1,721,132 research outputs found
Le serre e la collezione botanica del Palazzo Reale di Torino tra innovazione e tradizione
No full textIl contributo ripercorre le vicende progettuali e costruttive delle serre del Palazzo Reale di Torino e descrive la loro collezione botanica, tracciando la rete di molteplici connessioni tra regni, saperi, committenti, architetti, giardinieri e piante rare nella cultura botanica di primo Ottocento
Are cover crops affecting the quality and sustainability of fruit production ?
Full text linkThe study of the interaction between fruit trees and cover crops has been addressed in numerous works over the last 50 years or more, evidencing the need to evolve from a productive orchard to an orchard that plays different ecosystem roles in terms of environmental sustainability rather than just productivity. This review, through an analysis of the scientific literature since the 1950s, highlights the development of sustainable soil management models in fruit tree orchards, mostly considering the relationship with fruit quality traits and with the ecosystem services that result from the adoption of cover crops, aiming at identifying and formulating technical recommendations in perennial orchards. Cover crop management surely improves soil features and positively influences fruit quality in perennial woody species, but also helps to develop a better habitat for beneficial insects, thus influencing pollination. A large number of scientific approaches highlight the beneficial use of a mixture of seeds in order to enhance biodiversity, aiming at improving ecosystem services for a transition towards more sustainable systems based on agroecological management
New and noteworthy lichens from the Western Italian Alps
No full textWestern Italian Alps (namely Piedmont and the Aosta Valley) are among the lichenologically best known regions of Italy with c.1200 species listed. However, despite the long temporal continuity of lichen studies, information is still geographically uneven and data on the occurrence and distribution of many species are missing. An opportunity to fill this gap is currently provided by ecological and applied studies that assess the response of lichen communities to environmental factors in terms of species richness and composition. This study reports species that are new or interesting records for the western Italian Alps or noteworthy mainly because of their conservation status provided by ecological and applied studies in Aosta Valley and Piedmont and by some recent floristic surveys. A list of 51 records referring to 47 species is reported and discussed; 20 species are new to the Aosta Valley, 17 are new to Piedmont and 11 species are reported for the first time in the Western Italian Alps, being new for both regions. More than 25% of the records derive from stonework biodeterioration studies providing noteworthy data due to substrata analysed. About 35% of records derive from both air pollution monitoring studies and research on lichen conservation in relation to forest management. Biomonitoring studies are based on robust sampling design that allows data to be compared across regions and time series, improving the information associated with floristic data. Research on epiphytic lichens in Italian forests, rapidly increasing in Italy in the last years, has contributed significant advances in lichen floristics in Italy and in modelling environmental factors that are relevant for lichen ecology and conservation. © 2013 Société botanique de France
Can we trust iNaturalist in lichenology? Evaluating the effectiveness and reliability of artificial intelligence in lichen identification
Full text linkiNaturalist is a widely-utilized platform for data collection and sharing among non-professional volunteers and is widely employed in citizen
science. This platform’s data are also used in scientific studies for a wide range of purposes, including tracking changes in species distribution,
monitoring the spread of alien-invasive species, and assessing the impacts of urbanization and land-use change on biodiversity.
Lichens, due to their year-round presence on trees, soil and rocks, and their diverse shapes and colours, have captured the attention of
iNaturalist users, and lichen records are widely represented on the platform. However, due to the complexity of lichen identification,
the use of data collected by untrained, or poorly trained volunteers in scientific investigation poses concerns among lichenologists. To
address these concerns, this study assessed the reliability of lichen identification by iNaturalist users by comparing records on the platform
with identifications carried out by experts (experienced lichenologists) in three cities where citizen science projects were developed. Results
of this study caution against the use of unchecked data obtained from the platform in lichenology, demonstrating substantial inconsistency
between results gathered by iNaturalist users and experts
Carta naturalistica della Lombardia: a territorial information system for collecting, management and visualizing data.
No full textAs knowledge of an area's resources is essential for its best protection, conservation and use, in 2003 Regione Lombardia decided to promote the collecting of naturalistic data creating an interactive software called Carta Naturalistica della Lombardia (Naturalistic Map of Lombardy Region).
The project aims at building and maintaining a comprehensive and up-to-date on-line dataset, to allow everybody knowing about natural richness in one of the most industrialized and inhabited region in Italy.
The system envisages the handling of three types of information: field data, herbarium and literature (with or without the reference specimen). Fauna, Vascular Plants, Fungi, Lichens, Habitats and Abiotic Emergencies are the considered topics. Each one has a reference catalogue and, for the first four topics, specific taxonomic checklists have been designed in order to enter scientifically correct data.
The authors collaborated with software technicians in order to improve the database structure.
The process requires different steps: data are collected, checked and loaded in an appropriate software based on MS Access architecture. The information are consequently transferred to a specific WEB program which provides tools for queries and sets of maps to visualize distribution of the collected data.
Most of the information are localized using grid squares of 10’ long. X 6’ lat. corresponding approximately to 12 x 11 km, according to CEU Mapping Flora (Ehrendorfer & Hamann, 1965). It is possible to have more detailed territorial information about the localisation of species, even to relate it to anthropic threats like roads, railways, etc.
The management system has been recently completed and 105.418 data have been loaded till now: 4.237 Fauna, 76.236 Flora, 2.573 Fungi, 1.681 Lichens, 19.113 Habitats and 1.578 Abiotic Emergencies. For lichens and flora, herbarium data are available and they represent respectively 48% and 2% of the total.
This interfacing program should allow more extensive access of previously somewhat inaccessible information. As regards the field work, we get many data thanks to the very important contribution of expert volunteer researchers, previously organized with specific instructions that allow them to collect in a standardized way. Instead of, the handling of the historical (exsiccate and bibliographical) data proved to be difficult because these information often may be irregular or incomplete
“Carta Naturalistica della Lombardia”: a territorial information system for collecting, management and visualizing data
No full textThe informative system “Carta Naturalistica della Lombardia”, an instrument for handling scientific data about vascular plants, habitats, fauna, lichens, fungi and geomorphologic aspects of Lombardy region, is presented
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
- …
