration in Wood sandpiper Tringa glareola
No full textFactors affecting stopover duration in birds are still much discussed. Field studies
report contradictory evidence regarding the effect of fuel reserves on bird decision to
depart from a stopover site, while majority of laboratory tests performed on passerines
reported a positive relationship between body conditions and migratory restlessness.
In recent years, a few studies integrating laboratory and field investigations suggested
that the amount of migratory restlessness could be a proxy of the individual willingness
to depart from a stopover site in night-migrating passerines, but similar studies are
lacking for other groups of birds. In this paper the factors affecting stopover length in
the Wood sandpiper Tringa glareola (Charadriiformes Scolopacidae) were studied by
integrating field observations and laboratory tests during spring migration. Our aims
were to investigate (1) the influence of body conditions on migratory restlessness and
(2) the influence of body conditions and of the amount of migratory restlessness on
stopover duration, after controlling for meteorological conditions. Contrary to our
expectations, we did not find any relationship between body condition and migratory
restlessness nor stopover duration, while for the first time in a non-passerine species,
evidence was produced that the amount of migratory restlessness is significantly
related to the likelihood of leaving the stopover area. Our results emphasize the
relevance of the studies integrating field and laboratory tests to understand the
physiological and ecological factors affecting migration in different bird species
Large-scale movements in the oceanic environment identify important foraging areas for loggerheads in central Mediterranean Sea
No full textLoggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) are known to display a wide range of movement patterns during the different stages of their life cycle, but empirical information to document this extensive behavioural plasticity is still limited. This is especially true for large, adult-sized individuals, that are thought to mainly forage in neritic areas. In the present paper, eight adult-sized loggerhead turtles were tracked using satellite telemetry to identify the location of their foraging grounds in the seas along the western coast of the Italian peninsula. Tracked turtles mostly stayed in the region between the Italian peninsula and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, that was reached following quick, directed movements by the turtles from a release site to the north. In this area, two turtles took up residence in spatially limited neritic sites along the coast, while the remaining six alternated circumscribed coastal stays with long-distance, circuitous movements in the oceanic environment. An utilization distribution analysis clearly identified an area, mostly comprising oceanic waters, that was continuously used by turtles in different seasons and years. The present results contribute to the still-limited knowledge of the spatial ecology of loggerheads frequenting the Western Mediterranean Sea and highlight the presence of a potentially important oceanic region in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea where adult-sized turtles forage for extended periods. These findings increase our knowledge of complex life history traits of loggerhead turtles and provide important information to be considered for evidence-based conservation measures
schedule their spring migration basing on the increase in soil temperatures along the route
No full textMigratory behaviour allows individuals to inhabit areas with optimal environmental conditions throughout the year. To reduce energy expenditure and the risk of mortality while migrating, birds may schedule their departures basing on environmental cues that provide seasonal and/or local information. In this study, we aimed to identify the possible effect of environmental factors on the spring migration of 30 Eurasian teal Anas crecca tracked between 2014 and 2018 from Italian wintering areas. We used Cox proportional hazard and generalized estimating equation models to evaluate the environmental cues that affect teal's decision to start migratory movements from the wintering grounds and continue migration from stopover sites. Apart from the anticipated effect of photoperiod, the onset of spring migration was not substantially influenced by environmental variables, whereas the speed of migration seemed to be influenced by both seasonal (increased ground temperature, an indicator of spring advancement) and local (low cloud cover and northward blowing winds, which support migratory flight) environmental cues. The slow migration observed in teal may favour a strategy in which migratory timing is modulated mainly by the conditions encountered during the journey rather than at the start of the migration. This suggested low impact of local environmental variables on the onset of spring migration could have important consequences both for the management of this species for hunting purposes and for the way the species might respond to the ongoing climatic change
Giulia Veronica Varisco
No full textThe headword explains the biography and the contribution of the author Giulia Varisco to the children's literatur
Data from: Study "Eurasian teal, Giunchi, Italy"
