Long-term precipitation variability in the Ionian Islands, Greece (Central Mediterranean): climatic signal analysis and future projections

To manage multiple ecosystem services (ES) effectively, it is essential to understand how the dynamics of ES maintain healthy ecosystems to avoid potential negative impacts on human well-being in the context of sustainable development. In particular, the Ionian Islands in the central Mediterranean are characterized by high natural, ecological, and recreational value; however, the intensification of human activities over time has resulted in the loss of natural ecosystems, which might have negatively impacted ES. Here, we aimed to assess and understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of ES supply and how these components interact across the Ionian Islands to optimize future ES provision and mitigate current trade-offs. We quantified multiple ecosystem services and analyzed their interactions at a temporal scale across the four prefectures of the Ionian Islands. Seven ES were quantified covering all three ES sections (provisioning, regulating and maintenance, and cultural) of the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). ES interactions were investigated by analyzing ES relationships, identifying ES bundles (sets of ES that repeatedly occur together across space and time), and specifying ES occurrence within bundles. The three ES groups exhibited similar patterns on some islands, but differed on islands with areas of high recreation in parallel to low provisioning and regulating ES. Temporal variations showed both stability and changes to the supply of ES, as well as in the interactions among them. Different patterns among the islands were caused by the degree of mixing between natural vegetation and olive orchards. This study identified seven ES bundles that had distinct compositions and magnitudes, with both unique and common bundles being found among the islands. The olive grove bundle delivered the most ES, while the non-vegetated bundle delivered negligible amounts of ES. Spatial and temporal variation in ES appear to be determined by agriculture, land abandonment, and increasing tourism, as well as the occurrence of fires. Knowledge about the spatial dynamics and interactions among ES could provide information for stakeholders and decision-making processes to develop appropriate sustainable management of the ecosystems on the Ionian Islands to secure ecological, social, and economic resilience.

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Interannual and Long-Term Precipitation Variability Along the Subtropical Mountains and Adjacent Chaco (22–29° S) in Argentina

Frontiers in Earth Science ◽

10.3389/feart.2019.00148 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

María Eugenia Ferrero ◽

Ricardo Villalba

Keyword(s):

Precipitation Variability

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Relationships of Rainy Season Precipitation and Temperature to Climate Indices in California: Long-Term Variability and Extreme Events

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-17-0376.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 1921-1942 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Yi-Chin Liu ◽

Pingkuan Di ◽

Shu-Hua Chen ◽

John DaMassa

Keyword(s):

Extreme Events ◽

North Pacific ◽

Minimum Temperature ◽

Rainy Season ◽

Time Lag ◽

Precipitation Variability ◽

Climate Indices ◽

Zero Time ◽

Enso Indices

To better understand the change in California’s climate over the past century, the long-term variability and extreme events of precipitation as well as minimum, mean, and maximum temperatures during the rainy season (from November to March) are investigated using observations. Their relationships to 28 rainy season average climate indices with and without time lags are also studied. The precipitation variability is found to be highly correlated with the tropical/Northern Hemisphere pattern (TNH) index at zero time lag with the highest correlation in Northern California and the Sierra and the correlation decreasing southward. This is an important finding because there have been no conclusive studies on the dominant climate modes that modulate precipitation variability in Northern California. It is found that the TNH modulates California precipitation variability through the development of a positive (negative) height anomaly and its associated low-level moisture fluxes over the northeast Pacific Ocean during the positive (negative) TNH phase. Temperature fields, especially minimum temperature, are found to be primarily modulated by the east Pacific/North Pacific pattern, Pacific decadal oscillation, North Pacific pattern, and Pacific–North American pattern at zero time lag via changes in the lower-tropospheric temperature advections. Regression analysis suggests a combination of important climate indices would improve predictability for precipitation and minimum temperature statewide and subregionally compared to the use of a single climate index. While California’s precipitation currently is primarily projected by ENSO, this study suggests that using the combination of the TNH and ENSO indices results in better predictability than using ENSO indices only.

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Fatigue Crack Propagation Monitoring by Acoustic Emission Signal Analysis

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.465.370 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 465 ◽

pp. 370-373 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paola Antonaci ◽

Pietro G. Bocca ◽

Davide Masera

Keyword(s):

Acoustic Emission ◽

Signal Analysis ◽

Mechanical Response ◽

Non Destructive Testing ◽

Destructive Testing ◽

Testing Laboratory ◽

Cyclic Action ◽

Emission Signal ◽

Non Destructive

The aim of this work is to analyse the mechanical response of the masonry specimens under long-term action by means of cyclic tests. To this end laboratory tests were carried out at the Non-Destructive Testing Laboratory of the Politecnico di Torino. The Acoustic Emission technique was employed to assess the damage evolution, and the mechanical properties decay in order to evaluate the extent and the evolution of micro and macro-cracking due to cyclic action until structural collapse in masonry blocks and mortar layers.

