Search Results (8)

The increasing demand for climate-adapted seeds and planting material poses a challenge due to the limited availability, particularly for tree species such as oaks. National parks, known for their large-standing diversity and a wide range of habitats, can serve as valuable sources for identifying trees suitable for both the initiation of tree breeding and conservation strategies. This study aimed to identify valuable forest genetic resources of the Thayatal National Park in Austria by selecting potentially drought-tolerant phenotypes. For this purpose, we selected 404 mature trees of Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. from eight populations growing on medium to dry sites in eight populations. Further, we characterized them for autochthony, genetic structure, genetic diversity using genetic markers (plastid- and nuclear-SSRs) and estimated their age. Finally, we applied wood core analysis to estimate tree response to historical drought events to identify the possible drought-tolerant phenotypes. The age of the trees ranged from 29 to 245 years (as of the year 2023). All Q. petraea trees were inhabiting a plastid haplotype 17a, autochthonous for this area. Nevertheless, the genetic structure estimated by ten nuSSRs revealed a pronounced structure in the dataset, largely caused by young trees exhibiting lower genetic diversity. A total of 85 elite potentially drought-tolerant trees were finally selected based on their morphological response (resistance, recovery ability, resilience, and relative resilience) to three historical drought events (1992–1994, 1947, 1917). The intrinsic water use efficiency and its difference (iWUE and DWiWUE), estimated by isotope analysis of δ13C of latewood in wet (1987) and dry (1994) years, did not correlate with any of the drought response traits (Rt, Rc, Rs, rRs). We discuss the further use of the selected oak trees for the establishment of seed stands and orchards to enhance seed production and the integration of other omics approaches, such as large-scale high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) and transcriptomics, for in-depth analyses of drought tolerance of selected phenotypes. Full article

A term of relatively recent mintage, coined by German scientist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, ecology draws on ancient Greek to establish and consolidate its meaning. Although scholars all too often overlook it, the anachronistic rise of ecology in its semantic and conceptual determinations is noteworthy. Formed by analogy with economy, the word may be translated as “the articulation of a dwelling”, the logos of oikos. Here, I argue not only that a vast majority of ecosystems on the planet are subject to environmental upheavals and ecological crises, but also that ecology as the crossroads of dwelling and articulation is in crisis, having come into its own and made explicit what was silently present in its historical enunciation. As a result, ecology needs to be deromanticized, decoupled from the bucolic and the picturesque, and dissociated from nativism and autochthony. Every organism, ecosystem, or place is affected by the forces of unsettlement and displacement; all dwellings and their articulations are shaken to the core and set in motion, rendering ecologies exilic. Ecologies today share the exilic condition, which also threatens to level the differences among them, without the chance of returning to a stable origin, itself nothing other than a theoretical fiction. In what follows, I propose to chalk out the outlines of exilic ecologies. Full article

Street trees play a significant ecological role in modern urban ecosystems, but usually the selection criteria follow pragmatic reasons rather than bio-ecological suitability. Understanding the influence of such factors can be relevant, especially in cities having a certain complexity and area. This paper aims to analyze the variation in the distribution of street tree species within the city’s municipia of Rome to determine the influence of some factors in the selection process. Here, we have described the species of street trees in fourteen municipia of Rome, and we created five clusters of factors (bio-ecological, aesthetic, historical–cultural, health, and economic) that could constitute selection criteria for street trees. From our data analysis, the municipia of Rome were grouped into four main groups and the choice of trees was based on multiple selection criteria. Foliage type, longevity, fruit type, autochthony, and economic value were the primary criteria. In 90–100% of municipia, deciduous species dominate, with 50–150 years longevity, dry fruits, exotic species, and prices of <€500 per tree. Additionally, the flower type, allergenicity, size class, and cultural value were the secondary criteria. The biological and ecological characteristics of trees are key factors to consider in order to reduce the management of street trees and relative costs. Full article

Species mapping methods play a central role in biogeographical questions, as they may generate a domino effect on further works based on species distribution. In light of the massive recent increase in the availability of online occurrence data, we highlight the strengths and limitations of the mapping methods most widely used to display the geographic distribution of plants, namely geographic range maps and occurrence record maps. We use the modern distribution of the genus Arbutus in western Eurasia, North Africa, and Macaronesia, for which no occurrence record map has been published yet, to discuss critical issues in data collection and representation. The occurrence record map of A. unedo, A. andrachne, A. canariensis, and A. pavarii shows how well this mapping method captures the details of peripheral and isolated stands as well as the variability of population density. A number of biogeographical issues are addressed by this approach, including the determination of the chorological centre of gravity in relation to historical dynamics, genetic patterns in relation to range porosity, and the autochthony status of marginal stands. These issues constitute the necessary foundation for additional palaeobotanical research and ecological modelling to investigate the past-to-future dynamics of Arbutus and other species of the Mediterranean–Atlantic area. Full article