No full textThis data file is published by the Movebank Data Repository (www.datarepository.movebank.org). As of the time of publication, a version of this published animal tracking dataset can be viewed on Movebank (www.movebank.org) in the study "Eurasian teal, Giunchi, Italy" (Movebank Study ID 14512695). Individual attributes in the data files are defined below, in the NERC Vocabulary Server at http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/MVB and in the Movebank Attribute Dictionary at www.movebank.org/cms/movebank-content/movebank-attribute-dictionary. Metadata describing this data package are maintained at https://datacite.org
Flight patterns of monocularly occluded homing pigeons further reveal a left eye/right cerebral hemispheric advantage in the visual processing of familiar landscape/ landmark features
No full textStudying pigeons during homing has offered an opportunity to investigate visual–functional brain lateralization in the context of free flying and long distance navigation. In the current study we examine at a high scale of spatial resolution the flight paths of pigeons, which vary with respect to monocular and binocular treatment, as they familiarise themselves with landscape and landmark features during repeated flights home from two locations. The analysis of the flight paths of monocularly occluded pigeons revealed that pigeons using the right eye/left hemisphere visual system were more likely to display more tortuous paths over tracts of 500 m along the flight path home compared to both pigeons using the left eye/right hemisphere visual system and control birds. Accompanying this finding was the observation that pigeons using the right eye/left hemisphere system were more likely to perform flight “loops”, suggesting that, without right hemispheric visual processing, pigeons are more motivated to seek out visual input, behaviourally expanding the now monocularly reduced visual field. Taken together, the data are consistent with a more important role of the left eye/right hemisphere system in processing visual features of the landscape, which may contribute to the construction of the familiar landmark-based map used for navigation. More broadly, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that the right cerebral hemisphere of the avian brain plays a more important role in memorising and using the relational properties of visual stimuli to guide performance on spatial tasks
Testing a Novel Aggregated Methodology to Assess Hydrodynamic Impacts on a High-Resolution Marine Turtle Trajectory
No full textWe designed a novel aggregated methodology to infer the impact of ocean motions on the movements of satellite-tracked marine turtles adopting available oceanographic observations and validated products of a numerical oceanographic forecasting system. The method was tested on an 11-months trajectory of a juvenile loggerhead turtle (LT) wandering in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Mediterranean Sea) that was reconstructed with a high-resolution GPS tracking system. The application of ad-hoc designed metrics revealed that the turtle’s route shape, ground speed and periodicities of its explained variance mimic the inertial motions of the sea, showing that this methodology is able to reveal important details on the relation between turtle movements and oceanographic features. Inertial motions were also identified in the observed trajectory of a surface drifting buoy sampling the Tyrrhenian Sea in a common period. At each sampling point of the turtle trajectory, the sea current eddy kinetic energy (EKE) and a Sea Current Impact index were computed from a validated set of high-resolution ocean modeling products and their analysis showed the relevant effects of the highly variable local sea currents mechanical action. Specifically, the metric we adopted revealed that the turtle trajectory was favorably impacted by the encountered sea current advection for about 70% of its length. The presented oceanographic techniques in conjunction with high-resolution tracking system provide a practicable approach to study marine turtle movements, leading the way to discover further insights on turtle behavior in the ocean
Spring migratory routes and stopover duration of satellite tracked Eurasian Teal Anas crecca wintering in Italy
No full textIdentifying an organism’s migratory strategies and routes has important implications for conservation. For most species of European ducks, information on the general course of migration, revealed by ringing recoveries, is available, whereas tracking data on migratory movements are limited to the largest species. In the present paper, we report the results of a tracking study on 29 Eurasian Teals, the smallest European duck, captured during the wintering period at three Italian sites. The departure date of spring migration was determined for 21 individuals, and for 15 the entire spring migratory route was reconstructed. Most ducks departed from wintering grounds between mid-February and March following straight and direct routes along the Black Sea-Mediterranean flyway. The breeding sites, usually reached by May, were spread from central to north-Eastern Europe to east of the Urals. The migratory speed was slow (approximately 36 km/day on average) because most birds stopped for several weeks at stopover sites, mainly in south-
eastern Europe, especially at the very beginning of migration. The active flight migration segments were covered at much higher speeds, up to 872 km/day. Stopover duration tended to be shorter when birds were closer to their breeding site. These results, based on the largest satellite tracking effort for this species, revealed for the first time the main features of the migratory strategies of individual Teals wintering in Europe, such as the migration timing and speed and stopover localization and duration
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