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Improved online event detection and differentiation by a simple gradient-based nonlinear transformation: Implications for the biomedical signal and image analysis

10.1101/2020.08.16.253435 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anastasia Sokolova ◽

Yuri Uljanitski ◽

Airat R. Kayumov ◽

Mikhail I Bogachev

Keyword(s):

Observational Data ◽

Event Detection ◽

Signal Analysis ◽

Early Event ◽

Data Series ◽

Online Detection ◽

Suggested Approach ◽

Term Operation ◽

Gradient Based

ABSTRACTDespite recent success in advanced signal analysis technologies, simple and universal methods are still of interest in a variety of applications. Wearable devices including biomedical monitoring and diagnostic systems suitable for long-term operation are prominent examples, where simple online signal analysis and early event detection algorithms are required. Here we suggest a simple and universal approach to the online detection of events represented by abrupt bursts in long-term observational data series. We show that simple gradient-based transformations obtained as a product of the signal and its derivative lead to the improved accuracy of the online detection of any significant bursts in the observational data series irrespective of their particular shapes. We provide explicit analytical expressions characterizing the performance of the suggested approach in comparison with the conventional solutions optimized for particular theoretical scenarios and widely utilized in various signal analysis applications. Moreover, we estimate the accuracy of the gradient-based approach in the exact positioning of single ECG cycles, where it outperforms the conventional Pan-Tompkins algorithm in its original formulation, while exhibiting comparable detection efficacy. Finally, we show that our approach is also applicable to the comparative analysis of lanes in electrophoretic gel images widely used in life sciences and molecular diagnostics like restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and variable number tandem repeats (VNTR) methods.

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Radiocarbon Dated Trends and Central Mediterranean Prehistory

Journal of World Prehistory ◽

10.1007/s10963-021-09158-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Eóin W. Parkinson ◽

T. Rowan McLaughlin ◽

Carmen Esposito ◽

Simon Stoddart ◽

Caroline Malone

Keyword(s):

Population Dynamics ◽

Iron Age ◽

Cultural Change ◽

Large Scale ◽

Anthropogenic Activity ◽

Activity Levels ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Central Mediterranean ◽

Radiocarbon Dates

AbstractThis paper reviews the evidence for long term trends in anthropogenic activity and population dynamics across the Holocene in the central Mediterranean and the chronology of cultural events. The evidence for this has been constituted in a database of 4608 radiocarbon dates (of which 4515 were retained for analysis following initial screening) from 1195 archaeological sites in southern France, Italy and Malta, spanning the Mesolithic to Early Iron Age periods, c. 8000 to 500 BC. We provide an overview of the settlement record for central Mediterranean prehistory and add to this an assessment of the available archaeological radiocarbon evidence in order to review the traditional narratives on the prehistory of the region. This new chronology has enabled us to identify the most significant points in time where activity levels, population dynamics and cultural change have together caused strong temporal patterning in the archaeological record. Some of these episodes were localized to one region, whereas others were part of pan-regional trends and cultural trajectories that took many centuries to play out fully, revealing prehistoric societies subject to collapse, recovery, and continuing instability over the long-term. Using the radiocarbon evidence, we model growth rates in the various regions so that the tempo of change at certain points in space and time can be identified, compared, and discussed in the context of demographic change. Using other published databases of radiocarbon data, we have drawn comparisons across the central Mediterranean to wider prehistoric Europe, and northern Africa. Finally, we include a brief response to the synchronously published but independently developed paper (Palmisano et al. in J World Prehist 34(3), 2021). While there are differences in our respective approaches, we share the general conclusions that large-scale trends can been identified through meta-analyses of the archaeological record, and these offer new perspectives on how society functioned.

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Phenological behavior of Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) forest to snow and precipitation variability in Boutaleb and Babors Mountains, Algeria

Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity ◽

10.13057/biodiv/d210131 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Khaled Missaoui ◽

Rachid Gharzouli ◽

Yamna Djellouli ◽

Frençois Messner

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Satellite Images ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

Precipitation Variability ◽

Monthly Precipitation ◽

Cedrus Atlantica ◽

The Past

Abstract. Missaoui K, Gharzouli R, Djellouli Y, Messner F. 2020. Phenological behavior of Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) forest to snow and precipitation variability in Boutaleb and Babors Mountains, Algeria. Biodiversitas 21: 239-245. Understanding the changes in snow and precipitation variability and how forest vegetation response to such changes is very important to maintain the long-term sustainability of the forest. However, relatively few studies have investigated this phenomenon in Algeria. This study was aimed to find out the response of Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) G.Manetti ex Carrière) forest in two areas (i.e Boutaleb and Babors Mountains) and their response to the precipitation and snow variability. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) generated from satellite images of MODIS time series was used to survey the changes of the Atlas cedar throughout the study area well as dataset of monthly precipitation and snow of the province of Setif (northeast of Algeria) from 2000 to 2018. Descriptive analysis using Standarized Precipitation Index (SPI) showed the wetter years were more frequent in the past than in the last two decades. The NDVI values changes in both areas with high values were detected in Babors Mountains with statistically significant differences. Our findings showed important difference in Atlas cedar phenology from Boutaleb mountains to Babors Mountains which likely related to snow factor.

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