No molecular data are currently available for the Sicilian populations of the European pine marten Martes martes, thus preventing any sound inference about its native or non-native status on the island, as well as the local phylogeography of the species. In order to investigate these issues, we sequenced two mtDNA markers in road-killed specimens collected in Sicily. Both markers consistently demonstrated the existence of a well-characterised Sicilian clade of the species, which is endemic to the island and constitutes the sister group of a clade including the Mediterranean and Central–North European major phylogroups of the European pine marten. Such evidence supports the autochthony of Martes martes in Sicily and points to a natural Pleistocene colonisation of the island followed by isolation. The occurrence of a, to date undetected, major phylogroup of the species in Sicily calls for the dedicated monitoring of the Sicilian populations of the species in order to preserve this evolutionarily significant unit. Full article

This article explores the politics of belonging in Iceland in the context of an ethico-political project focused around increased transparency following the country’s 2008 banking collapse. By employing literature on autochthony (i.e., a return to, and interpretation of, “the local”), it examines the tensions that are reignited within and between nation-states during economic crisis. Through ethnography with ordinary Icelanders and the members of two protest movements, this research shows how Icelanders are cultivating a public voice to navigate the political constraints of crisis and reshaping Icelanders’ international identity from below in the wake of the collapse. To this end, the article accounts for the role of populist politics in re-embedding Iceland into the European social imaginary as an economically responsible and egalitarian nation. It then turns to highlight the push for meaningful democratic reform through collaborative, legislative exchange between the government and the people that resulted in a new—if not actually implemented—constitution. By exploring protest culture in Iceland, the article highlights the importance of public witnessing and empathic solidarity in building intercultural relations in an era of globalized finance and politics. Full article

Under fundamental ecosystem changes in high latitude lakes, a functional paleolimnological approach may increase holistic understanding of lake responses and resilience to climate warming. A ~2000-year sediment record from Lake Loažžejávri in the tundra of northern Finnish Lapland was examined for fossil Cladocera assemblages to examine long-term environmental controls on aquatic communities. In addition, cladoceran functional attributes, including functional diversity (FD), UV absorbance (ABS_UV) of Alona carapaces, and sexual reproduction (ephippia) in Bosmina and Chydoridae were analyzed. Cladoceran communities responded to a major change in benthic habitat quality, reflected as elevated (increasingly benthic) sediment organic matter δ¹³C signal since the 17th century. FD fluctuations showed association with climate oscillation, FD being generally higher during warm climate periods. These ecological changes were likely attributable to diversification of littoral-benthic consumer habitat space. ABS_UV, irrespective of increases during the Little Ice Age (LIA) due to higher UV transparency of lake water, was lower under increasing autochthony (benthic production) suggesting establishment of physical UV refugia by the benthic vegetative substrata. Bosmina ephippia exhibited a decreasing trend associated with increasing benthic production, indicating favorable environmental regime, and, together with chydorid ephippia, transient increases during the climate cooling of the LIA driven by shorter open-water season. Full article

People inhabit and change environments using socio-cultural and psycho-social behaviors and processes. People use their socio-cultural understanding of phenomena to interact with the environment. People are carriers of cultural heritage. These characteristics make cultural values ubiquitous in all people-accessed and people-inhabited geographic spaces of the world, making people readily available assets through which environmental sustainability can be implemented. Yet, people’s conservation development is rarely planned using cultural resources. It is against this background that a Community-Based Cultural Heritage Resources Management (COBACHREM) model is initiated as a new approach that outlines the symbiosis between cultural heritage, environment and various stakeholders, with a view to create awareness about neglected conservation indicators inherent in cultural resources and better placed to complement already existing natural resources conservation indicators. The model constitutes a two-phased process with four (04) levels of operation, namely: level I (production); level II (reproduction); level III (consumption) that distinguish specific components of cultural heritage resources to be monitored at level IV for sustainability using identified cultural conservation indicators. Monitored indicators, which are limitless, constitute work in progress of the model and will be constantly reviewed, renewed and updated through time. Examples of monitoring provided in this article are the development of cultural competency-based training curriculum that will assist communities to transform cultural information into certifiable intellectual (educational) and culture-economic (tourism) assets. Another monitoring example is the mainstreaming of community cultural qualities into already existing environmental conservation frameworks such as eco-certification to infuse new layers of conservation indicators that enrich resource sustainability. The technical COBACHREM model acknowledges existing academic frameworks of communal identity formation (e.g., indigenity and autochthony) and is designed to add value onto these. Full article